1000 Years of Listening

This course aims to introduce you to a variety of music and a range of ways of listening to, and thinking, talking, and writing about music. The majority of music dealt with will be drawn from the so-called “Classical” repertory, from the medieval period to the present day. We cover canonic favorites, but we will also explore music you may have never have encountered before. We will become familiar with the technical workings of music, while at the same time thinking about—and rethinking—some of the stories we tell about the history of Western art music. This is a tradition which has kept some musics alive across centuries, but it has also excluded many voices. In this class, we will think about the idea of the musical canon, what it offers, and how it might change.