COMMENCING: Tuesday 2nd August, 2016 (6 weeks: 4/8, 9/8, 16/8, 23/8, 30/8, 6/9)
COST: £36
COURSE OUTLINE
”Muiscal evolution is always a hundred years behind pictorial evolution.” [Erik Satie]
There are so many parallels between music and art in the 20th century (impressionism, expressionism, pointillism, primitivism, to name but a few) and there is a common shared vocabulary (texture, rhythm, tone, harmony) . Using high quality slides and recordings, this course will look at the ways in which musicians and artists have inspired one another throughout this eclectic century.
LECTURE 1: Tuesday, 2nd August, 10.30 a.m., Luther King House
The late nineteenth century: Debussy’s Nocturnes (1899) and the paintings of James Abbott McNeill Whistler
LECTURE 2: Tuesday 9th August, 10.30 a.m., Luther King House
Impressionism (Monet/Renoir)
Ravel – Jeux d’eau (1901), De Falla – Nights in the Gardens of Spain (1909/1915), Respighi – The Pines of Rome (1924)
Pointillism (Seurat/Klee)
Webern – Symphony, Op. 21 (1928) and his orchestration of ‘Ricercar a 6’ from Bach’s Musical Offering (1935)
LECTURE 3: Tuesday 16th August, 10.30 a.m. Luther King House
Primitivism (Gauguin)
Bartók – Allegro barbaro (1911), Stravinsky – The Rite of Spring (1913): film of reconstruction of original performance
Surrealsim (Magritte)
Satie – Dried Embryos (1913), Varèse – Arcana (1927), Milhaud – Le Train Bleu (1924)
LECTURE 4: Tuesday 23rd August, 10.30 a.m., Luther King House
Dadaism (Duchamp)
Schwitters – Ursonata (1923), Schulhoff – Sonata Erotica (1919) and Symphonia Germanica (1919)
Futurism (Balla/Russolo)
Russolo – Corale (1924), Honneger – Pacific 231 (1923)
Cubism (Braque/Picasso)
Stravinsky – Piano Rag Music (1919), Satie – Parade (1917)
LECTURE 5: Tuesday 30th August, 10.30 a.m. Luther King House
Expressionism (Munch/Kandinsky)
Schoenberg – String Quartet No. 2 (1908) and Bartók – Bluebeard’s Castle (1911/17)
LECTURE 6: Tuesday 6th September, 10.30 a.m. Luther King House
Socialist realism
Copland – Fanfare for the Common Man (1942), Shostakovich – Song of the Forests (1949)
Abstract Expressionsism (Pollock)
Earle Brown – December 1952; Ornette Coleman Double Quartet – Free jazz improvisation (1960)
Minimalism (Stella)
Steve Reich – Piano Phase