MUSI 701 (01) - Topics in Music History

Topics in Music History

Durham Liberal Arts::Music
Credits: 3.0
Class Size: 30 
Term:  Spring 2025 - Full Term (01/21/2025 - 05/05/2025)
CRN:  54524
Grade Mode:  Letter Grading
Courses offered under this number feature a variety of topics having to do with music history. Topics in given semesters reflet faculty expertise in teaching and research. For topic examples, see "Courses Taught" on relevant faculty web pages. May be repeated barring duplication of subject.
Registration Approval Required. Contact Instructor or Academic Department for permission then register through Webcat.
Prerequisite(s): MUSI 501 with minimum grade of C- and MUSI 502 with minimum grade of C-
Only listed majors in section: BMUS:COMP:: BM Music: Composition||BMUS:PERF:: Performance||BMUS:PRETEACH:: Preteaching||MUS PERF STUDY:: Music: Music Performance Study||MUSIC EDUCATION:: Music Education||MUSIC: COMPOSIT:: Music: Music Composition||MUSIC: LIBERAL:: Music: Liberal Studies
Attributes:  Writing Intensive Course
Instructors:  Rose Pruiksma

Times & Locations

Start Date End Date Days Time Location
1/21/2025 5/5/2025 TR 2:10pm - 3:30pm PCAC M220
Final Exam5/8/2025 5/8/2025 R 3:30pm - 5:30pm PCAC M220

Additional Course Details:

MUSI 701: Topics in Music History: Jazz histories and historiography

An abstract, geometrical watercolor / gouache study for the 1915 painting titled "Jazz" by artist Albert Gleizes

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Composition_for_%22Jazz%22#/media/File:Albert_Gleizes,_1915,_Composition_pour_Jazz,_oil_on_cardboard,_73_x_73_cm,_Solomon_R._Guggenheim_Museum,_New_York.jpg

In lieu of a course description (in process) here are some key questions & the course title & learing objectives.

  • What are the stories we tell about the development and dissemination of jazz and the ways it traveled both across North America and the world?
  • What are the connections between jazz and dance? Jazz and film? Jazz and the visual arts?
  • What gets included? What gets left out? Whose voices are missing?
  • What has the role of institutions and organizations such as the Newport Jazz Festival, or Lincoln Center been in creating jazz histories and canons?

Money Jungle (1962)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNdlYtc4VD0

Mary Lou Williams and Milton Scruggs on Mr. Roger's Neighborhood (1973)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjM63eZmsao

Cab Calloway,  The Call of the Jitterbug (1935 film short)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMQVZYoNWIw

Course Learning Objectives:

Through selected reading, analysis of video and performance materials, listening, writing, presentations, and research projects students will practice and be able to

  • Describe and evaluate the dominant stories told about jazz and its development and the different approaches to jazz history taken in widely disseminated jazz histories, such as Ken Burns documentary series.
  • Identify and describe significant musical style features that distinguish different approaches to performing jazz at specific periods from the 1910s to the present and through the practices of individual musicians and dancers.
  • Describe the development of new institutions that have shaped the many musical practices and musicians associated with jazz.
  • Locate, evaluate, and use primary and secondary sources and documents concerning the development and performance of jazz from its beginnings to the present.
  • Create new and relevant additions to histories of jazz that include figures often omitted from the “Great Man / Masterworks” narratives.
  • Synthesize and effectively communicate information about music, musical institutions, musical styles, and musicians related to jazz and the discourses around jazz in writing and in speech.