Focus Rock: Art Music & Rock

Focus Rock: Art Music & Rock - An unwritten
history of cross-pollination

Music is: organized sound - timbre and rhythm.
This quote by Edgar Varese not only applies to
(most) so-called new music (20th and 21st century
classical contemporary music), but also to most
rock music and related genres. This class will
thoroughly research this statement and will look
at the little discussed influences of new music
on rock Ì and vice versa - from the Velvet
Underground and LaMonte Young, psychedelica and
minimalism, Zappa and Varese, to prepared piano
and prepared guitars, guitar orchestras, just
intonation, no wave, metal, musique concrete,
tape music, noise, the studio as instrument, and
more. This class not only surveys these
influences and cross-pollinations, but also
includes musical analysis, discussion of the
problem of transcriptions of rock music for
classical performers, and other aspects. Students
will be expected to create their own works or
write a paper.