2023-24 Academic Catalog

In the liner notes to his Ambient 1: Music for Airports, Brian Eno claims that ambient music “should accommodate many levels of listening attention without enforcing one in particular; it must be as ignorable as interesting.” In this class, we will investigate what we can learn from listening intently to that which is meant to sound in the background. While we will discuss the ambient as a genre, we will also consider its broader implications on how we experience music in everyday life. Our study of the repertoire will be paired with critical readings on ambient music and immersive sound. Prerequisite: The ability to read music and a previous music course, or instructor consent