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FUBiS Term II: Music in Berlin: Three Centuries of Tradition and Innovation
(Course # 2.03)
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Type: |
A Track |
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Instructor(s): |
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Language: |
English |
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Contact hours: |
72 (6 contact hours per day) |
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Credit Points: |
6 |
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Capacity: |
18 |
Resources
Course description
With its three opera houses and seven symphony orchestras, Berlin is one of the world's leading centers for classical music, boasting a long tradition of important composers and performers, famous concert halls, and impressive instrument and manuscript collections. The city also has a significant history of popular music and musical theater, most notably its early twentieth-century cabaret culture and more recently its trends in electronic dance music.
This course presents important milestones in Berlin’s musical history since the mid-eighteenth century, when the court of Frederick the Great put the city on Europe’s musical map. We will consider Berlin’s time-honored musical traditions as well as its rich diversity, focusing our study on the complementary dynamics of tradition and innovation.
This perspective sheds light on the nineteenth-century revival of J. S. Bach’s music, for example, when the Berlin Sing-Akademie under Felix Mendelssohn presented the first performance of the St. Matthew Passion and other important works 80 years after the composer’s death. At the same time, performers such as violinist Nicolo Paganini and pianist Franz Liszt were astounding Berlin audiences with their unprecedented virtuosity and pioneering the modern cult of the celebrity superstar.
The early twentieth century marks the city’s most tumultuous struggle between tradition and innovation, as it became a world center for avant-garde music and theater (hosting the premieres of Alban Berg’s Wozzeck in 1925 and Kurt Weill’s Dreigroschenoper in 1928), then suffered under the reactionary politics of the Nazi regime. Subsequently divided between East and West for nearly three decades, both sides of Berlin established their respective ensembles, performance institutions, and music conservatories. In another historical juxtaposition, the first techno-based Love Parade was held in West Berlin in the summer of 1989, proclaiming “Music knows no boundaries or nationalities,” and by the end of that year Leonard Bernstein was conducting Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony at the Brandenburg Gate to celebrate the fall of the Berlin Wall.
In addition to history-related readings and listening assignments, the course will also incorporate Christopher Small’s notion of “musicking” as an overall theoretical approach to the rituals of music performance in contemporary culture. Small’s innovative case study of the symphony orchestra concert will complement our visits to Berlin’s concert halls and opera houses for live performances. Other outings include tours of the music instrument museum, historic cathedral organs, important cabaret venues, the legendary Hansa studio near today’s Sony Center, and a sampling of Berlin’s vibrant musical nightlife.
The class meets twice a week for three 90-minute segments each day.
The first two segments of each class typically involve short lectures on historical and musical topics as well as seminar-style discussions of the assigned readings. Some class days devote time to in-depth music listening and analysis, and we frequently use the afternoon segment for film screenings or excursions to sites in the city.
In addition to the regular class meetings and excursions, the Course Schedule includes a list of recommended concerts, operas, and dance performances. FUBiS will provide students with the ClassicCard discount for reduced ticket prices to these events.Student profile
This course is open to students from all disciplines and levels of study.Prerequisites
The course involves extensive reading and listening assignments; an ability to read music notation is helpful but not required.
Course requirements
A course reader will be available containing the assigned readings for the course.
Grading
Participation, including attendance: 50%
Quizzes on reading and listening assignments: 25%
Fieldwork project and presentation: 25%
For the fieldwork project, students research a particular music scene, venue, or institution in Berlin and complete an 8-page descriptive/ ethnographic research paper with supporting musical/visual materials.
Participation Grading Standards:
1,0 = shows excellent effort and engagement with the reading/listening assignments and discussions, asks questions and addresses other students’ questions/comments, draws creative connections among topics of study and discussion;
2,0 = shows good effort and engagement with the reading/listening assignments and discussions, asks questions and addresses other students’ questions/comments;
3,0 = no effort to ask questions or provide comments, but shows an acquaintance with the reading/listening assignments and signs of preparation if called upon;
4,0 (>4,0) = no effort to ask questions or provide comments, shows obvious lack of preparation; active or passive disengagement with the class (sleeping, private chatting, etc.)Reading
A course reader will be provided.
Recommended Course combinations
- Representing the Nation: Art and Architecture of Berlin
- Borders & Crossings: Romanticism to the Present
