2023-24 Academic Catalog

This course examines the causes, methods and logic behind attempts to censor music by governments, commercial corporations and religious authorities through guided listening, reading, and writing assignments. Lectures focus first on the "entartete musik" of Nazi Germany. Contemporary cases of music censorship are then selected from a wide range of countries, including the United States, South Africa, and Russia. The music studied includes that by Pussy Riot, Paul Simon, Pete Seeger, and Richard Wagner.