For majors and non-majors. A study of issues in the history of music and sound. Topic will vary from class to class.

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. The course focuses primarily on music and philosophy in Europe and the United States from about 1800 to the present. Weekly listening assignments will progress chronologically from art music (Beethoven to Schoenberg) toward the avant-garde (Cage and experimentalism) and American popular music. Reading assignments are drawn from both primary sources and writings by and about musicologists and philosophers. The course is organized around a series of case studies. Topics may include Rousseau, Kant, and musical representation; Beethoven’s harmony/Rossini’s melody (readings in Hegel and Schopenhauer); Nietzsche contra Wagner; Adorno and popular music; Roger Scruton's Aesthetics of Music; jazz and existentialism (Sartre and de Beauvoir); and Pop Art/Pop Music between Jeff Koons and Lady Gaga (Baudrillard).

Repeat Rules

Requirements class fulfills