Music to Hear on Here: Marcus on Blue Moon First of TWO Videos

Saturday, February 12, 2011

Marcus on Blue Moon First of TWO Videos

"We take 'Blue Moon'for a joke, a stylized apotheosis of corn, or further musical evidence of Dylan's retreat from the pop scene. But back on Elvis' first album, there is another version of 'Blue Moon,'a deep and moving performance that opens up the possibilities of the song and reveals the failure of Dylan's recording.

Hoofbeats, vaguely aided by a string bass and guitar, form the background to a vocal that blows a cemetery wind across the lines of the song. Elvis moves back and forth with a high phantom wail, singing the part that fiddler Doug Kershaw plays on Dylan's version, Elvis finally answering himself with a dark murmur that fades into silence. "It's a revelation," said a friend. "I can't believe it."

There is nothing banal about 'Blue Moon.'" In formal musical terms, Dylan's performance is virtually a cover of Elvis's recording, but while one man sings the song, the other sings from behind it, from the other side." Greil Marcus, Self Portrait No. 25, pp. 18019

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Course Description

"Writing about music is like dancing about architecture." Martin Mull (or Elvis Costello)

Thinking about the meaning and value, intellectual, affective and neurological experiences, and aesthetics of music has occupied an important position in modern and contemporary philosophical writings. Central to the philosophy of music is a questioning of what music is insofar as it is an art form and practice, akin to but different from other arts, such as drama, literature, painting, sculpture, to name but a few examples. Claims have been made, in fact, that music’s effect, when performed and listened to, surpasses those of the other arts because of its abstact purity, of its universality, and of its singular capacity to express, represent and incite emotions. This course will explore such issues in 19th-20th century philosophy. We will begin with introductory readings of what composes the field and discipline of the philosophy of music. We will read—among other philosophers, novelists, critics and musicologists—Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Barthes and Adorno’s writings on music. Finally, we will have the occasion to read about and listen to specific musicians, both high and low, and explore the contexts of their work, concentrating on the historical and political dimensions of the practice, performance and art of making music.