SYLLABUS: Music, Meaning, and Politics in 20th-Century Europe
HIST 311, Fall 2016 Mon/Weds 1:10-2:30, Vollum 118
Dr. Leah Goldman Email: goldmanl@reed.edu Office: Eliot 428
Office Hours: Mon 2:30-4:00, Tues 9:30-12:00, or by appointment
Course Description
Can music have political meaning? Should music have political meaning? Is music’s meaning unavoidably political? Who has the right to determine what, if anything, music means? In this course we will explore the social and political construction of musical meaning and the many ways music has been used for political purposes in Europe from the early 20th century to today. Working thematically, we will explore textual and musical primary sources, as well secondary literature, in service of investigating the tangled issues surrounding the creation of musical works for expressly political purposes, the assignment of political meaning to musical works by political actors, and the struggles by all concerned for the right to interpret the politics of musical works, in historical and contemporary context. In the course of our enquiry, we will consider the perspectives of composers, performers, states, political parties, opposition movements, and countercultures, and develop our own understanding of what it means for music to be political. This course emphasizes close reading, careful listening, creative thinking, and vibrant discussion. No prior musical training is required; I will provide listening guides for our musical primary sources, and we will work together in class to develop a vocabulary for discussing them. Open minds and spirited participation are encouraged!
Course Requirements:
Attendance: You must attend all meetings of this conference, and do so on time. Our primary purpose and method is discussion, and that won’t work unless we all commit to learning together in the classroom environment. I will take attendance at the start of each conference meeting. You get two absences for free, no questions asked, after which further absences will negatively affect your grade. If you have already accumulated two absences and must miss class again due to an extraordinary circumstance, please contact me in a timely manner to discuss your situation.
Participation: Not only do you have to show up, you have to talk! And that means you have to do the reading, listening, and viewing. Come to class prepared to discuss the assigned materials. Bring the day’s text(s) with you, along with your notes on audio and video materials, for reference. Just as important, bring your thoughts, ideas, questions, and frustrations, and be prepared to share them and engage closely with your colleagues. If you feel anxious about speaking in front of a group, please contact me during the first week so we can work out an individual plan for your success. All comments must be respectful, constructive, and to the point. Ad hominem attacks and rambling digressions have no place in my classroom.
Blog Discussions and Wiki: Every week, you will contribute to a discussion of the assigned sources on our conference’s blog. If you are the first to post, remember to start the conversation by asking a discussion question. Every post, whether a question or response, should consist of about one paragraph and include a properly formatted reference. If you refer to a textual source, provide an MLA short citation—for example: Schoenberg says, “Blah blah blah” (Schoenberg, 34). If you refer to an audio or visual source, give the time marker—for example, Beethoven takes a dark turn (Ninth Symphony 4th Mvt., 3:44). This is your blog, so please be adventurous and creative in discussing the aspects of the sources that interest you most! I will bring your discussion points into conference, so we as a community can engage with them. As with classroom conversations, keep you posts relevant, substantive, and respectful.
Alongside the group blogs, we will keep a class wiki, which includes terms we have encountered or created together through discussion. Over the course of the semester, you must: a) add two terms to the wiki, and b) edit one entry that you did not create. Got an idea but not sure it would make a good wiki entry? Just ask me!
Midterm Creative Project: In lieu of a midterm exam or paper, you will create a page on our class website exploring an issue of musical politics related to a piece of music not assigned for this class. (I’ll give you a list of possibilities.) You may use relevant assigned readings as sources, but you must do some outside research, too. This project will culminate in a 15-minute presentation of your work in conference.
Research Paper: You will write one 10-12 page, independently researched paper on an issue related to the politics of music in contemporary Europe, on a topic of your choice. We will go over requirements for the papers in conference and spend a day on peer critiques of your rough drafts. As with your group presentation, you may use sources assigned for this course, but you must also use at least three outside sources. This assignment has three components:
1) A proposal (thesis statement, abstract, annotated bibliography), due in Week 11
2) A rough draft, due in Week 13
3) A final draft, due at the end of the semester
You must meet with me twice while writing. In our first meeting, we’ll discuss your topic, potential sources, and writing strategies. In our second meeting, we’ll discuss your proposal. We will work on your rough drafts together during our peer critique day in class. Don’t skip these meetings! They let me make sure you are on the path to success, and prevent you from having to do extra, corrective work. I am glad to meet with you more often; just come to office hours.
