SESSION #1B  |  WITH HUW WILLIAMS 

C.S. Lewis, J.R.R.Tolkien and others saw modernism (‘The age of machines’) as the great rupture in human history and culture, showing itself in literature as the death of meaning and the metanarrative of Myth. In ‘The Abolition of Man’, CSL predicted with astounding accuracy the cultural and human consequences of the modernist literary theory of his day, producing ‘men without chests’ as we see around us today. Igor Stravinksy, the dominant musical figure of C20 music makes for a striking illustration of the transition with occurs between musical late-Romanticism and modernism. Examining some of his later, modernist claims as to music’s inability to mean anything in relation to his earlier work’s success highlights the tension to be unfolded and explored during the week. Modernism into postmodernism and the current trends in the academy, including the new musicology.

SESSION #3  |  WITH HUW WILLIAMS 

Language operates in reference to itself. To understand a language one has to be familiar with the rules of language. So with music. But what are the cultural reference points which bring common meaning to music. The enlightenment had a sophisticated relationship with meaning, which can lead us to the incorrect conclusion that the death of the narrative occurs at the end of the C18. However, Wye Jamison Allanbrook’s ground-breaking study, “Rhythmic Gesture in Mozart” offers deep insights into how C18th dance forms carried social, and even political, meanings into Le Nozze di Figaro and Don Giovanni.

SESSION #5A  |  WITH HUW WILLIAMS 

Are the early seeds of modernism sown in the music of Richard Wagner? He is one of the most controversial figures in musical history, whose music continues to divide opinion. Yet his influence on the development of music into the C20 and beyond is unquestionable. What was his relationship with Myth, the ideals of romanticism and did he shape the onset for musical modernism?

SESSION #6  |  WITH HUW WILLIAMS 

In a statement strikingly resonant with Tolkien’s idea of the artist as “sub-creator”, Mahler famously stated that for him, to write to a symphony was to “create a world”. At the same time, late Romanticism sees the seeds of pessimism growing, which would grow into full maturity in modernism. While the myth was being lost, meaning in music was still very much alive.