THMUS E545 — The World of 20th/21st-Century Tonal Music

3 credits
Fall
Eric Ewazen

Prerequisite: THMUS 511 An examination of the wide variety of tonality in contemporary music, exploring the beautiful, rich, and expanded tonal music of Copland in his classic ballets, Barber in his art songs and chamber music, Hindemith in his sonatas and chamber music, Ives in his symphonies, and Gershwin and Bernstein in their jazz-influenced compositions. We also look at Prokofiev’s and Bartók’s use of Eastern European tonality and Britten’s polytonality in his operas. The music of these composers, which stems from traditional major and minor scales, blossoms into a world of varied languages that becomes a kaleidescope of colorful tonality.