Music in the Present (216-0-1)
Instructors
Ryan Dohoney
ryan.dohoney@northwestern.edu
Office Hours: Email instructor to arrange a meeting.
Professor Dohoney teaches courses in ethnomusicology, experimental music, US and African popular music, music in Cold War culture, queer music studies, and sound studies. He is currently at work on two book projects: a historical ethnography of the premier of Morton Feldman's <i>Rothko Chapel</i> and a study of New York City's music scene in the 1970s and 1980s written through the musical networks of experimental composer-performer Julius Eastman. His work as a composer of collaborative experimental music theater works has been presented at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Chicago Cultural Center, Portland Center Stage, Performance Works Northwest, and Robert Wilson's Byrd-Hoffman Watermill Center.
Meeting Info
Regenstein Hall of Music MCR: Tues, Thurs 9:30AM - 10:50AM
Overview of class
This course explores contemporary music through its circulation, reception, and mediation. Examples are drawn from Western art, popular, and global musical genres though we will explore how all these musics share, at least in part, similar modes of distribution. In the first unit we will learn how recording technologies and globalizing initiatives have fundamentally reshaped musical practices in the past hundred years. We will learn how musical commodities have been gradually rematerialized, transformed from radio broadcasts, vinyl records, and compact discs which have in turn been supplanted by streaming data flowing from server farms.
The second unit of the course focuses on how the use of new technologies have led to changes in listening practices and aesthetics. We will think about personal listening habits, the 'soundtracking' of everyday life, and the uses of music for emotional management. We will also consider changes in musical taste from hierarchical aesthetics based on high/low distinctions to forms of 'omnivorous' listening. We'll consider how these changes in aesthetics have impacted concert music institutions and produced more permeable boundary between commercial genres and traditionally classical ensembles.
The final unit of the course will explore how musicians have responded to the changes in technology and listening practices. Drawing on a range of institutions, ensembles, and record labels, we will examine how musicians create sustainable communities by both harnessing and resisting new technologies and aesthetic values.
Learning Objectives
Students will learn how to turn their musical abilities and listening skills to broader cultural analysis as well as how the study of music in contemporary life yields powerful insights into the way we live now.
Teaching Method
Lecture, in-class discussion, hands-on activities
Evaluation Method
Quizzes, short essays, exams, group work, discussion posts
Class Materials (Suggested)
No materials are required for purchase.
Class Attributes
Literature & Fine Arts Distro Area