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