(Juilliard, spring semester, 2000)

 

Course outline:

The Crisis in Classical Music: Is there one? Will the audience disappear? How has the field changed in the past 10 years?

The classical music world: Institutions, careers, art, audience. Why is classical music valuable? Who listens to it? How does the classical music world really function? Was it always as formal as it is now?

The pop music world: The history of pop music since the dawn of rock & roll. How pop functions, as an art and a business. How does it compare, institutionally and artistically, to classical music? Can it teach classical music anything?

A further look at the crisis:

Crossover: What’s the relationship between classical music and pop? Can the two fields mix?

Concert presentation: Should classical musicians dress informally, use dramatic lighting, talk to the audience? How would this affect the music?

Marketing: Who’s the audience, and how do we expand it? Should orchestras and opera companies use the tools of normal advertising, or does that cheapen the music?

Contemporary music: Why is the classical music business still largely built on works from before the 20th century? Why do new works have trouble finding an audience? What does this say about classical music as an art?

Performing the standard repertoire: What do classical masterworks mean in the contemporary world? Do we need to do something special to convey that meaning, or do they speak for themselves?

The Career of a Classical Musician: What careers should classical musicians expect in the future? How will classical musicians relate to the world outside classical music? Is it their job to help build a new audience? Can they create alternative institutions within the field?

Special guest: On March 20, Edgar Meyer will join us. He’s the contrabassist with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and has also had a career in country music and bluegrass. His compositions -- some of which combine classical music and bluegrass -- have been recorded by Deutsche Grammophon and Sony Classical.

Assignments:

You’ll have reading and listening related to the topics we discuss. You’ll also have two writing assignments, and a take-home final exam. But this is a course in questions, not answers, so the most important part of our work will be done in class. (more details)

How you’re graded:

The most important part of this course is class discussion -- an opportunity for all of us (including me) to work out our thoughts on the issues we’ll confront. So a large part of your grade will be based on class participation, though the writing assignments and take-home exam will also count.

Because class discussion is so important, there’s no point taking this course if you can’t come to class regularly. If you miss more than three classes, you’ll probably lower your grade.

Class schedule and assignments

Fall 1998 version of this course (with long descriptions of what happened in the first few classes)