MusB Music

This course will introduce students to the history of Spanish music from the late nineteenth century through to the late twentieth century. It will examine the ways in which regimes, musicians and audiences in Spain have used music to different and divergent ends, such as exercising political repression, giving voice to the oppressed and marginalised, creating a sense of national identity, contributing to the expansion of mass culture, or shaping the identity of youth culture. This course will study musical works and documents in connection with other relevant audiovisual and written materials, such as video clips, song lyrics, libretti, and the writings of musicians and music critics. All primary texts will be offered in both the original Spanish and in English translation. The course is open to students from all areas, with no previous knowledge of Spanish and/or music required. Where appropriate, separate teaching methods and assessment criteria will be used.

• To provide students with the opportunity to acquire a basic understanding of the formation of cultural identities through the music of Spain from the late nineteenth century on
• To provide basic grounding in current theoretical approaches to race, gender, class, authenticity, nostalgia and heritage, as applied to specific musical genres and cultures from Spain
• Through reading, listening to songs, using web resources, and the writing of essays, to make students conversant with the methods of scholarly enquiry in a Humanities discipline, and with the resources necessary for such research 

By the end of this course students will be able to:

• Identify and describe the major trends in Spanish music from the late nineteenth century to the late twentieth century
• Situate Spanish music and culture in the context of modern Spanish history, politics and society
• Understand and explain some of the ways in which music can express social and political concerns and ideals, and effect social change
• Comprehend and assess the capacity of music to articulate different forms of identity (race, class, gender, national, political)

Works studied:

Tomás Bretón, La verbena de la Paloma (1894)

Manuel de Falla: El amor brujo (1915)

Manuel de Falla: El Retablo de Maese Pedro (1923)

Isaac Albéniz: excerpts from Iberia (1909)

Songs of the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939)

Joaquín Rodrigo: Concierto de Aranjuez (1938)

Video clips of Raimon, Joan Manuel Serrat and Lluís Llach (1959-1975)

Video clips of Camarón and Paco de Lucía (1960s and 70s)

Film excerpts with songs by Concha Piquer, Conchita Piquer, Imperio Argentina and Manolo Escobar

Video clips featuring Mecano and other bands from la movida

Example of  lectures:

1. Introduction / What is “Spanish music”?

2. Zarzuela and mass entertainment in nineteenth-century Spain

3. Spanish exoticism abroad: Bizet’s Carmen

4. Flamenco and Identity I: Deconstructing authenticity

5. Paris and the Spanish musical avant-garde: Manuel de Falla

6. Flamenco and Identity II: Race and degeneration

7. Folklore and Politics

8. Singing against Franco

9. Flamenco and Identity III: Andalucía and regionalism

10. Popular music and politics during Spain’s transition to democracy

11. Revision    
 

By the end of this course students will be able to:

• Identify and describe the major trends in Spanish music from the late nineteenth century to the late twentieth century
• Situate Spanish music and culture in the context of modern Spanish history, politics and society
• Understand and explain some of the ways in which music can express social and political concerns and ideals, and effect social change
• Comprehend and assess the capacity of music to articulate different forms of identity (race, class, gender, national, political)

By the end of this course students will be able to:

• Engage critically with music and articulate their impressions in verbal form
• Understand different ways in which music can express social concerns and political ideas
• Place music in relation with other cultural expressions as well as with historical and cultural phenomena

By the end of this course students will be able to:

• Identify music works and simple musical structures (listening skills)
• Read primary texts (lyrics, libretti) in Spanish or in English translation
• Use music in connection with other materials: audiovisual, written text
• Communicate ideas in written form

• Improved independent and critical thinking
• Improved written communication skills
• Improved research skills into a range of sources, histories and theories
• Improved textual, aural and visual analysis, and arguments informed by critical awareness of secondary material

Christoforidis, Michael, and Elizabeth Kertesz. 2018. Carmen and the Staging of Spain: Recasting Bizet’s Opera in the Belle Epoque. New York: Oxford University Press 

Etzion, Judity. 1998. “Spanish Music as Perceived in Western Music Historiography: A Case of the Black Legend?” International Review of the Aesthetics and Sociology of Music 29 (2): 93–120. 

Hess, Carol A. 2001. Manuel de Falla and Modernism in Spain, 1898-1936. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 

Holguin, Sandie. 2019. Flamenco Nation: The Construction of Spanish National Identity. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press. 

Llano, Samuel. 2012. Whose Spain: Negotiating ‘Spanish Music’ in Paris, 1908-1929. New York: Oxford University Press.