MUSY 931 - Crossroads: British Music/Music in Britain

FC CNDP

4 credits
London is home to one of the most vibrant international musical cultures extant on the planet today, and has been a musical crossroads since the late 17th century. Most famous European composers and performers visited London at some point, from Mozart to Beyoncé; some, like Handel, made the city their permanent home. The city has also long been home to institutions that supported indigenous British musicians, like Westminster Abbey and the Royal College of Music. And through the vestiges of colonialism and post-colonial immigration, Britain in general and London in particular has become a capital of the commercialization of music from all over the world. In this course, we will study both the music composed and made in Great Britain as well as the music that was made there by emigrants and frequent visitors to the country from approximately 600 to the present. This will include multivalent investigations of sacred music, the rise of opera and concert music in Great Britain, as well as the great flowerings of musical theatre, folk music, jazz, rock & roll, and music from beyond Europe and North America. In doing so, we will tease out the sometimes-troubling relationship that the various British peoples had with music: should music be considered a diverting pastime, something to be collected and consumed, but not be taken seriously? Or could music be a tool to both entertain and enlighten?