Handbook

In this course you will engage with the ‘reinvention’ of music in two ways. You will examine a period of profound change in Western classical music: from 1890 (Mahler) to 1945 (Shostakovich). You will assess the contribution of figures such as Debussy, Stravinsky, and Bartok, as well as lesser known composers, noting how political and artistic contexts shape their work and its reception. Shifts in the social practice of music will be outlined. Concurrently, through ethnomusicology—a subdiscipline that has always required the ‘reinvention’ of some of our own assumptions and thinking, you will engage with a vast range of ideas about music found in the world’s cultures. This course provides a foundation for further studies in music and musicology.

Assumed knowledge: A satisfactory standard in HSC music, or 5th grade theory or musicianship.