Musical Performance: Theatricality, Body, and Spectacle

Catalog description

Explores the visual and theatrical dimensions of music performance--both recent and historical--through the analysis of live performances, video clips, and historical documents. Using the critical methods of performance studies, we seek to uncover those aspects of musical experience that have become transparent or normalized by their familiarity, and which are eluded by a traditional focus on music as "sound alone." We concentrate on five genres--rock, classical, pop, jazz, and experimental--and consider figures such as Arturo Toscanini, David Bowie, Jimi Hendrix, Louis Armstrong, Miles Davis, Pauline Oliveros, John Zorn, Diamanda Galás, Madonna and Michael Jackson. Enrollment limited to 24. First year students require instructor permission.