- MUTH 6680: Phenomenology and Music
- Monday, Wednesday 2:00 to 3:20 (MU 290)
- Instructor: Dr. David Bard-Schwarz
- Office: MU 104
- E-mail: david.schwarz@unt.edu Office Hours: TBA
Phenomenology is literally the study of phenomena, the study not of things, not of essences, but the world as it appears to us through our senses. In this course we will bring readings in phenomenology together with analyses of a wide variety of musical works. We will read classical works in phenomenology, including writings by Edmund Husserl, Martin Heidegger, John-Paul Sartre, and Maurice Merleau Ponty. We will also read more recent works in phenomenology, particularly those that apply its rigor to music including Itzhak Miller, David Lewin, Thomas Clifton, Brian Kane, and others. Each student will write a seminar paper to be submitted for publication and / or presentation at a regional, national, or international venue.
There is one text required for the course (it is expensive): The Routledge Companion to Phenomenology. Edited by Sebastian Luft and Søren Overgaard. London and New York: Routledge, 2012.
Grades will be determined as follows: Daily one-page responses to readings / listenings = 50%; Seminar Paper = 50%
The very short papers will be probing responses to the readings / listenings assigned for that day. I will return these, graded, at the beginning of the next class and reserve the right to post some on-line to generate discussion.
We will speak more of the seminar paper as the course gets underway. For samples of good, graduate writing see the section of this site indicated by "Graduate Students".
- 01.01.2012
Young, Drift Study
Merleau Ponty Review Day
Varela, "The Specious Present: A Neurophenomenology of Time Consciousness": pdf
- 01.18.2012
Chopin, Prelude Opus 28, no. 2: pdf 
Question: What does this sign and the Chopin Prelude in A minor, Opus 28 no. 2 have in common? Answer: watch the video that introduces the class to find out! - 01.23.2012
the first person perspective, the third person perspective, (anecdotal) subjectivity, phenomenological (intersubjective) subjectivity, pure description, intentionality, bare life (Agamben), machine time (Varela)
RCP "Introduction".
One-Page #1 due
- 01.25.2012
empty intention, fullfillment, evidence, psychological ego, transcendental ego, time (objective, inner, of consciousness), retention, protention, the present, natural attitude, phenomenological attitude, epoché, phenomenological reduction, apophantic domain,ontological domain, noematic analysis (object), noetic analysis (subject), eidetic intuition
Lennon / McCartney, "For the Benefit of Mr. Kite" (Josh Harris): pdf RCP "Franz Brentano", "Edmund Husserl"
One-Page #2 due
"Intentionality" (Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy): pdf (a very ugly scan with an old machine)
"Husserl" (Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy): pdf (a very ugly scan with an old machine)
- 01.30.2012
presentations, physical objects, sense qualities, inner presentations, outer presentations, "intentional object", intentional object, noema, noematic Sinn, Gegebenheitsweise, thetic character of an act, noesis / noema, noema / act, directedness
RCP "Maurice Merleau-Ponty", "Martin Heidegger", "Jean-Paul Sartre"
One-Page #3 due
Izchak Miller, Husserl, Perception, and Temporal Awareness (Introduction, Chapter 1): pdf
- 02.01.2012
Webern, Opus 3 (Michael Schnitzius): pdf RCP "Jacques Derrida"
One-Page #4 due
Izchak Miller, Husserl, Perception, and Temporal Awareness (Chapter 2): pdf
- 02.06.2012
Satie, Trois Gymnopédies (Jordan Moore): pdf RCP "Intentionality," "Hannah Arendt"
One-Page #5 due
Husserl, The Phenomenology of Internal Time Consciousness (Introduction and Section One): pdf
- 02.08.2012
Brahms, Intermezzo Opus 119, no. 1 (Sarah McConnell): pdf RCP "Evidence"
One-Page #6 due
- 02.13.2012
"In and Out of Love" Armin van Buuren (Devin Iler) RCP "Perception," "Simone du Beauvoir"
One-Page #7 due
- 02.15.2012
Schuetz, "Saul": pdf (Benjamin Dobbs) | Schuetz, "Saul" (translation): pdf RCP "Truth"
One-Page #8 due
Husserl, The Phenomenology of Internal Time Consciousness: pdf
- 02.20.2012
You Tube Video of the Berg Quartet Playing the Second Movement of Berg's Lyric Suite for String Quartet; listen to the unison C-naturals in the viola, beginning at 2'57"
Berg, Lyric Suite: pdf The unison C-naturals mentioned above occur on pages 18-19 of the Second Movement.
