WesMaps - Wesleyan University Catalog 2015-2016       Summer Session       Winter Session       Home       Archive       Search
CS92PROD
Post-Tonal Music Theory
MUSC 208
Spring 2016
Section: 01  

At the dawn of the 20th century, European composers began to experiment with a radically new and completely decentered tonal language. Leaving the practice of tonality behind them, these composers used unorthodox numerical relationships to create formal links and motivic connections between the sounds of their compositions. Post-tonal theory represents the body of scholarship that attempts systematically to examine the formal procedures and properties associated with this modernist music; it also represents one attempt to understand the relationships between musical pitches that hold outside the framework of tonality. This course will serve as a general introduction to post-tonal music theory and will also serve as an introduction to the music of the Second Viennese School: Arnold Schoenberg, Alban Berg, and Anton Webern. Beyond the music of these composers, we will also contemplate applications of post-tonal theory to more recent music.
Credit: 1 Gen Ed Area Dept: HA MUSC
Course Format: Lecture / DiscussionGrading Mode: Graded
Level: UGRD Prerequisites: MUSC202
Fulfills a Major Requirement for: (MUSC)
Past Enrollment Probability: 90% or above

Last Updated on MAR-28-2024
Contact wesmaps@wesleyan.edu to submit comments or suggestions. Please include a url, course title, faculty name or other page reference in your email ? Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, 06459