MUS1135H: Music, Sound, and the Environment

Aural architecture and noise pollution. Talking rivers and screaming microbes. Underwater listening, sound walking, and hearing heat. Bird song, bug rhythm, and cross-species composition. This course examines how humans and other organisms use sound to express, construct, conserve, and harm the environment. We will engage with scholarship across disciplines — including work in ecomusicology, soundscape ecology, sensory ethnography, and bioacoustics — as well as with electroacoustic composition, sonic art, and everyday sound-based practices. We will also consider pressing issues for the humanistic study of the environment, and reflect on the value and ethics of an acoustic approach. This course is open to students with any disciplinary background. Proficiency in music is not required.

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