If you would like help with your writing, I encourage you to consult the Writing Center (http://www.reed.edu/writing/)
Here’s my policy on plagiarism, comrades: Don’t do it! Plagiarism is a very serious offence, which can destroy your academic career and professional prospects. Plagiarism is directly opposed to the Honor Principle, and if you plagiarize, you will automatically fail my class. Please visit the Registrar’s page on Academic Integrity:
https://www.reed.edu/registrar/academic_integrity/campus_resources.html , and ask me ahead of time if you have any questions!
Course Policies
Office Hours: I’m here for you, and I welcome you to stop in to discuss our class! I’ll be in my office Mondays 2:30-4:00 and Tuesdays 9:30-12:00, unless otherwise noted. If you know you want to come see me, you can make an appointment in advance; otherwise, just drop in. If you have a conflict with my regular office hours, please email or speak to me to make an appointment for a different time.
Email: Please feel free to email me any time with questions about the class or to schedule an appointment for office hours. I will respond within 24 hours. You must SIGN your email with your name. I won’t write back if I can’t figure out who you are. You are also responsible for checking your Reed email at least once per day. Email is my only way to communicate with you outside of class and office hours, and I need to be able to reach you.
Technology: You may bring computers or tablets to class, for taking notes and viewing pdfs. If you mess around online instead of paying attention, I won’t stop you, but I will notice and dock your participation grade. If you use your device to distract your colleagues, I will make you to put it away for the rest of class. You may not wear headphones during class.
Cell Phones: Turn them off or set them to vibrate. Please don’t take a call unless it’s an emergency. If you must do so, leave the room quickly and quietly. You may not use your cell phone for viewing pdfs in class.
Disability Accommodations: Reed College is committed to providing accommodations to students with physical, learning, and psychological disabilities. While Reed offers services to assist students with disabilities, students are responsible for contacting the disabilities office with their request(s) and providing the necessary documentation in a timely manner. It’s your responsibility to talk with me in a timely fashion about your approved academic accommodations, and it’s my responsibility to provide them for you. Please help me help you by letting me know about any documented disabilities as early as possible in the semester. For more information about how to obtain documentation, please contact Disability Support Services: 503-517-7921, disability-services@reed.edu, and http://www.reed.edu/disability_services/
Notice of Nondiscrimination:
Reed College does not discriminate on the basis of protected classes including race, color, national origin, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, marital status, military status, veteran status, genetic information, physical or mental disability, pregnancy, status as a parent, family relationship, or on the basis of any other category protected by law. Reed is committed to creating an environment in which every student feels safe and empowered to learn, and I am equally strongly committed to this goal. That doesn’t mean we won’t disagree with each other and argue intensely in this class. We will do so often! But we will do so respectfully, and in order to ensure that respect, I reserve the right to intervene as I deem necessary, while doing my utmost to simultaneously safeguard your right to free speech. If something happens in class that upsets you or makes you feel unsafe, please come talk to me about it.
Course Materials
All materials are available to you via Moodle. As our sourcebase this semester is comprised entirely of pdfs and streaming audio/video, I have not put any physical items on reserve in the library. Always bring sources under discussion to class, either electronically or as a print-out.
Course schedule
Week 1: Discovering Musical Politics
Aug. 29: Introduction to the Course: Is music political? Can politics be musical?
Aug. 31: The Politics of Interpretation
Theodor Adorno, “On the Social Situation of Music, ” Essays on Music, 391-436
UNIT ONE: Music and Modernity
Week 2: Making the World Anew: Musical Modernism and Cultural Crisis
Sept. 5: No class – Happy Labor Day!
