Visual Sounds: Exploring the Landscape and Architecture of Musical Notation
MUSC 240
Spring 2024
| Section:
01
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| Crosslisting:
COL 233 |
This course examines a diverse range of musical works seeing their notation as a process of translation, transformation, provocation, and imagination. Tracing a thread from medieval notations through to contemporary scores, we investigate the shifting tensions between the sonic and the visual over the long arc of music history. Why were sounds inscribed in the 9th century? How do 1960s scores reflect the radicalism of their era? Connections across centuries help shed light on musicians for whom the creative potential of notation surpasses its descriptive and prescriptive functions. Featured composers will include Hildegard of Bingen, Guillaume de Machaut, La Monte Young, George Brecht, Earle Brown, John Cage, Cornelius Cardew, Cathy Berberian, Yoko Ono, Pauline Oliveros, Mark Applebaum, and Claudia Molitor. Complementary materials comprise visual art, concrete poetry, and live theater.
One of the reasons composers started to experiment with open scores in the 1950s and '60s was to develop a kind of musical notation that could be read, and therefore performed, even by those who did not identify as musically literate. This course is, accordingly, open to all students. No prior knowledge of musical notation or instrumental expertise is required. Meetings will involve discussion of a wide range of readings with the goal of expanding understanding of multiple relationships between music and visual materials.
Learning Objectives:
To gain familiarity with the diversity of forms of musical notation.
To recognize the variable relationships between inspiration, transcription, performance, and recordings.
To consider musical notation as a form of design, a language code, and a form of translation.
To develop creative processes and understand the creative processes of others. |
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| Credit: 1 |
Gen Ed Area Dept:
HA MUSC |
| Course Format: Seminar | Grading Mode: Graded |
| Level: UGRD |
Prerequisites: None |
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Fulfills a Major Requirement for: None |
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Past Enrollment Probability: Not Available |
| SECTION 01 |
Major Readings: Wesleyan RJ Julia Bookstore
Bryars, G. 1976. NOTES ON MARCEL DUCHAMP'S MUSIC. Studio International 192:274-279.
Dennis, B. 1991. CARDEW'S 'TREATISE' (MAINLY THE VISUAL ASPECTS). Tempo:10-16.
Kandinsky, W. 1926. POINT AND LINE TO PLANE. Munich: Verlag Albert
LeCorbusier. 1982. THE MODULOR 1 & 2. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Slobin, M. 2010. MUSIC AT WESLEYAN: FROM GLEE CLUB TO GAMELAN. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press.
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Examinations and Assignments:
Students are expected to complete bullet-point summaries of all assigned readings, two shorter papers, an original graphic or text score, and a final research paper. The outline of each paper is to be critiqued by a peer and approved by the Teaching Assistant.
Bullet point reading summaries 5%
Paper 1 (5 pages) 15%
Paper 2 (5 pages) 15%
Original score 20%
Final paper (7 pages) 20%
Concert and final presentation 10%
Participation 15% |
Additional Requirements and/or Comments:
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| Instructor(s): Alden,Jane Times: .M.W... 01:20PM-02:40PM; Location: OLIN327B; |
| Total Enrollment Limit: 19 | | SR major: 2 | JR major: 3 | | |
| Seats Available: 14 | GRAD: X | SR non-major: 2 | JR non-major: 3 | SO: 5 | FR: 4 |
| Drop/Add Enrollment Requests | | | | | |
| Total Submitted Requests: 1 | 1st Ranked: 0 | 2nd Ranked: 0 | 3rd Ranked: 0 | 4th Ranked: 0 | Unranked: 1 |
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