MU280

MU

280

Living on the Edge of the Past: Literature and Music

Active

Humanities

Block Seminar

Traditional

Letter Grades, S/CR/NC, Audit

CLAI, CLCP

In this course we will study the role of music and musical instruments in museums, considering both the literal and figurative “museumification” of music. We will explore a particular moment in musical history through the lens of material culture studies and design an exhibition using instruments from that period. We will investigate shifting reception histories and issues of performance practices as well as new ideas in critical organologydealing with the agency of musical instruments and the complex networks of which they are a part. Students will gain hands-on experience in museums, learning from curators and restoration specialists about the challenges they face when dealing with musical instruments as museum objects (e.g. How should they be displayed, and what story does it tell? To play or not to play?). The concept of “authenticity” serves as athrough-line in this course, continuously bringing our discussions back to the question of what it means for something (a piece of music, an instrument) to be an “original.” Open to all students.