Sept. 7: Revolutionizing Tonality
Leon Botstein, “Music and the Critique of Culture: Arnold Schoenberg, Heinrich Schenker, and the Emergence of Modernism in Fin-de-Siècle Vienna,” in Constructive Dissonance: Arnold Schoenberg and the Transformation of 20th c. Culture, 3-22
Alexander L. Ringer, “Assimilation and the Emancipation of Historical Dissonance,” Constructive Dissonance, 23-34
Primary Sources:
Arnold Schoenberg, “Composition With Twelve Tones,” Style and Idea: Selected Writings of Arnold Schoenberg, 215-244
Arnold Schonberg, Five Piano Pieces, Op. 23
Week 3: Radical Rethinking: New Music for New Selves and New Societies
Sept. 12: The Personal is Political
Dos Santos, Silvio Jose, “Marriage as Prostitution in Berg’s Lulu,” Journal of Musicology, vol. 22, no. 2 (Spring 2008), 143-182
Primary Source:
Alban Berg, Lulu
Sept. 14: Modernism and Mass Song in the Early Soviet Union
Amy Nelson, “The Peculiarities of the Soviet Modern: NEP Culture and the Promotion of ‘Contemporary Music,’” Music for the Revolution, 41-66
Marina Frolova-Walker, “‘National in Form, Socialist in Content’: Musical Nation-Building in the Soviet Republics,” Journal of the American Musicological Society vol. 51, no.2 (Summer 1998), 331-371
Primary Sources:
“The Ideological Platform of the Russian Association of Proletarian Musicians,” Music and Soviet Power, 1917-1932, pp.128-131
Aleksandr Mosolov, Symphony: The Iron Foundry
A.V. Aleksandrov, “Life Has Become Better!”
Week 4: Anything Goes: Leftist Experimentation and Weimar Culture
Sept. 19: Music and Weimar Politics
Peter Jelavich, “Political Satire in the Early Weimar Republic,” Berlin Cabaret, 118-153
Primary Sources:
The Weimar Republic Sourcebook, 554-55, 558-60, 562-63, 566-67, 630-31 (Gerstel, Rathaus, Goll, Kästner, Hollaender, Kracauer)
The Blue Angel
Sept. 21: Music and Weimar Decadence
Christopher Hailey, “Creating a Public, Addressing a Market: Kurt Weill and Universal Edition” and John Rockwell, “Kurt Weill’s Operatic Reform and Its Context,” A New Orpheus: Essays on Kurt Weill, 21-35, 51-59
Richard Bodek, “Red Song: Social Democratic Chorus in the Late Republic,” Proletarian Performance in Weimar Berlin, 40-79
Primary Sources:
Kurt Weill, “Zeitoper” and “Correspondence about The Three-penny Opera”; Hanns Gutman, “Music for Use,” WRS, 572-574, 576-578, 579-582
Kurt Weill, Three-Penny Opera
UNIT TWO: Music and National Identity
Week 5: Wholesome Music for the Master Race: Construction of the Canon and Exclusion of “Degeneracy” in Nazi Germany
Sept. 26: Defining and Enforcing the German Canon
Pamela Potter, “Attempts to Define ‘Germanness’ in Music,” Most German of the Arts: Musicology and Society from the Weimar Republic to the End of Hitler’s Reich, 200-234
Primary Sources:
“Letter from Wilhelm Furtwängler to Joseph Goebbels,” The Arts in Nazi Germany, 165-167
Joseph Goebbels, “Ten Principles for the Creation of German Music,” ANG, 183-185
“From Hitler’s ‘Speech on Culture’ (Kulturrede),” ANG, 185-187
Ludwig van Beethoven, Symphony no. 9 (Fourth Movement)
Hitlerjunge Quex
Sept. 28: Excluding “Degenerate” Music
Albrecht Düming, “The Target of Racial Purity: The ‘Degenerate Music’ Exhibition in Dusseldorf, 1938,” Etlin, ed. Art, Culture, and Media under the Third Reich, 43-72
Michael H. Kater, “On the Index: The Third Reich’s Prewar Campaign,” Different Drummers: Jazz in the Culture of Nazi Germany, 29-56
Primary Source:
Swing Kids
Week 6: Stalin Gets Serious: The Musical Politics of Socialist Realism
Oct. 3: Imposing the New Aesthetic
Sheila Fitzpatrick, “The Lady Macbeth Affair: Shostakovich and the Soviet Puritans,” The Cultural Front, 183-215
