A seminar for upper division music majors. Topics will change each semester but will always represent a fairly narrow focus on a single issue in the history, interpretation, or social meaning of music. The course provides students with an opportunity to go deeply into one subject, to discuss their ideas in a seminar setting, and to carry out a substantial independent research project.

Anyone who is moved by music to dance, cry, or laugh already knows that music is philosophical: though sound vanishes, music may reveal lasting truths. In this course, we will explore different ways of thinking about and listening to music philosophically, toggling between what philosophers and cultural theorists have said about music and what we hear. This course focuses primarily on music and philosophy in Europe and the United States from about 1800 to the present. Each student will develop a unique research project that will culminate in an original research paper. Weekly meetings will emphasize reading and discussion to develop critical perspectives on music history. Reading assignments are drawn from both primary sources and writings by and about musicologists and philosophers. Weekly topics may include: music and language (readings in Rousseau and Langer); musical representation (Scruton and Taruskin); Hegel's Spirit and Schopenhauer's Will; Nietzsche contra Wagner; Adorno and popular music; jazz and existentialism (Ellison and Sartre); avant-garde jazz and the Black radical tradition (Moten); Cage and experimentalism; and Pop Art/Pop Music between Jeff Koons and Lady Gaga (Baudrillard).

Repeat Rules

Requirements class fulfills