MUSY 102 - The Listening Mind

FC CNDP

4 credits
Jennifer Stoever writes that “listening is an interpretative, socially constructed practice conditioned by historically contingent and culturally specific value systems.” This course will consider five listening methods developed since 1600 to examine examples of western music from Europe and the United States. Our listening subjects ask myriad questions of the music they encounter, many of them still relevant today: How does music communicate social dynamics, cultural attitudes, or philosophical perspectives? How do structures of knowledge and power determine or limit how we receive and interpret music? In short, what constitutes music in a given moment, and what can listening reveal?