3 cr
Meets:  TR 4:00 pm - 5:15 pm
Fulfills A&H and CS requirements

The course will explore all sorts of popular songs, from the late-
nineteenth century to now. We will mostly concentrate on the great
American songwriters, including such as figures as Irving Berlin,
Jerome Kern, W.C. Handy, Cole Porter, Duke Ellington, Hoagy
Carmichael, George Gershwin, Harold Arlen, and Frank Loesser. We
will also consider later figures such as The Beatles, Stevie Wonder,
Bob Dylan, and Bruce Springsteen.  We will periodically move abroad
to study French, Italian, Argentine, Brazilian and Mexican songs.
Our target in all cases is the same: the varied phenomena of how
words and music come together in the hybrid art form we call the
popular song.  At times we will concentrate on the culture that
produced the song, and its means of production and distribution.
Most of the time, we will focus close attention on the work of the
lyricist or the composer.  Sometimes we will discover that they are
the same person. The great Cole Porter is a case in point, and
Irving Berlin is another fine example. At other times, we will focus
on a great performer, such as Edith Piaf, Frank Sinatra, or Billy
Holiday. Or we will discover that the performer and creator are
sometimes the same person, as in the case of Jacques Brel, the
Beatles, or Bruce Springsteen. Lyrics will be analyzed in relation
to the musical structures and as poetry too.  Most important will be
to study the popular song as a complete art form, examining both
words and music, and considering the special role of performance.
Emphasis will be on the 1920s through the 50s, but there will be
very recent song material as well.

No prerequisites.  Varied levels of training in music and poetry are
expected from the students in the class.  Independent projects will
be designed to fit the level of each student. Classes will be a
mixture of lecture and discussion. There will be some live
performance, and some recordings.  Attendance is required.

Assignments: there will be two short papers, or the first paper can
be expanded into a final paper (the two written projects can be
interrelated).  Two tests (midterm and final).

Required Texts (subject to change):

-Phil Furia, Poets of Tin Pan Alley
-Will Friedwald, Stardust Melodies
-M. Hertz, ed., Songbook I (essays, lyrics, scores) available at IU
Bookstore
-Oncourse materials and other short readings to be assigned during
the semester