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Course Description

Summary

Magic bullets forged in a pact with the Devil. A blood-stained bride driven to despair and murder on her wedding night. An opium dream of a diabolical witches' Sabbath. Composers and performers have represented horror, madness, magical creatures, and supernatural elements in innumerable and thrilling ways since the Middle Ages. In this course, we will study key musical works that engage with the supernatural. We will listen to and watch several operas, symphonic works, solo instrumental and vocal pieces, sacred musical works, and examples from popular music and horror film soundtracks. Throughout the course we will consider how composers built a rich musical language to depict the supernatural, often pushing the boundaries of harmony, melody, and rhythm and deviating wildly from established musical norms. We will learn how composers and their works were in active dialogue with the philosophical, scientific, religious, and literary movements of their time, reading excerpts of key works connecting musical aesthetics with magic, science, the visual arts, spirituality, the sublime, and the ambiguous boundaries between the natural and supernatural worlds. Our course will be brimming with infernal demons, benevolent deities, mischievous fairies, unhinged clowns, sorcerers, ghosts, tombs, caves, prophecies, dungeons, monsters and incredible music. Homework will include readings, listening assignments, journals, brief in-class presentations, and papers.