Music in Society: Music and Gender

Catalog description

This course is designed for students who wish to explore some of the interfaces between two fundamental aspects of human culture and identity, i.e. music and gender. We will examine the ways in which music has represented, reinforced, questioned, challenged, and/or dismantled gender identity in repertoire ranging from twelfth-century Christian mysticism to Hip Hop at the end of the twentieth century. Specifically, the first half of the semester explores how art music of the convent, the court, the opera stage, or the concert hall has shaped and given voice to historical and political configurations of gender and sexuality and how those representations have carried over into popular music. The second half of the semester examines in more detail styles and genres of popular music that have been instrumental in addressing issues of gender and sexuality in relation to questions of race and class. This course is the same as