Music Analysis, Performance & Place

Catalog description

MUS 406 engages intersecting elements of professional music-making and musical thought, focusing on the concepts of music analysis, performance, and place. As theorized in human geography, anthropology, critical theory, and music studies, place as “a meaningful location” offers a contextual frame for creative musical thought. Considered broadly, place could include regions, cities, buildings, or even virtual or imaginary locations. But place also mingles with context, with situatedness, with the aspects of the world that are factors in making meaning—e.g., identity, community, race, gender, and perception. Music is an art of humans; humans are placed in and place ourselves in diverse contexts that can contribute to analytical knowledge-making and imaginative performance. This course will examine how music analysis might incorporate—or even center—place as a “musical thing,” as an element of sound having musical meaning. SC. Prerequisite: MUS 202 or permission of instructor.