Music to Hear on Here: Final Essay Music Selection "Clair de Lune" by Debussy

Saturday, December 10, 2011

Final Essay Music Selection "Clair de Lune" by Debussy

I thought it would be cute to post my song selection considering there's going to be a lunar eclipse this morning.

Glad to have been able to share a space and conversate with all of you this semester. I've really never encountered such an articulate and simultaneously rowdy set of individuals in many moons. For those finishing up, happy writing!

-Elaine

3 comments:

BirneyDecember 12, 2011 at 12:21 PM
+1
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Sarah MDecember 12, 2011 at 1:51 PM
The connection to the eclipse could not have been more perfect, Elaine!
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NADDAFFDecember 13, 2011 at 1:10 PM
Yes! Great connection.
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Course Description

"Writing about music is like dancing about architecture." Martin Mull (or Elvis Costello)

Thinking about the meaning and value, intellectual, affective and neurological experiences, and aesthetics of music has occupied an important position in modern and contemporary philosophical writings. Central to the philosophy of music is a questioning of what music is insofar as it is an art form and practice, akin to but different from other arts, such as drama, literature, painting, sculpture, to name but a few examples. Claims have been made, in fact, that music’s effect, when performed and listened to, surpasses those of the other arts because of its abstact purity, of its universality, and of its singular capacity to express, represent and incite emotions. This course will explore such issues in 19th-20th century philosophy. We will begin with introductory readings of what composes the field and discipline of the philosophy of music. We will read—among other philosophers, novelists, critics and musicologists—Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Barthes and Adorno’s writings on music. Finally, we will have the occasion to read about and listen to specific musicians, both high and low, and explore the contexts of their work, concentrating on the historical and political dimensions of the practice, performance and art of making music.