Assignment No. 1: Musical Technologies
When you pick up a violin bow, are you just picking up an amalgamation of wood, fiberglass, plastic, and hair? Or are you picking up the labor that went into constructing it, be it man- or machine-made? What about the global economic and transportation networks that brought it to you? What about the technique with which you hold it—the hours and hours of private lessons and practice that enabled you to cock your elbow at just the right angle, to press with just the right amount of pressure, so that you’re able to use that bow to draw a full sound from the violin? What about the centuries of invention and refinement that went into that bow? Is it really just a bow after all? Or is it actually so much more?
This assignment asks you to consider the “little histories” behind the objects, instruments, tools, and technologies that we use while making and listening to music. Choose a musical technology to write about—this can be an instrument (bow, violin, timpani mallet, theremin), an audio playback device (iPod, record player), a type of media (tape, LP, CD, MP3), or more (music software, iPad with score reader). Maybe you’re a singer—can we think of a single, human breath as a “musical technology”? What goes into the process of inhalation and exhalation? Be creative and really explore the hidden stories behind everyday technologies you might otherwise overlook.
Assignment No. 2: Music, Politics, and Power
Russolo, Shostakovich, Babbitt, Nina Simone: composers and musicians have long positioned themselves in relation to politics and power. Likewise, music has often been coopted by politicians, states, and individuals for political purposes. How is music political? Is music making always a political act? What sorts of forces (performance, composition, reception, promotion) are at play in the politics around music? How does power—and its corresponding systems and institutions of support—manifest in music? And what even does “politics” mean?
This assignment asks you to consider the relationship between music and politics in the work of an artist, composer, or group of your choice. Your post should be focused around a single work, song, performance, or event—though you are welcome to bring in other resources and contexts. How do gender politics and race intersect in, say, Beyonce’s “***Flawless” or Esperanza Spalding’s “Black Gold”? What can Aaron Copland’s A Lincoln Portrait (1942) tell us about solidarity in the United States during WWII? Or what does its subsequent removal from the program of Eisenhower’s inauguration in 1953 tell us about Cold War paranoia? What about performances of “¡El pueblo unido, jamás será vencido!” during Chilean uprisings against Pinochet in the 1970s? Nationalism in Benjamin Britten’s Gloriana? Kid Rock’s run for Senate? The list goes on…
I encourage you to think outside the box with this assignment. Have you attended a march or rally recently? Watched a campaign stop for a politician on TV? Seen a musical performance where the performer took a stand on a political issue? The possibilities are numerous. Your post may be more analytical (feel free to incorporate musical examples), more historical, or more critical—if you’re unsure what might suit your project best, talk to me! Be sure, too, to focus your post not only around a single composer/performer/musician/event/etc., but also around a political issue (nationalism, race, gender, LGBTQ+, mental health, religion, economics, domestic politics, international relations, and more). Your thesis should tell us what specifically we can learn about music, politics, and power from your example—don’t forget to make an argument! Note: this is not an “opinion” piece. While I want you to feel comfortable writing in your own voice and tone, your argument should revolve around the musical work you’re studying and be supported by evidence.
Assignment No. 3: Music, Image, Sound, and Screen
We take YouTube for granted nowadays. We’re able to access millions of videos, ranging from the infamous “Pizza Rat” to Doug the Pug’s rendition of Drake’s “Hotline Bling,” at the click of a button. The music video, while no longer limited to MTV and VH1, has become a work of art in its own right. In the age of YouTube, Vimeo, and Snapchat, how can we understand music as a full bodied, multisensory experience?
This post asks you to analyze one music video by any artist of your choosing to explore the ways that music, image, sound, and screen come together to create a powerful experience. This video can be of any stylistic or generic origin: popular, experimental, classical, etc. Maybe you want to look at exoticist elements in Taylor Swift’s “Wildest Dreams” video. Or perhaps you’re interested in how the Metropolitan Opera makes previews of upcoming productions. Maybe you’re into film music and would like analyze a movie trailer’s soundtrack. The possibilities are numerous.
With YouTube videos come YouTube comments—and the potential for both brilliant insight and terrible trolling. As an additional part of this assignment, I want you to do a preliminary scan of the comments attached to the video of your choice. How are people reacting to sound and image? What might their reactions tell you about the politics of performance, the role of video technology, or the mediation of the internet (and the security of anonymity)? Choose at least three comments to incorporate that either supplement or complicate your analysis of the music video. Why should we believe your take over that of HorseLover123? What does a pejorative comment about Yuja Wang’s outfit in a recorded performance of Rachmaninoff’s Third Piano Concerto tell us about the status of women in classical music? Be creative, yet critical.