What is "contexts": Why you will love this class!

Published on Sep 08, 2016

The first presentation for MU100 Music and Its Contexts. . 2016

PRESENTATION OUTLINE

What is "Contexts"

Why This Class is Great
Photo by robynejay

Music begins before modern humans as a form of proto-language

It was probably what made us so incredibly linked and social. .that's right, group singing. .we sang together before we could tell one another that we were cool, had a new phone, or played the bassoon. We sang. .more like we hummed, but it was specific, complex, and deeply emotive.

Today music and its worlds are extremely complex, layered, and dense

That is music can be very hard to figure out. . . what does it mean? So, to explore this question we break it down into contexts:
Photo by michael.heiss

We take things apart to understand how they work

Most of your schooling has been about reducing things to their component parts in order to understand how the parts work together: Language, mathematics, biological and physical, and social systems all fall easily into way of studying. (Note this is not what Heidegger meant by "deconstruction.")

Photo by Brett Jordan

We put things together to understand what they mean
-David Frimmer

The way we look at things in this class is to put our main topic and area of expertise -- Music -- together with its many worlds, its many attachments. . . these attachments are perceived by us, the music makers, the music receivers, the musicians.

Contexts is great because, here in our classroom every week, we address the big question:
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What does it all mean?
Contexts is all about meaning.

The question "What Does it All Mean?" Gives rise to smaller but no less important questions . .. the big questions for all of us. .

The Big Questions

  • Why am I here?
  • Why Music?
  • Does any of this actually matter?
  • How do I succeed?
Photo by walknboston

Contexts

  • Music and Ethnicity
  • Music and Gender
  • Music and Belief
  • Music and Power
  • Music and Healing
  • Music and Performance
  • And more. . .
  • (Asian Choir)
In no other class will you get to listen and study across such a broad swath of human experience.

Success

  • Keep up: reading, listening, and online
  • Team up, talk, discuss, reflect and contemplate
  • Explore and keep an open mind.
  • Bring your best.
  • (Asian Bank)
Success in this class really means that you are gaining an understanding about what music means, not only to you, but to other people through various perspectives.

Concerns

  • Ask a TA
  • Ask a Prof
  • Use email judiciously
  • Come to class (maybe you're not the only one)
  • MLS - My Learning Space
  • (Asian Baby)
Photo by SodanieChea

Open Mind
Open Ears
Keep it Fun!

Gerard Yun

Haiku Deck Pro User