FF:HV_619 Exoticism and Nationalism - Course Information
HV_619 Exoticism and Nationalism in Western Music
Faculty of ArtsAutumn 2021
- Extent and Intensity
- 1/1/0. 5 credit(s). Type of Completion: k (colloquium).
- Teacher(s)
- Mgr. Martin Nedbal, Ph.D. (lecturer), prof. PhDr. Jana Perutková, Ph.D. (deputy)
doc. Mgr. Vladimír Maňas, Ph.D. (assistant)
prof. PhDr. Jana Perutková, Ph.D. (alternate examiner) - Guaranteed by
- doc. Mgr. Vladimír Maňas, Ph.D.
Department of Musicology – Faculty of Arts
Contact Person: Mgr. Jan Karafiát
Supplier department: Department of Musicology – Faculty of Arts - Timetable
- Thu 14:00–15:40 N43
- Course Enrolment Limitations
- The course is also offered to the students of the fields other than those the course is directly associated with.
The capacity limit for the course is 70 student(s).
Current registration and enrolment status: enrolled: 5/70, only registered: 0/70, only registered with preference (fields directly associated with the programme): 0/70 - fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with
- there are 12 fields of study the course is directly associated with, display
- Course objectives
- This class aims at developing an understanding and methodology for critical engagement with the discourses of exoticism, nationalism, orientalism, and post-colonialism in Western music. Throughout the course of the semester, students will explore a variety of musical works, especially opera, from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, in which the text and music construct images of a national "Self" or an exotic "Other." Readings from critical studies of nationalism and orientalism and recent scholarship on selected musical works will allow students to develop a deeper understanding of how composers and artists in general imagined, constructed, and expressed their national and ethnic identities and articulated their distance from those they perceived as different. The class will explore Italian, French, German, and Russian works, such as Handel's Giulio Cesare, Mozart's Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Weber's Der Freischütz, Glinka's A Life for the Tsar, Verdi's Aida, and Saint-Saëns's Samson et Dalila, as well as works by Czech composers, such as Smetana's The Bartered Bride and Dvořák's New World Symphony.
- Learning outcomes
- This course will help students acquire an understanding of the complex issues surrounding the concepts of exoticism, orientalism, nationalism, and post-colonialism in relation to Western classical music, particularly opera. The class will also provide an introduction to current methodologies used in exploring these issues in European and American musicology.
- Syllabus
- Class Schedule September 23 Introduction to Exoticism, Nationalism, and Post-Colonialism in Music Suggested Reading: John McLeod, “Reading Colonial Discourses,” in Beginning Postcolonialism, 2nd ed., 44–79 (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2010). Ralph P. Locke, Musical Exoticism: Images and Reflections (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2009), chapter 3. September 30 Baroque Exoticism: Handel and Rameau Watch: Handel’s Giulio Cesare (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6DMV8MNwMk) READ: New Grove’s article on Giulio Cesare Suggested Reading: Ellen T. Harris, “With Eyes on the East and Ears in the West: Handel’s Orientalist Operas,” The Journal of Interdisciplinary History 36, no. 3 (Winter 2006): 419–443. Ralph Locke, Music and the Exotic from Renaissance to Mozart (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2015), chapter 11. October 7 Mozart, Exoticism, Nationalism: The Abduction from the Seraglio and Die Zauberflöte Watch: Mozart’s Die Entführung aus dem Serail (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYOTeHL14uQ) READ: New Grove’s article on Die Entführung aus dem Serail Suggested Reading: Mary Hunter, “The Alla Turca Style in the Late Eighteenth Century: Race and Gender in the Symphony and the Seraglio,” in The Exotic in Western Music, ed. Jonathan Bellman, 43–73 (Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1998). Ralph Locke, Music and the Exotic from Renaissance to Mozart, chapter 13 Martin Nedbal, Morality and Viennese Opera in the Age of Mozart and Beethoven (New York: Routledge, 2017), chapter 2. October 14 Wagner, Weber, and German Nationalism Watch: Weber’s Der Freischütz (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8GFvzxLq4Y&t=2030s) READ: New Grove’s article on Der Freischütz Suggested Reading: Richard Wagner, “Der Freischütz: To the Paris Public,” an essay Wagner originally published in French in the Gazette Musicale in 1841. Stephen Meyer, Carl Maria von Weber and the Search for a German Opera (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2003), 87-91. Richard Wagner, Judaism in Music, trans. William Ashton Ellis, online. Richard Wagner’s Beethoven (1870), trans. Roger Allen. October 