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Michael Schmidt - Seminars / Workshops / Lectures

Media Sounds (3 credits)

Explores the clashes and resonances between multiple styles and cultural approaches to music — from classical composition to rap, hip-hop and avante-garde sound collages. Such pioneers as John Zorn, Tan Dun, Michael Nyman, or DJ Spooky are expected to participate.

Required Books and Reading Assignments
Schmidt, Michael. Philosophy of Media Sounds. Atropos Press. July 2009, 154 pages, Paperback, ISBN: 0981997260. Buy it at Amazon.

Nyman, Michael. Experimental Music: Cage and Beyond (Music in the Twentieth Century). Cambridge University Press. October 1999, 210 pages, 2nd edition, Paperback, ISBN: 0521653835. Buy it at Amazon.

Cage, John. Empty Words. Wesleyan University Press. November 1981, Paperback, ISBN: 0819560677. Buy it at Amazon.

Media Sounds — Music Examples
You may listen online or download these mp3 files for this class. The files are in two size and quality settings; 'hi'is recommended to those with a fast (broadband) connection and 'lo' to those with a slow (modem) connection. These files are FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY.
There are MP3 (software) players available for all major OSs, a partial list of over 250 players is available here. You can either listen to the individual tracks or download a zip containing all 21 tracks. Choose from a high quality/large size archive (55.9mb!) or if you have limited bandwidth a lower quality/smaller file (11.3mb). You could even reconstruct the CD from these mp3 files for more information on software to do this is available here.

I. Colours
  1. Hector Berlioz: Symphony Fantastique, 3'18 hi lo
  2. Richard Wagner: Rheingold-Prelude, 4'15 hi lo
  3. Clara Rockmore: Theremin (Tchaikovsky: Valse Sentimentale), 2'08 hi lo
  4. Oskar Sala: Concertanto, 3'07 hi lo
  5. Herbert Eimert: Klangstudie II, 2'07 hi lo
  6. Karlheinz Stockhausen: Kontakte, 2'15 hi lo
II. Crossovers
  1. Michael Nyman: Draughtmans Contract, 1'45 hi lo
  2. Yothu Yindi: Tribal Voice, 1'00 hi lo
  3. Jan Garbarek: Raga I, 1'22 hi lo
  4. Claude Debussy: Voiles, 1'13 hi lo
  5. Toru Takemitsu: November Steps, 1'32 hi lo
  6. Tan Dun: On Taoism, 1'45 hi lo
III. Mixes
  1. John Cage: Imaginary Landscape I, 1'25 hi lo
  2. Pierre Schaeffer: Etude Pathetique, 1'57 hi lo
  3. Murray Schafer: The Vancouver Soundscape, 2'22 hi lo
  4. Bill Fontana: Soundbridge Köln — San Francisco, 2'57 hi lo
  5. Klaus Schulze: Melange, 2'00 hi lo
  6. Brian Eno: Unfamilar Wind, 2'00 hi lo
  7. John Zorn: Spillane, 1'50 hi lo
  8. DJ Spooky: Journey, 2'04 hi lo
  9. John Cage: Roaratorio, 2'48 hi lo

Course II


PHILOSOPHY OF MUSIC (3 credits)

Philosophical approaches to music – from Arthur Schopenhauer and Friedrich Nietzsche to Theodor W. Adorno and Ernst Bloch — prepare for a deeper appreciation of the visual and acoustic dimensions as well as the psychological and political aspects of the contemporary “image acoustic” (DJ Spooky), “imaginary landscape” (John Cage) and “experimental music” (Michael Nyman).