Music 15, Spring 2018/Paper One Prompt – The Cult of Genius and the Musical Museum
Listening:
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)
Symphony No. 9 (1822-1824)
Mov. 4, Presto, allegro assai
Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)
Symphony No. 4 (1884)
Mov. 4, Allegro energico e passionate
Aaron Copland (1900-1990)
Symphony No. 3 (1944-1946)
Mov. 4, Molto deliberato
John Cage (1912-1992)
4’33” (1947-48)
Reading:
Frisch, Music in the Nineteenth Century
Concert Culture and the “Great” Symphony, 174-178
Goehr, The Imaginary Museum of Musical Works
“After 1800: The Beethoven Paradigm,” excerpts, 205-208
Burkholder, “Museum Pieces: The Historicist Mainstream in Music of the Last Hundred
Years,” 115-134
Cage, Silence
“Communication,” 44-47
Format:
Typed, double-spaced, 12-pt. Times New Roman, standard 1” margins, 3-4 pages
You must use proper citation formatting as agreed upon with your TA (Chicago, MLA, etc.)
Prompt:
J. Peter Burkholder argues that “Once the concert hall became a museum, the only works
appropriate to be performed there were museum pieces—either pieces which were already old
and revered or pieces which served exactly the same function, as musical works of lasting value
which proclaimed a distinctive musical personality, which rewarded study, and which became
loved as they became familiar.” The idea of the concert hall as a sort of “musical museum” that
preserves the work of long-dead composers, as well as the repercussions of this notion for living
composers, forms the basis of your first paper. In the first part of your paper you will consider
the emergence of the musical canon in its original nineteenth century context. What factors
helped lead to the rise of the musical canon? In what ways was this emergence a revolutionary
change in the conception and purpose of art music? Discuss the music and reception of Ludwig
van Beethoven within this context. In the second part of your paper you will consider the canon
as an established tradition, and the ways in which living composers had to contend with its
existence. How did the idea of writing music, especially symphonies, change as a result of the
“musical museum?” Using the works of Johannes Brahms (a late-nineteenth century composer),
as well as the works of Aaron Copland and the writings and works of John Cage (both twentieth
century composers), explain how their ideas are in part reactions to the existence of a traditional
canon of musical masterworks.
You must back up your argument by citing sources from the reading above. Use no other
sources.
