MUSIC 149G New Zealand Music Studies

Schedule
Schedule A: Music, Art and Contemporary Society

Semester
Summer Two

Campus
City Campus

This course aims to enhance your knowledge and understanding of New Zealand art music and popular music from World War II to the present, with a focus on contemporary practice. A broad range of musical styles and genres and their historical significance and wider contexts will be discussed in relation to notions of cultural identity in music at national and local levels.

On completion of this course, you should be able to:

1. Recognize New Zealand musical artists and works from a range of genres, discuss some musical aspects of those works, and relate them to the broader contexts of New Zealand culture and society.
2. Discuss notions of national culture and identity in New Zealand music, referring to specific examples where appropriate.
3. Have an understanding of New Zealand music history, and contextualize it in New Zealand’s history since World War II.

1. Survey of the development of a popular music tradition in New Zealand from the 1950s to the present.
2. Survey of classical/contemporary art music from Douglas Lilburn to the present, with the emphasis on the development of a composing tradition in New Zealand.

Lecture schedule

• Week 1: Popular music post-war, the Fifties and into the early Sixties (Graham Reid).
• Week 2: Pop music in the Sixties (Graham Reid).
• Week 3: The increasing diversity of popular music in the Seventies (Graham Reid).
• Week 4: Douglas Lilburn — the beginnings of a compositional family tree (Leonie Holmes). 
• Week 5: The rise and fall of Flying Nun in the Eighties (Graham Reid).
• Week 6: Jazz from post-war to now (Graham Reid).
• Week 7: The next generation of classical musicians (Leonie Holmes).
• Week 8: Electroacoustic music (John Coulter).
• Week 9: Avant-garde — the non-pop Eighties (Graham Reid).
• Week 10: The diversity of popular music from the Pop in the Eighties to the present day (Graham Reid).
• Week 11: An overview of New Zealand contemporary / classical art music today (Leonie Holmes).
• Week 12: Hip Hop (Graham Reid).

Twelve weekly 2-hour lectures (Wednesday 2-4pm).

Music Theatre
School of Music
6 Symonds Street
City Campus

Lectures are taken by Graham Reid and Leonie Holmes, with occasional guests.

• Two listening tests — 5% each
• Two assignments — 15% each
• Final examination — 60%

There is no set textbook for this course. Each presenter will provide details of how to access listening material, and any resources provided by presenters will be available under “Resources” in Cecil.

The following books provide useful supplementary reading and are available on desk copy in the School of Music Library:

• Bannister, M. Positively George Street: Sneaky Feelings and the Dunedin Sound. Auckland, 1999
• Dix, J. Stranded in Paradise: New Zealand Rock’n’Roll. Wellington 1988, rev. 2005
• Eggleton, D. Ready to Fly. Nelson, 2003
• Norman, P. Bibliography of New Zealand Compositions Edition 3. Christchurch, 1991
• Norman, P. Douglas Lilburn: his life and music. Christchurch, 2006
• Spittle, G. Counting the Beat: A History of New Zealand Song. Wellington, 1997.
• Thomson, J.M. The Oxford History of New Zealand Music. Oxford, 1991.
• Thomson, J.M. Bibliographical Dictionary of New Zealand Composers. Wellington, 1990.