MUS 217. Soundscapes

COURSE PROPOSAL

• Proposed field of study: FSVP

• Course number and title: MUS 217. Soundscapes.

• How this course fulfills the purpose of the field of study, as defined by the General Education Curriculum. During the FYS institute we participated in an exercise intended to help us disentangle visual inferences from observations. The pedagogical value of this experience appeared self-explanatory; developing ‘visual literacy’ seems a logical component of enhancing students’ critical thinking skills. While ‘audile literacy’ could be similarly valuable, listening is rarely opened to critical inquiry in general education contexts, possibly because it seems to be a more implicit mode of behavior than are reading or viewing and because many assume that considering sound (and especially music) might require specialized skill sets or talent. This visual bias is a testament to the primacy the eye has enjoyed over the ear in Western culture since the Enlightenment. But listening is just as cultural as reading or viewing and should therefore be susceptible to the same kinds of introductory deconstructive activities. Although the proposed class will impart the specialized disciplinary knowledge related to sound studies, acoustics and ethnomusicology, it is primarily intended to help students consider, in a more generalized way, the prejudices we bring to all sounds. This course will be interdisciplinary in nature, connecting themes and methodologies from music studies, anthropology, acoustics, environmental studies and anthropology. Students will conduct soundscape analyses of various spaces around Richmond as we ask questions such as: What does privilege sound like? What is the soundtrack of late capitalism? How are soundscapes constructed and what do they mean? This course will be tightly coordinated with residencies by leading composers and performers. For the Spring 2013 iteration we will work closely with Eighth Blackbird, UR’s Grammy award winning ensemble in residence and the award winning environmental composer John Luther Adams to stage his monumental environmental composition Inuksuit. Students will also have the opportunity to perform the aleatoric music of John Cage as we celebrate his centennial in a special concert series. Future residencies and themes will build upon the wide range of possibilities of a course devoted to sound, broadly conceived, affords.

• Catalog description: A consideration of sound, broadly conceived. Students will analyze local soundscapes and transformations in the meanings of sound, noise and silence in contemporary American culture using the methodologies of sound studies and ethnomusicology. Students will perform experimental and ecological compositions by composers including John Cage and John Luther Adams. No previous music experience necessary.

1 • Course prerequisite(s): None. No previous music experience necessary.

• Full description of the course: Sound waves permeate your world. In 2003, astronomers discovered that the universe itself vibrates in the key of B flat (57 octaves below middle C). You have been listening since before you were born and you continue to listen while you sleep; you cannot shut your ears as you can your eyes. But sound’s ubiquity has made us remarkably good at tuning it out. This class is intended to re-tune your ears to the complex sounds around you, all of which carry complex meanings. We will listen to and analyze our soundscapes and consider the implications of changing ideas of sound, noise, and silence for modern music. Students will perform experimental compositions by contemporary composers concerned with the nature of sound, noise and silence. No previous music experience necessary.

• Proposed syllabus: See attached syllabus.

• Reading list: See attached syllabus.

• Statement of course objectives: See attached syllabus.

• Full details of how the course will be taught. This course will be taught by a single full time faculty member with regular appearances by ensembles, composers and performers in residence. The majority of the time will be spent in discussion sessions in the classroom. However, students will have the opportunity to listen and record soundscapes both across campus and at sites throughout Richmond. The second half of the semester will involve more activities outside of the classroom, including constructing soundscape installations and participating in performances.

• Number of units. 1.

• Typical estimated enrollment: 20.

• How often and by whom the course will be offered. Minimum once every two years. Maximum once a year. Offered by Dr. McGraw.

• Staffing implications for the school/department/unit. This course will serve as a 200 level elective for music majors and minors while, as it has no prerequisites, will serve all undergraduates seeking to fulfill their FSVP Gen-ed.

• Adequacy of library, technology and other resources. Adequate.

• Any interdepartmental and interschool implications. This course could be cross-listed in anthropology, communication studies, and environmental studies.

