Music, Sport, Games, Play

This course uses the organizing figure of play to explore several forms of human activity, and to consider the relationship between them. Building on existing scholarly approaches to the role of play in human flourishing, it asks how play structures music, sports, and game in ways that are comparable, how the different modalities of each activity give rise to unique principles of play and competition, and how these three domains interact with one another. Topics will include musical improvisation and competition, in forums ranging from rap battles to air guitar; the role of sound in professional sports marketing and in-game experience design; the songs that enliven children’s games and the soundtracks of video games; forms such as capoeira, which involve playful interaction in several different domains; and many more.