INQ-271 | Music as Mirror

Full Title: Music as Mirror of Culture and the Sacred

Topic Description:

How have musicians handled tensions and debates between faith and reason in the music they create? How have the roles of sacred music in Western society changed over the past 500 years? What are the possibilities (and challenges) to musicians when composing music for sacred purposes? This course examines how music reflects changes in society and culture across time from the perspective of the sacred. Music offers a lens through which we can understand the metamorphoses of politics, religion, economics, and philosophical thinking. Movements, practices, and repertories covered include major western events like the Reformation, Enlightenment, and life after World Wars I and II. Contemporary examples will explore issues related to the potential for expressing the sacred in today's global world.

Counts as Global? No

Topic Approved: May 2021