MUS 370 - Special Topic: Tradition and Innovation (1)

An interdisciplinary course that explores the relationship between tradition and innovation. The course approaches this question through the study of myth, drama, music/opera, literature, criticism, and essays, from antiquity through the 20th century. Major topics/texts are 1) Interpretations of the Electra myth: The Libation Bearers of Aeschylus, the Electra of Sophocles, and Richard Strauss’ Elektra. 2) The role of traditions and historical antecedents in Wagner’s “artwork of the future,” Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, and his major essay The Artwork of the Future. 3) James Joyce’s Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, wherein our protagonist fights the suffocation he feels from Catholicism, Irish traditions, and language while trying to become an artist. Each of these topics has strong connections with at least one other topic in the course.