Instructor: Matthew Mugmon
Tue | 1:00 PM - 1:50 PM | In Person
The world beyond planet Earth has long captured the imaginations of creative artists in music. In this seminar, we will investigate the ways in which musical thinkers and creators, and their audiences and communities, have evoked or drawn on ideas about stars, skies, planets, galaxies, and other aspects of the cosmos across musical traditions and in many genres. In doing so, we will consider how musical explorations of the heavens have reflected human beings’ perspectives on the world around them and their place in it, in various contexts. This includes ideas about how heavenly bodies interact with life on earth, our musical interactions as a species with our ideas of life beyond earth, and how music has served as a metaphor for natural processes on a massive scale. In the process, students will gain a basic knowledge of the night sky from an observer’s point of view (I am an amateur astronomer who is excited to serve as a stellar tour guide), and will be able to better understand the scientific and creative perspectives of those who, over centuries, have drawn creative inspiration from the cosmos.