Music and Social Engagement with the Environment

3 Credits

This course will address the essential question of “Who are we in relation to the natural world?” Sound is integral to the way we as humans engage with the world around us, from the sound worlds of animals and plants to those of human creativity and technology. In this course, we use music and sound as a way to understand the urgency of current issues in environmentalism and ecology. Using listening as an ethical practice, we will explore music in classical, popular, and experimental veins. We will hear sounds created by both American composers and artists from around the globe, and we will also dig into our personal and community soundscapes. Drawing on recent themes in the growing field of Ecomusicology, we will seek to deepen our understanding of how we relate to the environment and become more aware of the central place of sound and the environment in our lives.