Week 1

 

Introduction to the class, Mahler and Straus, Debussy and Ravel

 

Read

 

    Arved Ashby on Mahler and his Seventh Symphony, from Experiencing Mahler: A Listener's Companion (Bloomsbuty, 2020)
    Ton De Leeuw, "Introduction" to Music of the Twentieth Century: A Study of Its Elements and Structure (Amsterdam University Press, 2005)
    Mark DeVoto on "The Debussy sound: colour, texture, gesture," from The Cambridge Companion to Debussy (Cambridge, 2003)
    Alex Ross on “The Velvet Revolution of Claude Debussy,” The New Yorker, Oct. 18, 2018.

Additional Reading

 

Listen

 

Scores in week 1 packet

 

    Gustav Mahler, Scherzo of Symphony No. 7
    Richard Strauss, Last four sections of Alpensinfonie
    Claude Debussy, La Mer, De L'Aube A Midi Sur La Mer
    Maurice Ravel, Three brief scenes from L'enfant et les sortilèges