This
course emphasizes critical listening skills by studying music production
practices, listening technologies, various styles and sonic traditions from
across the globe, and Western (US and European) music structures and
compositional forms. Through the course
of the semester we will explore the sonic landscape from the Middle Ages (450
AD) to today. This being the case, the
class covers material diachronically (the past in relation to the present) and
synchronically (the past alone), incorporating aspects of science, history, art,
literature, and politics and their influence on the music of that particular
culture, subculture, and specific time period. All of these objectives are
rather secondary to the primary goal of understanding how sound defines
intention, function, and reception of society in relation to the self.
- Teacher: Thorpe Suzanne