MUSIC 1101 - Elements of Music

(LA-AS)

Fall. 3 credits. Student option grading.

No previous training in music required.

S. Pond.

This course offers a diverse set of approaches to five “elements” of musical activity: pitch, timbre, harmony, rhythm, and form. Its focus is the act of deliberate and practiced listening, which we will apply to a broad range of sounds, traditions, and ways of thinking and behaving musically, both familiar and unfamiliar, local and global. Through hands-on activities we will explore the complex history of these seemingly elementary concepts with three questions in mind: How has the human experience of musically organized sound changed along with changing technologies of sound production and music making? How are those experiences culturally specific? And how do cultural, technological, and economic forces shape why we listen, when we listen, and what we listen to?