There’s no music if there’s no listener. In 1985, composer Luciano Berio stated that music is ‘everything one listens to with the intention of listening to music.’ What, then, is listening to music about, how does it work and why? Music: Listening & Philosophy will train you in discussing such questions; and update your listening habits. After this course, music will never be the same again …
Music exists when it sounds. Yet we rarely consider the ways we listen to it. It’s this blind spot in our culture that Music: Listening & Philosophy explores. Because listening is your one and only tool to determine which music you like, and why. And because experiencing the world is your one and only tool to understand it.
Now that may sound a bit big – but then, music actually is. Indeed, being aware of how you listen to music may teach you a thing or two about your perception of the world at all. The point is simple enough: if we agree that music sounds, we acknowledge that it moves in time. Listening hence is a performative act, just like thinking, feeling, living: it is something that you do.
In order to not lift off in thin philosophical air, the course Music: Listening & Philosophy is designed to keep things practical. Of course Plato and Aristotle, Kant and Derrida will be mentioned (their thinking is amazing), but the most important philosophers in the course are Susanne Langer, Susan Sontag, and Salomé Voegelin. They deconstruct conventional thinking in very attractive and convincing ways. You may even be inspired to think a bit like them.
Also, we will listen a lot together. In class, using a quite nice high-end sound system. But often also guided by guest lecturers in other venues, including Jacob Lekkerkerker, former director of music at Oude Kerk Amsterdam, and singer Mariëlle Woltring, aka Lavalu, who combines pop, jazz and her very own way of making music in an enthusing way. Their workshops, most of them taking place in the Orgelpark, a music venue near the Vondelpark, are known to help students discover their own creativity in music.
Music: Listening & Philosophy is accessible to any student that takes part in the Honours Programme; no special musical or artistic talents are required, apart from being a dedicated music listener and having an open mind, prepared to push one’s musical limits. Attendance is essential, though: it is easy to lose touch with the course when missing classes.
For more information and course details, go to 'Curriculum' at the top of the page.