• Contact person. Andrew McGraw x1807. [email protected]

3 MUS 202 SOUNDSCAPES Spring Term 2013

Instructor: Dr. Andrew McGraw Office: Webb 103, x1807 Office Hours: TBA Email: [email protected] Class meets: TBA (M/W Preferred) Location: TBA

We do not have earlids. Unlike vision, our brains receive continuous, sometimes overwhelming auditory input, even during sleep, even before we are born. As a result, we become virtuosic at “tuning out” many of the sounds that enter our ears. But every sound carries information. Most sounds are culturally meaningful, even if we register their meanings only at a subconscious level. Sounds intersect social categories of race, class, gender, age, etc. Privilege and poverty have their sounds. The sound of capitalism is encoded in the compression of the MP3 in which bandwidth itself has become monetized. In most cultures there is an obvious auditory distinction between secular and sacred space. Sounds help to define ethical communities: from the village bells of Medieval Europe to the Arab street and its amplified calls to prayer to the muzak in the Mall of America. While students are encouraged to develop skills in ‘critical reading’ and ‘visual literacy,’ we rarely consider the possibility of ‘critical listening,’ a testament to the primacy the eye has had over the ear in Western culture since the Enlightenment and the invention of the printing press. Prior to this time, most information was delivered acoustically: the town crier, the bard’s song, the word of God. Today the sonic appears ascendant in the metaphors used in modern physics: the “waves” of quantum particles, the vibrating “strings” connecting higher dimensions and parallel universes. Modern astronomers have discovered that black holes and the universe itself have a “pitch” (B-flat, 57 octaves below middle C). Modern technology has made possible the highly individualized experience of music. We listen to any sound we choose to consume in the private space bounded by earbuds. To consider the new meanings of all this sound/noise/music we must develop our critical listening abilities. This class is a critical introduction to the soundscape. We will listen intently to the sounds of local spaces and consider the relationship between sound and architecture, urban planning, and landscape design. We will consider the concept of “acoustic ecology” and the emerging philosophy of “acoustemology” and examine the interrelationship between these ideas and the evolution of Western compositional style. The first half of this course will be concerned with classic texts in the field of sound studies. We will develop an academic understanding of the field and practice its methodologies and theories on soundscapes within our own experience. The second half of this course will be more directly involved with practical activities. We will perform a work by John Cage in concert in order to understand his momentous impact on Western notions of music, sound, noise, and silence and their interrelations. We will develop an original, site-specific soundscape installation at the INTC as part of a regional ethnomusicology conference. Most importantly, we will take part in managing and performing in an important modern “ecological composition,” Inuksuit, by the award winning composer and environmentalist John Luther Adams. We will study with Adams during his residency on campus and collaborate with the Grammy Award winning Eighth Blackbird ensemble during their residencies on campus.

What questions will we be asking?

• How are sound, music and noise defined differentially? • How do a culture’s notions of sound and noise influence its styles of composition? • What is the Soundscape? • What is the relationship between the Soundscape and social categories such as class, aesthetics, race/ethnicity, age, gender, religion, etc.?

4 • What contributions can I make, as a student, to soundscape studies and environmental composition and how can I do this?

What are the objectives of this course?

• To introduce students to the field of soundscape studies, its history, and assumptions; • To introduce the concept of critical listening. • To come to a better understanding of how people hear their world and make meaning from those sounds; • To come to a better understanding of your own relationship to sound/noise/music and the meanings you draw from them; • To convince you that no sound is inherently in or out of tune, dissonant or consonant, happy or sad, good or bad or otherwise natural. That nothing about sound can be taken for granted; • To provide you with the means to clearly express, in both written and oral form, your ideas about sound and its relation to society. To be able to construct an argument, supported by evidence, that is intelligible and intelligent within the disciplinary norms of sound studies.

What kind and how much work are we expected to do in this course? • Reading. Each week you will read selections of philosophical and analytical works on the topic of sound, noise and music and their interrelations. Some readings will be dense and require rereading for the main points to be fully understood. I expect you to mark up your reading—to take careful notes, collected in an organized folder that you bring to each class as we connect the readings to the performance traditions themselves. • Performance Activities. In this class you will take part in three performance/installation activities; your grade will be partly determined by your level of participation and seriousness in these activities. These will include performance in a John Cage Centennial event (March 21), building a soundscape installation at the INTC (March 22), and participating and helping to organize the campus-wide performance of John Luther Adams’ environmental work Inuksuit (weekend of April 20th). • Listening. Several of the readings include audio examples that I expect you to take as seriously as the written material. You will need to listen closely and connect the points in the reading to the sounds you hear. • Writing. You will write two short papers (3 double spaced pages each), one a soundscape analysis and the other a response to the Cage concerts, as well as one longer paper (8 double spaced pages) based upon an original research topic related to sound studies, approved by the professor.

