Sound, Music, and Ecology

4 credits · Undergraduate

How might critical attention to sound and music yield a new insight into the interactions among societies and their environment? This course will examine how the ecological relationships between humans and their surroundings are expressed, sustained, and sometimes challenged through musical sounds. From bird songs in the rain forest to songs of the indigenous land rights movement in Australia, students will investigate how sonic/musical creativities have intersected with the production, preservation, or destruction of ecologies—natural, social, cultural, or otherwise. We will focus on the social and political issues around environmental resources, and the role of the arts (especially music) in relation to conflicts and power relations.