Primary Sources:
Maxim Gorky, “Soviet Literature (Speech at the First All-Union Congress of Soviet Writers)”
“Muddle Instead of Music,” Pravda (anonymous editorial denouncing Shostakovich)
Shostakovich, Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk
Oct. 5: Reasserting Control
Kiril Tomoff, “Zhdanovshchina and the Ogolevets Affair,” and “Brouhaha! Party Intervention and Professional Consolidation,” Creative Union, 95-151
Primary Sources:
Central Committee Resolution “On the Opera The Great Friendship by V. Muradeli”
Dmitrii Shostakovich, Symphony no. 8 (concentrate on first movement)
Dmitrii Shostakovich, Song of the Forests
Week 7: We Sing it Better: Competition, Eurovision, and Musical Politics in the Cold War
Oct. 10: Competing for Minds: Art Music
Mark Carroll, “Introduction” and “Back to the Future: Nabokov’s Selection Criteria for L’Oeuvre du XXeme Siècle,” Music and Ideology in Cold War Europe, 1-24
Adrian Thomas, “The ‘Warsaw Autumn’ [Festival],” Polish Music since Szymanowski, 83-91
David Caute, “Classical Music Wars,” The Dancer Defects, 379-414
Primary Sources:
Igor Stravinsky, Symphony in C
Karol Szymanowski, Violin Concerto No.1
Oct. 12: Competing for Hearts: Popular Music and Eurovision
Philip Bohlman, “Music and Nationalism: Why Do We Love to Hate Them?” The Music of European Nationalism, 1-34
Dana Heller, “t.a.T.u. You! Russia, the Global Politics of Eurovision, and Lesbian Pop,” Popular Music, vol.26, op.2 (2007), 195-210
Primary Sources:
Eurovision performances (with BBC commentary): ABBA, “Waterloo”; Celine Dion, “Ne partez pas sans moi”; t.a.T.u., “Ne ver’, ne boysia”; Stephane & 3G, “We Don’t Wanna Put In”; Polina Gagarina, “A Million Voices”
~~~FALL BREAK~~~
UNIT THREE: Music and Protest
Week 8: Songs of Change: Music and Activism Across Europe
Oct. 24: Music and Soviet Dissent
Mark Edele, “Strange Young Men In Stalin’s Moscow: Birth and Life of the Stiliagi, 1945-1953,” Jarbucher fur Geschichte Osteuropas (50:1), 37-61
Timothy Ryback, “Bards of Discontent,” Rock Around the Bloc: A History of Rock Music in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, 35-49
Primary Sources:
Lyudmila Alexeyeva, Thaw Generation: Coming of Age in the Post-Stalin Era, 83-84, 93-105
Songs by Vladimir Vysotskii, Bulat Okudzhava, and Aleksandr Galich
Oct. 26: Music and Protest in France and Germany
Detlef Siegfried, “Music and Protest in 1960s Europe,” in 1968 in Europe: A History of Protest and Activism, 1956-1977, 57-70
Chris Tinker, “Chanson engagée and Political Activism in the 1950s and 1960s: Leo Ferré and Georges Brassens,” in Popular Music in France from Chanson to Techno: Culture, Identity and Society, 139-152
Beate Kutschke, “Protest Music, Urban Contexts and Global Perspectives,” International Review of the Aesthetics and Sociology of Music, vol. 46, no. 2 (Dec 2015), 321-354
Primary Sources:
Songs by Dominique Grange, Leo Ferré, and George Brassens
Songs by Franz Joseph Degenhardt, Hannes Wader, and Wolf Biermann
Week 9: Anarchy in the UK!: The Politics of Glam and Punk Rock
Oct. 31: Gender Politics and Glam Rock
Philip Auslander, “Glamography: The Rise of Glam Rock,” in Performing Glam Rock: Gender and Theatricality in Popular Music, 39-70
Primary Sources:
Cameron Crowe and David Bowie, “I Have No Message Whatsoever” in The Pop, Rock, and Soul Reader: History and Debates, 327-333
The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars
Nov. 2: Punk Rock and Rebellion
Dick Hebdige, “Bleached Roots: Punks and White ‘Ethnicity,” and “Style as Intentional Communication, as Bricolage, in Revolt,” Subculture: The Meaning of Style, 62-70, 100-112
