MHMUS 459 — Musical Identity in the Modern World

3 credits
Fall
Anne-Marie Reynolds

Prerequisite: MHMUS 311 For the 20th-century composer, was self-expression the motivation for creating music? What impact did composers’ lives have on the music and, conversely, how did their music create a sense of self? This course considers multiple factors shaping the identities of select composers and performers during the past century, including nationality, race, religion, politics, ethnicity, class, gender, and sexuality. Students will explore the extent to which musicians’ identities, whether innate or constructed, shaped their creative result, and how they used their art to either belong to or stand out from a community. The musicians studied in this course will come from the fields of art music (Gustav Mahler, Kurt Weill, Benjamin Britten, Dmitri Shostakovich, John Adams, and Kaija Saariaho), musical theater (Rodgers and Hammerstein, Leonard Bernstein, and Stephen Sondheim), jazz (Duke Ellington and Miles Davis), and popular music (Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan, David Bowie, and Madonna). Students will discover the extent to which music was a means for composers living through tumultuous times to create a unique persona that not only reflected but sometimes even shaped their world.