Topic for Winter 2014: History of Recorded Sound
Since the late nineteenth century the history of music has been inextricably tied to the history of recorded sound. In this course we will study the early history of sound recording, focusing on the media and repertoire of the early recording industry, and examining the impact of recorded sound on practices of composing, performing, and listening to music. To supplement our analysis of historical recordings and tape music compositions we will read and discuss essays and articles by composers and performers, as well as material and cultural histories of recorded sound.

Topic for Spring 2014: Music and Memory
An exploration of the diverse ways that musical creation, practice, and reception are bound up with memory. We will examine music and ideas from the Middle Ages to the present, focusing on the ways music can function as, be affected by, create, invoke, and interrogate memory.