- City: Berlin & Leipzig
- Term: Winter course with field component during Spring/Summer
- Instruction in: German
- Requirements: Minimum 4 semesters college-level German.
- NEW!
This new GCC complements the semester long course Musicology 121 “The Art of Music”. Three thematic areas, complementary to the course of study of Musicology 121, will be addressed on site: in Leipzig we will study music musea/patrimony and the idea of the musical archive; in Berlin we will study music as urban culture during the cold War (East and West) and today; we will also consider the politics of operatic staging in the city.
On-campus component: Musicology 121, “The Art of Music” (4 credits) — Students study a selected repertory of musical works addressing the historical and cultural contexts of their composition and performance in the European courts and cities, including the very musical city of Leipzig, the home of J. S. Bach, Robert and Clara Schumann and Felix Mendelssohn, and the twentieth-century metropolis of Berlin, home to the artistic vanguards.
Off-campus component: Music in Berlin and Leipzig (2 credits)— During their time in Berlin and Leipzig, students will deepen their understanding of how music takes its place in the fabric of a city and how it becomes an archive of its history. In Berlin, students will study the role of music in the post-1945 reconstruction of the divided city, in the politics of the cold war, and now with visits to the DDR museum, the Neue Philharmonie, the Stasi Museum, and Echtzeitmusik performance spaces and other spaces and venues.
In Leipzig, the home of Bach and Schumann sardonically dubbed ‘hipzig’ by some of its current residents, students will learn about the ways in which new kinds of music are reshaping our understanding and relationship to the classics. They will visit the J.S. Bach, the Mendelssohn and the Schumann Musea and will attend a performance of the Gewandhaus Orchester.
The program is led and taught by Gabriela Cruz, U-M Assistant Professor of Musicology.
