What Kind of Text Is That?

This course features an historical and contextual study of unconventional and experimental literature, poetry and text in works for voice, as well as the creation and performance of new text-based works. Participants will analyze and perform representative works while undertaking interdisciplinary study (music, literature, theater, visual art) and composition involving experimental movements, texts, language, structures, and content. Movements to be studied include Futurism, Dada, Surrealism, Modernism, James Joyce, Gertrude Stein, John Cage, concrete poetry, Oulipo, Lettrisme, Text-Sound Texts, Imaged-Words, and the incorporation of linguistic signs and symbols. Composers to be studied include Hanns Eisler, Darius Milhaud, Luciano Berio, John Cage, Gyorgy Ligeti, Giacinto Scelsi, Dieter Schnebel, George Aperghis, Heiner Goebbels, Unsuk Chin, and David Lang, among others. Much of the course will focus on composing and creating new works that reflect the materials and techniques studied.