21 Verdi’s Aida and European Imperialism Watch: Verdi’s Aida (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aU2TlpHhozo) READ: New Grove’s article on Aida Suggested Reading: Paul Robinson, “Is Aida an Orientalist Opera?” Cambridge Opera Journal 5, no. 2 (July 1993): 133–140. Ralph P. Locke, “Beyond the Exotic: How ‘Eastern’ Is Aida?” Cambridge Opera Journal 17, no. 2 (July 2005): 105–139. Christopher R. Gauthier and Jennifer McFarlane-Harris, “Nationalism, Racial Difference, and ‘Egyptian’ Meaning in Verdi’s Aida,” in Blackness in Opera, ed. Naomi André, Karen M. Bryan, and Eric Saylor, 55–77 (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2012). October 28 NO CLASS November 4 French Exoticism Watch: Saint-Saëns’s Samson et Dalilah (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGLZZz61aOM&t=3995s) READ: New Grove’s article on Samson et Dalilah Suggested Reading: Ralph Locke, “Constructing the Oriental ‘Other’: Saint-Saëns’s Samson et Dalila,” Cambridge Opera Journal 3, no. 3 (November 1991): 261-302. November 11 Smetana and Czech National Opera Watch: Smetana’s The Brandenburgers in Bohemia READ: New Grove’s article on The Brandenburgers in Bohemia Suggested Reading: David Brodbeck, “Hanslick’s Smetana and Hanslick’s Prague,” Journal of the Royal Musical Association 134, no. 1 (2009): 1-36. Kelly St. Pierre, “Vyšehrad and Mythologies of Czechness in Scholarship,” 19th-Century Music 37, no. 2 (Fall 2013): 91-112. Martin Nedbal, “Smetana’s The Brandenburgers in Bohemia and Czech Nationalism: A Historical Reevaluation,” Music & Politics 14, no. 1 (Winter 2020), https://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/mp/9460447.0014.102/--smetana-s-the-brandenburgers-in-bohemia-and-czech?rgn=main;view=fulltext. November 18 Russian Nationalism and Exoticism Watch: Borodin’s Prince Igor (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9TxRDYUEcOY&t=801s) READ: New Grove’s article on Prince Igor + Richard Taruskin’s New Grove’s article on Nationalism Suggested Reading: Richard Taruskin, “Entoiling the Falconet: Russian Musical Orientalism in Context,” in The Exotic in Western Music, ed. Jonathan Bellman, 194–217 (Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1998). November 25 Exoticism in Vienna (Land of Smiles and West Side Story) Watch: Lehár’s Das Land des Lächelns (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoK9aFz-fP8) READ: New Grove’s article on Das Land des Lächelns and West Side Story Watch: Lehár’s Das Land des Lächelns Suggested Reading: Cornelia Szabò-Knotik, “Calafati, Sou-Chong, Land Land, and Li Wei: Two Hundred Years of “the Chinese” in Austrian Music, Drama, and Film,” in China and the West: Music, Representation, and Reception, ed. Yang Hon-Lun and Michael Saffle (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Pres, 2017), 65¬¬–84. Martin Nedbal, “Exoticism, Race, and the Broadway Musical in the ‘City of Waltzes’: Marcel Prawy’s 1968 West Side Story Production at the Vienna Volksoper,” The Cambridge Companion to West Side Story, ed. Paul Laird and Elizabeth Wells (New York: Cambridge University Press, forthcoming). December 2 Exoticism, Gender, and Sexuality (Bizet and Britten) Watch: Bizet’s Carmen (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsJbyeKZmhA) New Grove’s article on Carmen Suggested Reading: Ralph, Musical Exoticism, Chapter 7 (on Il trovatore and Carmen) Martin Nedbal, “Carmen for the Czechs and Germans 1880–1945,” in Carmen Abroad: Bizet’s Opera on the Global Stage, ed. Richard Langham Smith and Clair Rowden (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2020), 215–229. December 9 Nationalism and Exoticism in America Listen: Dvořák New World Symphony Suggested Reading: Michael Beckerman, New Worlds of Dvořák: Searching in America for the Composer’s Inner Life (New York: Norton, 2003), chapters 1–4. Douglas W. Shadle, Antonín Dvořák’s New World Symphony (New York: Oxford University Press, 2021). December 16 Discussion of Final Projects
- Literature
- Literatura je uvedena v osnově u jednotlivých lekcí.
- Teaching methods
- lectures, class discussion
- Assessment methods
- The final grade will be based on a Final Essay and an Oral Exam. The ESSAY (in English or Czech) of at least 2000 words including footnotes (Chicago Style) and bibliography. It will be due on Monday, December 21, at noon. For the essay students will chose a musical work that involves national and exotic sentiments. Students write a reflective essay about how that work expresses/enhances/undermines these sentiments. In January 2022, students will also schedule an ORAL EXAM with the instructor. Students will be asked to discuss their final project and the topics covered in the course throughout the semester.
- Language of instruction
- English
- Further Comments
- Study Materials
The course is taught only once.
- Enrolment Statistics (recent)
- Permalink: https://is.muni.cz/course/phil/autumn2021/HV_619