Daniel Galbreath

Clay Fellow | Honors Course

Our world is saturated with sounds; most carry baggage of connotation and meaning. The sounds we associate with ourselves - with our bodies, our activities, our tastes, our histories - and with others shoulder especially heavy connotative burdens. This class will explore the human activity in which those sounds are organized into long-lasting, meaningful cultural artifacts: music. Despite music’s importance in how many of us describe our identity, we seldom take a broader view of its role in the construction of identity.  Contemporary writing about music across genres has expanded beyond “absolute,” analytical ideas, into the lived and social experience of creating and hearing music. The intersection of music and various identities – national, gender, or sexual orientation, for instance – has been become increasingly important. This class will invite students to examine how music and identities interact, while examining the sound of a student’s personal and intellectual identity. Our readings and discussions will be approachable to students of all majors: musicians will appreciate the opportunity to dig into their field from a novel perspective, while nonmusicians will bring their own knowledge and expertise to bear on a ubiquitous part of our human experience.