How are we assessed in this course? • Class, event participation. The success of this class relies on your being prepared and ready to contribute to all discussions and performing sessions. This means doing the reading, preparing coherent notes, and bringing relevant questions to our meetings. I expect you to contribute by asking thoughtful questions and by pointing out connections between the readings and class discussions and practical sessions. See note below for more on participation. I will indicate your evolving participation grade on your papers. You will all take part in three major events (Cage Centennial, Soundscape Installation, Inuksuit), described below. These are required and your level of engagement and willingness to accept responsibility for the various tasks associated with these events will be the basis of your event participation grade. • Weekly Quizzes. I will distribute very short quizzes at the beginning of class once a week (any day of the week). These are meant to encourage you to complete all of the relevant readings prior to class,

5 memorize the relevant terminology, and to make sure we are all ready to engage in discussion and practical sessions. No makeup quizzes. • Midterm. You will take a midterm on the relevant terms and analytical frames presented in class and in the readings. • 2 Short Papers. I will ask you to write two short papers (3 pages each). The first will be an analysis of a particular soundscape where you will take field notes and make recordings. You will connect your analysis to the specific concepts raised in the reading and discussions and relate your points to specific moments in the recording, which you will also submit. The second paper will be a response to the Cage concerts and your participation in them. You will explicitly connect your points to the Cage and Gann reading assignments and our discussions on Cage. In the second and third paper I want you to add a note at the end explaining how you incorporated the feedback I gave you on the previous paper. This is in the effort of helping you improve your writing and critical thinking. No late assignments accepted. • 1 Major Paper. I will ask you to write a major paper (8 pages) on a topic related to our reading, discussions and performing and to present your material to the class during the final week of classes. Your presentation must not go beyond 10 minutes (approximately 5 double-spaced pages, if read). Going over time will result in a lowered grade. Be sure to practice and time your presentation. No late assignments accepted.

[All assignments are graded anonymously. Please include only your student number on your work, handed in hard copy.]

Attendance for/in Events: Participation is required for the following events, no exceptions. Please put these in your schedule ASAP.

• Cage Centennial Concert: Thursday March 21st, 7:30 PM and dress rehearsal TBA. • Soundscape Installation. MACSEM Ethnomusicology Conference, UR INTC. Install Friday March 22nd, time TBA. • Inuksuit: Rehearsal, Saturday April 20th, 9:00 AM-5:30 PM. Performance, Sunday April 21st, 12:00- 4:00 PM.

Assignment Percentage Due Date Class Participation 15% NA Event Participation 15% NA Weekly Quizzes 10% NA Midterm 12% TBA Paper 1 (Soundscape Analysis) 14% Friday February 15th. Paper 2 (Cage) 14% Friday March 29th. Final Paper 20% Final Meeting

A grading rubric for participation:

A Your discussion comments demonstrate preparedness through a nuanced understanding of the readings. You ask well-formulated and critical questions of the text and your peers. You listen to your peers and generate constructive responses to debates. Discussion skills reflect coherent and sophisticated reasoning. You are fully engaged in our performance related activities. You step out of your comfort zone and volunteer responsibility for major tasks.

6 B Your discussion comments demonstrate that you are doing the reading and that you are able to process their basic ideas. You are able to generate satisfactory questions. You listen and respond to the comments of your peers. Whether you agree or disagree with your peers you are able to generate constructive questions using basic reasoning skills. You are engaged in our performance related activities but you stick to easier, less challenging responsibilities.

C Comments in class indicate you are doing the reading but are not making an effort to read critically: to reflect upon the broader meanings and implications of the text and to question its assumptions and methodologies. You make infrequent comments or frequent comments tangential to the discussion at hand. Your effort to synthesize the material and relate them to discussion is inadequate. You are distracted in our performance related activities and appear to be going through the motions.

D You’re in class but not doing the reading, or are pretending to do the reading. This also includes students who do not behave respectfully towards others. You are late, absent or irresponsible in our performance related activities.

A Grading Rubric for Papers

A Your prose is clear and grammatical. There are no spelling errors or clichés. Your paper is clearly aimed for an audience in an academic setting. You have a clearly stated argument supported by relevant evidence from appropriate sources that go well beyond those presented in class discussions or the syllabus. All direct quotations are crucial to your argument and are fully “unpacked” through original analysis. You consider counter claims, contradictions, and conflicting data; you do not generalize. You display considerable evidence of critical thinking (see below). There are no tangents from your main argument. Each paragraph displays logical coherence and is relevant to your argument. Paragraphs are logically ordered. Your conclusion demonstrates the implications of your argument to the broader field of knowledge. All sources are cited correctly. You are neither below the minimum nor beyond the maximum page length.