Husserl, The Phenomenology of Internal Time Consciousness: pdf
- 02.22.2012
Husserl, The Phenomenology of Internal Time Consciousness: pdf
- 02.27.2012
Schubert, Morgengruß(music): pdf | Müller, Morgengruß": pdf David Lewin's Morgengruß (original): pdf
Limbo Soundtrack (Dan Tramte) YOUTUBE
One-Page #9 due Settle on a piece and an approach to that piece (musical-theoretical and phenomenological) and formulate a thesis statement.
- 02.29.2012
Morton Feldman, "Why Patterns?" (Wayla Chambo) David Lewin, "Music Theory, Phenomenology, and Modes of Perception": pdf
A Sketch of Retrospective Reinterpretation in the Chopin Prelude Opus 28, no. 2: pdf
"A recursive process is one in which objects are defined in terms of other objects of the same type. Using some sort of recurrence relation, the entire class of objects can then be built up from a few initial values and a small number of rules. The Fibonacci numbers are most commonly defined recursively. Care, however, must be taken to avoid self-recursion, in which an object is defined in terms of itself, leading to an infinite nesting." Wolfram Mathworld.
- 03.05.2012
Berg, "Hier ist Friede": pdf (Cara Stroud) RCP "Intersubjectivity"
One-Page #10 due
- 03.07.2012
Dallapiccola (Stephen Lucas) RCP "The Body"
Jean-Luc Nancy, "Listening" (excerpt): pdf
A Sketch of an articulation of the body in Chopin's Prelude no. 2 in A minor: pdf
- 03.12.2012
Emily Howell: From Darkess, Light: pdf (Schwarz) - 03.14.2012
Steve Reich: Drumming: pdf (Andrew Blanton) RCP "Husserl's Method of Reduction"
One-Page #11 due
Merleau-Ponty, Phenomenology of Perception, the body (1: experience and objective thought): pdf
- 03.26.2012
Rochberg, Caprices (see no. 35): pdf "Love like a Sunset" (part two)(Patrick Peringer) "Love like a Sunset" (part one)(Patrick Peringer) - 03.28.2012
Lachenmann: Filter-Schaukel:pdf (Josh Harris) One-Page #12 due
- 04.02.2012
- 04.04.2012
Beethoven, Symphony no. 7, Allegretto:pdf and Liszt, after Beethoven, Symphony no. 7, Allegretto:pdf (E Justin Simone)
- 04.09.2012
adequate perception of the temporal object H; 60 primary remembrance / secondary remembrance H; 57 sich abstufen H; 38 A - B and (A - B)' H; 65-67 memory H; 56; 81 RCP; 192 motion / flow of time H; 88-89; 98-99; 113 N; 13 just having been H; 53-54 last tone as full stop H; 41 zurückgeschobenes H; 30 emptiness H; 46 expiredness H; 103 p-model L; 335 intentional threads MP; 121 presentation / content M; 10-11 intentionality M; chapter 1 RCP; 125 echo H; 53 sinking down H; 49-50 now H; 34; 44; 48; 62-63; 70; 92; 95 retention H; 44; 51 protension H; 33' 76 phantasy H; 33; 74 horizon MP; 78-79; 80-81 objective thought (Kierkegaard) MP; 82 accuracy / completedness M; 39-41 single intentionality H; 109 double intentionality H; 106; 109 determinable X K/L; 29; 31 M; 60-61; RCP; 127; 130; noema M; 16-21 noeses K/L; 29 noematic Sinn K/L; 29 M; 19 AI and phenomenology K/L; 31-33 resonance N; 20 mode of giveness M; 21 body MP; 104; 115; 162; (organist's); 168 ears always open N; 14 anasognosia MP; 88; 93 cogito MP; 144; 170 RCP; 64-67 repetition L; 355n Morgen; 137 MP; 86 reproduction H; 115 repression MP; 95-96 abstract / concrete MP; 127-128 in-itself / for-itself RCP; 239 cf. 66-67 MP; 101; 143 acousmatics N; 3 differance RCP; 118 listening / hearing N; 5-9; 14 the cry N; 17-18 tendre d'oreille N; 5 self N; 8; 12 recursion L; 330-333 false dichotomies L; 357 Morgen; 48; implication / realization gestalt RCP; 105-106; 154-155 Euclidean plane N; 13 L; 360 - 04.11.2012
Brian Kane Residency
- What is your phenomenological approach to silence or rests in music? (Charles Wu)
- In Husserl's terms, is musical structure a constituent of the noema (an attribute-meaning belonging to the noematic Sinn) on account of which our perceptual acts are directed toward (actual) musical objects as we constitute them, or is musical structure to be considered as an object in and of itself that we can direct our intentional acts toward, or can musical structure be thought of in either sense depending on whether we engage with it in higher- or lower-order mental acts? (Michael Schnitzius)
- How can visual, tactile, and/or kinesthetic modes of a piece of music (i.e., not the aural mode) inform our aural perceptions of the same piece? (Cara Stroud)
- How might we begin to develop a phenomenological approach that deals specifically with acts of musical creation (performance and composition)? (Expanding on the suggestion in Kane's "Excavating Lewin's 'Phenomenology'" that this could be done through applying post-Husserlian phenomenology.) (Wayla Chambo)
