GRMUS H676 — Music Born in Crisis

How do composers respond to crises in society around them? History has shown how periods of immense difficulty often result in intensive bursts of musical invention. This course will examine music written during challenging times — war, famine, racial tension, or plague — not as aesthetic dead ends, but rather as impetus for adaptation and change. Reading from primary and secondary sources, we will look afresh at Tallis, Bach, Francesca Caccini, Schütz, Mozart, Marianna Martínes, Beethoven, Burleigh, Mahler, Janáček, Shostakovich, Adams, Caroline Shaw and others to trace invention and creation as outgrowths of socio-political crisis. Our study will culminate with work written during COVID-19 and investigate how current social unrest might be affecting aesthetic changes in the present moment. Students who have taken the undergraduate version of this class will not be permitted to enroll.