Understanding Music: Global Perspectives

Catalog description

Understanding Music is a semester-long exploration of music's materials, contexts, and purposes. We will consider music as a global phenomenon and commonality of human social experience. Through videos, readings and listening to both recorded and live music from diverse world regions, we will examine the occasions and purposes of music making and listening. We will explore the ways in which traditions, values, belief systems, and patterns of social change are encoded and made manifest in musical practices. The ability to read music is not expected. This course can fulfill either the Interdisciplinary Perspectives (IP) or Visual & Performing Arts (VPA) GEP requirements, and the Global Knowledge (GK) co-requisite requirement.