- Are there any passages in Husserl that describe protention in great depth, or if not, what is your understanding of protention, specifically in relation to music? Are ideas of expectation or implication important to it? (Devin Iler)
- How might a phenomenological approach identify "negative space" in music? (Joshua Harris)
- What effect, if any, does tempo have on the horizons of retention and protention? (...especially regarding differing interpretations/performances of the same piece...) Can tempo alter our experience of these horizons? (Ben Dobbs)
- Is it possible that part of the problem between Schaeffer's use of the French verb, 'entendre,' and Nancy's is that Schaeffer applies it towards a specific genre of music (i.e., musique concrète)? Perhaps sound objects, in the electroacoustic sense, have a special quality that fails to lend itself with other genres of music or sound in general(?) (Dan Tramte)
- When writing about a musical text, how can one justify the phenomenological integration of the writer's ideas into the reader's perception of the music? Wouldn't even an inaccurate/illogical statement about the text potentially change the sense of the music? (I'm more interested in the subtle examples of the situation) (Stephen Lucas)
- As we all progress in our lives, we learn what we know (and do not know), how we act, and that which we are capable. Actions are comprised of routines, habits, and kinesthetic recollections, i.e. responses to rituals of a given moment. Actions are, however, prone to the nuances and regularities of the world around us. We are inherently reactive (and somewhat subservient) creatures to the world. Is there anything innate about playing/practicing music?(E. Justin Simone)
- Within formal music and sound art, can our listening experience go beyond that of auditory perception? In other words do we limit our understanding of our sense perception of sound by only focusing on the cognitive understanding of sound events that we hear, rather then what we hear plus what we physically feel plus what we see and how our focus of our attention can move within a experience to shape our perception. (Andrew Blanton)
- In your article "Excavating Lewin's 'Phenomenology'", you describe Lewin's emphasis on the "interconnectedness between the acquisition of skills and the development of our musical capacities" and suggest the possibility of other ear-training aids similar to Lewin's Stockhausen essay. How have you/can you see these concepts in phenomenology informing the pedagogy of music theory and aural skills? How do you see a music department being able to connect "competence", "performing", and "understanding" as Lewin suggests? (Jordan Moore)
- Can the perceptive listener (i.e. someone who has been exposed to phenomenology) consciously expand their "now" by an understanding of how retention can alter protention? (Patrick Peringer)
- Do you think listening to and thinking about music from a phenomenological perspective can and should inform our pedagogical approach in the undergraduate theory core classrooms? If so, do you have suggestions on basic, tangible ways we can help our students actively listen to and participate in any given musical experience? (Sarah McConnell)
Questions:
- 04.16.2012
Yuasa's White Noise
RCP "Eidetics and its Methodology (review focusing on eidetic variation)"
Thomas Clifton, "Music as Constituted Object: pdf
Brahms, Violin Concerto, approach to cadenza (full score): jpg
Brahms, Violin Concerto, approach to cadenza (reduction): jpg
- 04.18.2012
Plague Mass (excerpt) | Diamanda Galás
- 04.23.2012
Risset, Mutations
Husserl Review Day
Lacan, "Logical Time and the Assertion of Anticipated Certainty": pdf
- 04.25.2012
Young, Drift Study
Merleau Ponty Review Day
Varela, "The Specious Present: A Neurophenomenology of Time Consciousness": pdf
- 04.30.2012
Extended Office Hours / Research / Writing Day
- 05.02.2012
Extended Office Hours / Research / Writing Day
- 05.11.2012
Seminar Paper Due in my office (MU 104) by noon
Grading Criteria:
- 1) degree to which the writing reflects the "Writing Guidelines" above
- 2) precision of manifest or latent phenomenological approach
- 3) degree to which the paper addresses its audience (a reader of Music Perception)
- 4) precision of musical evidence presented in support of a thesis
