HON 266 - Sound and Spirit

Prerequisite, admission to the University Honors Program. This course will explore the relationship of music and spirituality focusing on important questions: What is the unique quality of music that makes it the art form most essential to transcendent experience? How have different religions used music to achieve transcendence and express the divine? How are significant works in the western classical canon related to their roots in communal spiritual practice? And how do non-western traditions articulate the music / spirituality connection? The course will consider major works of the western classical tradition that span over 250 years and reflect different approaches to this relationship. We will also engage in experiential learning, as students engage with music in various spiritual contexts. Each week we will engage in one of Pauline Oliveros’s Sonic Meditations (1974) - a way of connecting to each other and more deeply with the musical experience as well as critiquing conventional religious practices. Additionally, students will attend a musical event and make a class presentation. (Offered as needed.) 3 credits