MUS 637Modern Music: 1900 - 1960

This course is based on a survey of major works from occidental music, spanning the first six decades of the 20th century and is divided into three periods: 1900 to World War I, WWI to WWII, and 1945 to the early 1960s. The following composers receive the greatest attention: Schoenberg, Berg, Webern, Ravel, Stravinsky, Prokofiev, Shostakovich, Ives, Britten, Messiaen, Stockhausen, and Carter. By studying the great masters of modern music, the student would learn how to discern their creations in order to produce and apply his or her own particular musical language using new elements of his or her own cultural content.