ENROLL

Brooke H McCorkle

From Beethoven to Tuvan throat singing, music from all over the world frequently depicts nature and humans’ relationships with it. Yet, music has also historically contributed to the destruction of the environment. In the western medieval world, flocks of sheep were raised and slaughtered to make precious vellum to write notes upon, pythons used to make Japanese shamisen have become endangered, and more recently, the carbon footprint of streaming and downloading music online has grown exponentially. How might we as music consumers and concerned global citizens intervene? In this course we will think critically about the history of music technologies and their impact on the environment in our quest to imagine a sustainable music culture. 

Held for incoming first year students