Music Since 1945

The College of the Ozarks Music Department provides students with the opportunity to take a variety of classes that cover different eras of music. One of these classes is "Music Since 1945." This course, taught by Dr. Luke Carlson, focuses on music that has been composed since 1945 with combined elements of classical and modern themes. Today's class reviewed the student's diagrams they created on Lutoslawski's "Livre pour Orchestre."

Topics of this course include:

1. LISTENING

The students will be listening to a variety of music, developing the skill of focused, analytical listening. The goal is to "receive" as the composer intended, not to "use" the music for our preconceived purposes. Whether or not we "like" or "dislike" the music is not the main issue; students will be focusing their attention on learning from the music and expanding their understanding of what modern music has been and can be.

2. PHILOSOPHY

The students will be asking difficult, philosophical questions in this course. What is music? What is good music? What is the purpose of "art" music or "concert" music? What is the difference between modern classical music and popular music? What do we get out of the listening experience? What are the controversies, if any, with modern music, and how do we engage with these issues as Christians?

3. ANALYSIS

The students will be learning how to describe musical compositions in terms of the following criteria: form, style, harmonic language (sound world), musical ideas, historical context, etc.

4. READING & WRITING

In order to better understand the historical context, intentions of the composer, and ideas behind a specific work, we need to read what composers and music theorists have written. The students will process this material and incorporate it into our own analytic work, developing informed observations and conclusions.

Today's class reviewed the student's diagrams they created on Lutoslawski's Livre pour Orchestre.

The diagrams are featured on the class website: https://sway.office.com/sL1J73pjuUoYLwJD