MUSIC OF THE 20TH CENTURY
- Overview
- Assessment methods
- Learning objectives
- Contents
- Bibliography
- Delivery method
- Teaching methods
- Contacts/Info
None.
The acquisition and correct understanding of the course contents will be assessed through an oral examination (4 questions) concerning the compulsory readings suggested in the section below.
The mark of the oral examination (expressed on a scale of 30) will take into account the accuracy of the answers (worth 60% of the mark), as well as students’ analytical and presentation skills (worth 40% of the mark).
The course aims to outline a historical path of the main styles, schools, genres and musical trends of the twentieth century, not limiting itself to classical music and showing several connections with society, culture, the arts, and twentieth century politics. In order to verify the theories, the diachronic perspective will be integrated with case studies. A special attention attention will be devoted to the peculiar use of music in the film industry and digital media.
The expected learning outcomes include:
- awareness of the linguistic and communicative mechanisms of music
- knowledge of the main musical trends of the 20th century, not only as artistic and / or entertainment phenomena but also in terms of identity
- recognition of contact points, comparisons and contaminations between music and the various forms of contemporary textuality
- ability to orientate oneself while listening to twentieth century music in a critical sense, to judge its artistic value and to recognize its applications in the contemporary media narrative flow.
The course will specifically analyze the following topics:
- communicative functions of music, intertextual and inter-media plots;
- the soundscape of contemporary world;
- historical-critical outline of twentieth-century music through the most important composers, genres and trends;
- technology as a key to understand musical genres;
- music in the cinema, historical notes and expressive peculiarities;
- experimentalism and avant-garde in twentieth-century music;
- youth music cultures.
GENERAL PART:
1) Alex Ross, Il resto è rumore. Ascoltando il XX secolo, Bompiani, Milano 2011
2) Franco Fabbri, Around the clock. Una breve storia della popular music, UTET, Torino 2016
MONOGRAPHIC PART:
1) Federico Ballanti, Ernesto Assante, Rivoluzioni. L’insurrezione poetica e la rivolta politica. Controcultura (1955-1980), Arcana, 2017
2) Marco Peroni, Il nostro concerto. La storia contemporanea tra musica leggera e canzone popolare, Bruno Mondadori, Milano 2005.
The educational objectives of the Course will be achieved through 64 lecture hours.
The professor meets the students at the end of the lessons. Students are required to previously schedule a meeting by sending an e-mail to the lecturer (corrado.greco@uninsubria.it).