Music 307
Lab 1: Class Presentation
PART 1: Choose a piece of electroacoustic music realized between
1950 and 1980. Select something you find interesting and that would
be of interest to the class.
Give a 10 to 15-minute presentation*, discussing the composer’s
contributions and the historical significance of the music. How was
the work produced and what makes it interesting to you? What is its
historical context? Bring the music to class so we can listen to it
during your presentation. You will be graded on your knowledge
of the work presented, and your ability to offer some evidence of
original and/or critical thought. Please include a bibliography of
your sources. A one or two-page summary of your presentation
is to be submitted for grading.
May I suggest one of the following composers (by no means an exhaustive
list):
Luciano Berio, John Cage, Toru Takemitsu, Iannis Xenakis, Karlheinz
Stockhausen, György Ligeti, Edgar Varèse, Vladimir Ussachevsky,
Otto Luening, Hugh LeCaine, Steve Reich, Kenneth Gaburo, James Tenney, Morton Subotnick,
Krzysztof Penderecki, Mario Davidovsky, John Chowning, Alvin Lucer, Wendy Carlos, Suzanne Ciani, Pril Smiley, Maryanne Amacher, Éliane Radigue, Jonathan Harvey, Toshi Ichiyanagi, Joji Yuasa, François Bayle, Gordon
Mumma, Bülent Arel, Halim El-Dabh, Eugeniusz Rudnik, Jean-Claude Risset, MEV (Musica Elettronica Viva), etc.
(These are only suggestions—feel free to choose a composer
that is not on this list, but if so, check your idea with me first. We are looking at 20th century "classical" composers in this project, not popular artists).
PART 2: Bring in a short sample of music that you listen
to and play it for us. What do you listen to for enjoyment? I'm looking
for the music that you LIKE to listen to, but not Haydn or Mozart.
Something that's contemporary and involves electronics would be logical,
but it must be something that you really listen to.
*I realize 10 minutes is a very short time, but it's not necessary to avoid choosing longer pieces; just find the parts you would choose to play for us. You can play excerpts if your piece is more than 5 minutes long, or you can talk over the
music if that is appropriate. In order to do this effectively, you
need to plan how you will present the music. This is of course not
ideal, and we will listen to certain selected pieces in their entirety
after everyone has presented.
NOTE: It is efficient to investigate the possibilities on the internet, but once you find your composer, best to go to the library and get a CD of the music (if there is one). Audio quality of scratchy LP's from 1960 that have been dubbed and randomly posted on the YouTube are not optimal for careful, critical listening.