MUMH 6770 "Vienna, 1889–1911: Music and Culture at the Turn of the Twentieth Century"
Margaret Notley
Spring 2002
In the decades preceding the First World War, Vienna experienced political turmoil on a grand scale: as the capital of an empire composed of a bewildering number of nationalities and as the first city in Europe with a mayor elected on an explicitly anti-Semitic platform. During this period Vienna was also home to many significant artists and intellectuals.
One purpose of this course is to explore the place of music in this stimulating and precarious environment. Until recently scholars tended to understand music history as proceeding inevitably to Schoenberg’s break with tonality in 1908. In part to avoid this view of the period, the course will be organized topically rather than chronologically. Likewise, a sense of cause and effect between the shape of particular musical compositions and specific events in the city will be discouraged; the aim will be to understand the broader context and, perhaps, to make some modest connections.