Expressing Music

Seminar List • Abstract • Preparation • Main Text

Music and Expression

This seminar considers what music can express and the ways in which it expresses them - what it requires from the listener, how much impact such requirements have on the music itself.

Preparation

Consider the following questions and ideas:

• How and why music expresses things
• What can it express?
• If it can express anything, how does it do it?
• Different cultures, different musics do not necessarily work across boundaries (at least, not without us making the effort to understand them).
• Does this mean that if music expresses anything it depends on the understanding of the listener?
• What is the nature of this understanding?
• Find out about memes and how they might impact on this matter.

Prepare in your mind some points based on these considerations.

Main Text

Main text (not usually available until after the lecture).