MUTH 320 - Music Analysis as Literature

FC CNDP, DDHU

4 credits
The point of this course is to gain practice reading music-analytical texts (broadly construed) as though they were literature (because they are). One thing that this means is that we will attend closely to matters of prose style, authorial voice, metaphorical and poetic devices, argumentative strategy, and literary genre as we study some of the “classics” of music analysis and criticism as well as publications of more recent vintage. Another thing that it means is that we will examine the social, historical, ideological, economic, and philosophical contexts in which the practice of music analysis is and has been carried out. We will strive to engage with music analysis in a way that is charitable and appreciative as well as critical and, when appropriate, skeptical. Our readings will include a diverse array of historical and contemporary music analyses, selections from Terry Eagleton’s “Literary Theory” (which will be our “textbook”), and a bit of “ordinary language philosophy” (Wittgenstein, Austin, and Ryle). A priority of this course is to foreground music that has traditionally been excluded from the “Western canon.” May be repeated for credit.

Prerequisites: two courses in MUTH 250-299.