INTRODUCTION TO ATONAL THEORY – MUS 609 (FALL 2008)

Professor: Dr. Stephen Peles Office: 251 Moody Music Building

Office phone: 348-1472 Office Hours: MW 2:00-3:00

E-mail: speles@bama.ua.edu

Description

This course is aimed at advanced graduate students and is intended as an introduction to atonal music and to the theoretical literature which attempts to address that music. Broadly speaking it has three goals.

(1) To introduce you to the music and the special problems it poses, focusing chiefly on works that have in some measure entered the repertory.

(2) To introduce you to the current state of the art in theoretical thinking concerning this literature and to provide you with some basic analytical and descriptive strategies for dealing with unfamiliar works whose structural principles are novel and perhaps unknown. The theoretical enterprise in question is scarcely forty years old, and is thus still in its infancy as such things go. It is hoped that the readings from the literature will provide you with an historical understanding of how the field has evolved over that time (and who the most important participants have been), and that having completed the course you will be able to pursue further reading on your own.

(3) To enhance your aural perceptions of this music, to make your way of thinking about it more relevant to the music itself, and to enable you to talk and write coherently about it.

This is a reading-intensive course, with a primary focus on the professional journal literature. In keeping with that focus we will be progressing through the Rahn text as quickly as possible at the beginning of the course; this will provide you with the rudimentary background needed to tackle the professional literature.

Materials

Textbooks: John Rahn, Basic Atonal Theory. New York: Schirmer Books, 1980.

Other: music paper, note paper, pencils.

Grading

Homework and quizzes count for 80% of the final grade.

The final exam counts for 20% of the final grade.

Reading assignments are assignments, too; class preparation and participation will thus be taken into account in the determination of the final grade.

Course material is presented in three forms: the textbook and other readings, handouts, and lectures. You are responsible for all material, regardless of the medium of presentation. It is of utmost importance that you bring note paper and music paper to class and take notes. In the event that you are absent for a lecture, be sure to get the notes for that class from a classmate; you are responsible for all lecture material whether you are present or not.

Five percentage points shall be deducted from the grade of a given homework assignment for every day it is late. In no case will a late assignment be accepted after that assignment has been corrected and returned to the class or after the assignment has been discussed in class; any such assignment will receive a grade of zero.

To request disability accommodations, please contact Disabilities Services (348-4285). After initial arrangements are made with that office, contact your instructors.

Attendance

I do not distinguish between excused and unexcused absences. You are allowed 6 absences. Your final grade will be lowered by one letter grade for each additional absence.