MHST 337 - Introduction to Organology

FC CNDP, DDHU WADV

4 credits
This course will focus on a number of late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century musical instruments from the Frederick R. Selch Collection of American Music History. Our goals will be (1) to learn how modern orchestral instruments developed, especially in the United States, and (2) to examine how the performance of music enabled people to intervene in social, political, and economic situations of their day. As music historians our goal will be to analyze a series of historical objects to ascertain the various ways musical behavior both influenced and responded to many aspects of social life; as performers and composers our goal will be to contemplate how our daily interactions with our own musical objects imply, not only a familiar artistic praxis, but a way of seeing. Each student will be responsible for creating a portion of public exhibition that will go on display at the end of the semester.