Author: Meghan Mullins

As a pianist, I’ve been playing works by Debussy, Ravel, and Satie for a long time. I’ve always enjoyed the music and it always stuck out to me as unique from other genres of classical music, but it wasn’t until this class that I understood why. From nationalism, to exoticism, to class, race, gender, and […]

For the premiere of Mercure, Satie worked with Picasso to create an impressionisme inspired work. Satie’s connection to Montmartre in Paris allowed him to explore and see different types of art and bring them into his ballets. Satie worked closely with the Comte de Beaumont, a French aristocrat known for his parties, extravagant balls, and […]

Historically contextualized, queer composers used music as a way to express themselves in a way they could not in the public eye. The ideas that music always contains secret messages and ulterior motives then for entertainment was used as a reason why music sounds a certain way. We often look for a certain aspect of […]

Negrophilia, as defined by Bernard Gendron, was an infatuation with American and “primitive,” or African culture (1). By using the word primitivism to describe music with African influence, one is already assuming a distinction between a developed versus undeveloped group of people. “Primitivism” makes reference to primates, dehumanizing African culture and implying it is less […]