B Your prose is clear and grammatical but there are minor errors that would have been caught with a final proofreading. Your paper is largely aimed at an academic audience but may become too informal at times. You have a clearly stated argument supported by relevant evidence from appropriate sources that go beyond those presented in class discussions or the syllabus. All direct quotations are relevant to your argument but may not always be fully analyzed. You consider alternative explanations or otherwise call into question “common knowledge.” You display occasional evidence of critical thinking (see below) and make an attempt to question the assumption upon which others’ work rests. There are no major tangents from your main argument. Each paragraph displays logical coherence and is relevant to your argument. Paragraphs are logically ordered. All sources are cited correctly. You are neither below the minimum nor beyond the maximum page length.

C Your prose mostly clear and grammatical but there are several errors that would have been caught with a final proofreading. Your paper is sometimes aimed at an

7 academic audience but is too informal at times. Your argument may not be clearly stated. The evidence you marshal is not always the most relevant and may overlap too much with material presented in class discussions or the syllabus. You include some direct quotations that appear irrelevant to your argument and which are not always be fully analyzed. You rarely display evidence of critical thinking (see below). There are occasionally major tangents from your main argument. Not every paragraph displays logical coherence and some are wholly irrelevant to your argument. Paragraphs are not always logically ordered. Some sources may be cited incorrectly. You may be below the minimum page length.

D There are frequent errors of syntax and spelling. Your paper is sometimes aimed at an academic audience but is too informal at times. There is no clearly stated argument, the argument is not relevant to the prompt, or the argument lacks internal logic. Your work does not incorporate any analysis of relationships among the materials, or if it does, it makes only a cursory attempt. You include some direct quotations that are irrelevant to your argument and which appear as “padding.” You display slim evidence of critical thinking (see below). Your work does not employ vocabulary appropriate to the study of music or a sense of organization that makes the writing task clear. There are major tangents from your main topic. Few every paragraphs display logical coherence and some are wholly irrelevant to your topic. Paragraphs are not always logically ordered. Several sources may be cited incorrectly and there may be too few sources. You may be below the minimum page length.

A Rubric for Assessing Critical Thinking

Exceeds expectations Meets expectations Fails to meet expectations

Apply appropriate You apply interpretive You apply an appropriate You have misunderstood interpretive strategies relevant to interpretive strategy and the assignment or the strategies sound studies. Your demonstrate an disciplinary conventions for evidence is interpreted understanding of the interpretation, or both. with subtlety and clarity. material.

Analyze You engage in thorough You engage in You do not incorporate any relationships comparative analysis, comparative analysis analysis of relationships between drawing out relationships although at times focus on among the materials. texts/ideas. that are indicative of simple and/or superficial deeper (not simply relationships. surface level) analysis.

Evaluate the You identify and critique You call into question the You seem unaware of assumptions in the assumptions that assumptions on which assumptions. texts/ideas. underlie materials. others' work rests and make an attempt to evaluate them.

Evaluate the You can determine You are aware of You seem unaware of quality of evidence whether evidence is disciplinary standards for disciplinary standards for used in appropriate, adequate, evidence. You engage evidence or fail to evaluate

8 arguments. and/or of high quality others' arguments and call evidence before using it or within the disciplinary attention to the quality of accepting it when used by bounds of sound studies. the evidence. others

Attendance:

This course is based around discussions that cannot be “made up” outside of class. You are allowed two absences. Any additional absences will affect your participation grade. Scheduled away games are not excused absences; be sure to plan ahead! Points for each unexcused absence will be deducted from the final course grade on a progressive scale: 1-2 absences: 0 points deducted; 3-4 absences 1 point each deducted; 5-6 or more absences 2 points each deducted. More than six unexcused absences are grounds for failing the class, at the discretion of the professor. See me if you have a conflict, such as a family obligation, beforehand. Email me at least two hours before class if you will not attend due to illness. If you foresee a conflict between class requirements and a religious holiday, please discuss this with me within the first week of class, so we can work out a plan. Lateness counts against your attendance grade. Being late (10 minutes or more) three times equals an absence.

Electronic devices of any kind are not allowed in this class. Using or answering a phone or email on a computer will negatively impact your participation grade.

