**This class will be taught In-Person**
Why is music so important? As the great scientist and humanist Oliver Sacks states, music has “the power to induce brain states, thoughts, moods, mental landscapes, vision, transcendences, which are without precedent, without parallel and which cannot be evoked by anything else.” At the same time, we revel in the simple pleasures of the backbeat and in the joys of our favorite songs. How does an expanded knowledge of musicology affect our listening experience? Can we deepen our appreciation of music by exploring its relationship to culture? We will listen to music from many genres and discuss. Optional reading materials will be made available.
Week by Week Outline
Week 1 – Intro to musicology. How we experience authenticity in music and rating recordings for authenticity. Beethoven, Robert Johnson, The Spice Girls.
Week 2 – What is music? Can we define music? Music vs. sound vs. noise. Sounds of the rainforest, The Locust, The Art of Noise.
Week 3 – Cover versions and the nature of musical interpretation. Musical hierarchies. Julie Andrews, John Coltrane.
Week 4 – How popular music transitioned from entertainment to art. Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix.
Week 5 – Music appropriation, copyright and the responsible use of music. Moby, Paul Simon, Plunderphonics.
Week 6 – The changing experience of music from live, to recordings, to mp3s, to streaming. Glenn Gould, Alex Ross, playlists, collaborative filtering.