Jeremy Tranmer, “‘Nazis Are No Fun’: Punk and Anti-Fascism in Britain in the 1970s,” Rockin’ the Borders: Rock Music and Social, Cultural and Political Change, 117-138
Primary Sources:
The Filth and the Fury
Week 10: Let’s Make Some Noise!: Rock Music and the Collapse of the Eastern Bloc
Nov. 7: Rocking the Soviet Union
Alexei Yurchak, “Imaginary West: The Elsewhere of Late Socialism” and “True Colors of Communism: King Crimson, Deep Purple, Pink Floyd,” Everything Was Forever, Until It Was No More: The Last Soviet Generation, 158-193, 207-237
Primary Sources:
Songs by DDT and Kino
The Singing Revolution
Nov. 9: Rocking Eastern Europe
Lars Berggren, “Mothers, Plastic People, and Vaclav Havel: Underground Culture and Changes in Society in Czechoslovakia,” Rockin’ the Borders: Rock Music and Social, Cultural and Political Change, 49-66
Andrea F. Bohlman, “Solidarity, Song, and the Sound Document,” Journal of Musicology, vol. 33, no.2 (Spring 2016), 232-269
Primary Sources:
Songs by Plastic People of the Universe and Pankow
The Berlin Celebration Concert (Watch at least the first ten minutes and from 57:00 to the end)
David Hasselhoff’s version of the same…
UNIT FOUR: Music, Unification, and Globalization
Week 11: Healing the World: European Musical Politics Goes Global
*PROPOSALS due 10pm Sunday, Nov. 13!*
Nov. 14: Borrowing vs. Appropriation
Louise Meintjes, “Paul Simon’s Graceland, South Africa, and the Mediation of Musical Meaning,” Ethnomusicology 34:1 (Winter 1990), 37-73
Primary Sources:
Paul Simon, Graceland
Nov. 16: No class! Work on your papers.
Week 12: The Persistence of Politics: Music in the Post-Soviet Sphere
Nov. 21: Post-Soviet Fantasies
Svetlana Boym, “Soviet Songs: From Stalin’s Fairy Tale to ‘Good-bye, Amerika,’” Common Places: Mythologies of Everyday Life in Russia, 110-120
Donna Buchanan, “Transits,” Performing Democracy: Bulgarian Music and Musicians in Transition, 3-51
Primary Sources:
Kombinatsia, “American Boy”
The Bulgarian Women’s Choir, “Nov Den” and “Kalimanko Denko”
Poiushye Vmeste, “A Man Like Putin”
Mashani, “My Putin!”
Nov. 23: No class – Happy Thanksgiving!
Week 13: Pussy Riot! The Post-Soviet Battle Lines Harden
*ROUGH DRAFTS due 10pm Sunday, Nov. 27!*
Nov. 28: Rough Draft Peer Critique Day
Nov. 30: Post-Soviet Protest
Masha Gessen, “Punk Prayer” and “Unmasked,” Words Will Break Cement: The Passion of Pussy Riot, 97-134
Primary Sources:
“Art or Politics?” and “Closing Courtroom Statement by Nadya,” Pussy Riot! A Punk Prayer for Freedom, 15-17, 91-103
Pussy Riot, “Virgin Mary, Put Putin Away! (Punk Prayer),” “Like a Red Prison,” “Putin Will Teach You How to Love,” “I Can’t Breathe,” and “Chaika”
Week 14: Post-Europe? Musical Politics Across Borders
Dec. 5: Tourists and Refugees
Luis-Manuel Garcia, “Techno-Tourism and Post-Industrial Neo-Romanticism in Berlin’s Electronic Dance Music Scenes,” Tourist Studies 16:3 (2015), 1-20
Violeta Ruano-Posada, “Researching Music in the Saharawi Refugee Camps: The Challenges of Doing fieldwork in Semi-Permanent Desert Settlements,” SOAS Journal of Postgraduate Research v.6 (2014), 116-125
Primary Sources
Recent Techno and EDM tracks
SOAS Arabic Band “Calais” videos on Youtube
Dec. 7: Is Music Still Political?
Stephen Walt, “‘Where Have All The Political Songs Gone?’ (With Apologies to Pete Seeger),” Foreign Policy (March 6, 2009)
Primary Sources:
“Anthem of Europe” (The anthem of the European Union)
Soviet National Anthem and Anthem of the Russian Federation (listen and compare)
***FINAL PAPERS due 10pm Wednesday, Dec 14!***
No late papers accepted. Good luck!!!