Honor Code and Plagiarism:

Students are expected to abide by the honor statute governing student conduct at the University of Richmond. By submitting written work for a grade, the student pledges that he or she has neither given nor received unauthorized assistance during the completion of the work and that the work is original and has not been used in a previous class.

Plagiarism, large or small, automatically results in a failing grade for an assignment and can lead to a failing grade for the course. Just as computers and the Internet make plagiarism easy nowadays, the same tools allow professors to cross-check information with as much ease. Any material not your own, quoted from any text (including course textbooks), the Internet, conversation, must appear in quotation marks and be fully cited. Double check any paraphrasing to make sure it is not too close to the original.

Required Texts:

• Schafer, Murray. 1994. The Soundscape: the Tuning of the World. Destiny Press. • Attali, Jacques. 1985. Noise: The Political Economy of Music. University of Minnesota Press. • Cage, John. 1961. Silence. Lectures and Writings by John Cage. Wesleyan. • Adams, John Luther. 2009. The Place Where You Go to Listen: In Search of an Ecology of Music. Wesleyan.

Additional material posted on blackboard.

Weekly Schedule:

Week 1: 1/14-18. Introductions. Listening to UR. Schafer. 3-87.

Week 2: 1/21-25. Elements of the Soundscape. Listening off campus.

9 Schafer. 88-180. Sterne, Jonathan. 1997. “Sounds Like the Mall of America: Programmed Music and the Architectonics of Commercial Space.” Ethnomusicology 41(1): 22-50.

Week 3: 1/28-2/1. Acoustic Communities. Schafer. 181-262. Miller, Kiri. 2007. “Jacking the Dial: Radio, Race and Place in Grand Theft Auto.” Ethnomusicology 51(3): 402-438.

Week 4: 2/4-2/8. The Political Economy of Noise/Sound/Music. Attali. 3-46. Schwartz, Hillel. 2011. Making Noise, From Babel to Big Bang & Beyond. Zone. 1-36 (Big Bang).

Week 5: 2/11-2/15. The Political Economy of Noise/Sound/Music, cont. Attali. 47-133. Schwartz, Hillel. 2011. Making Noise, From Babel to Big Bang & Beyond. Zone. 738-768 (the Fetal Sac), 794-830 (Civil Defense). One section from Schwartz of your own choosing.

Paper 1 Due: By Midnight, Friday February 15th.

Week 6: 2/25-3/1. Audile Technique, Compression. Sterne, Jonathan. 2003. The Audible Past: The Cultural Origins of Sound Reproduction. Duke. 1-87. ----. 2012. Mp3. The Meaning of a Format (Sign, Storage, Transmission). Duke. TBA. Schedule Individual Meetings with Professor on Final Paper Topics.

Week 7: 3/4-3/8. The Cageian Aesthetic. Cage. xii-76. Gann, Kyle. No Such Thing as Silence. Yale University Press. 32-71 MIDTERM

Spring Break

Week 8: 3/18-3/22. Performing Cage. 8BB Residency. Concert Participation: Cage Centennial I. Thursday, March 21. 7:30 PM. Camp Concert Hall. Soundscape Installation: MACSEM Ethnomusicology Conference, UR INTC. Friday, time TBA.

Week 9: 3/25-29. The Cageian Aesthetic and Mycology. Cage. 109-275. Gann, Kyle. No Such Thing as Silence. Yale University Press. 71-121, 1-32. Required Concert Attendance: Cage Centennial II. Wednesday, March 27. 7:30 PM. Camp Concert Hall.

Paper 2 Due: By Midnight, Friday March 29th.

Week 10: 4/1-4/5. Blesser, Barry and Ruth Linda Salter. 2009. Spaces Speak, Are You Listening? Experiencing Aural Architecture. MIT. 1-11, 12-67, 275-361.

Week 11: 4/8-4/12. An Ecology of Music.

10 Adams. TBA.

Week 12: 4/15-4/19. 8BB Residency. An Ecology of Music. Adams. TBA. Inuksuit:

• Inuksuit: rehearsal, management. Saturday, April 20th. 9:00 AM-1:00 PM. 2:00-5:30 PM. • John Luther Adams talk: “In Search of an Ecology of Music,” Camp Concert Hall, 7:30 PM. • Inuksuit Performance: Sunday April 21st: 12:00-4:00 PM.

Week 13: 4/22-4/26 Monday, April 22. John Luther Adams Class Visit. Wrap up, Reflections and Paper Presentations.