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Crosslistings: MUSC 294 |
The development of systems for the storage, reproduction, and distribution of sound as well as for the analysis and synthesis of sound have enabled fundamental changes in musical life and the study of music as well as
entirely
new forms of auditory culture. As music publishers evolved into music recording companies, recording engineers and producers became artists. The impulse to make ethnographic recordings of vanishing musical cultures
provided
a starting point for the development of ethnomusicology and the concept of world music. In film, the interplay of dialogue, music, and sound-effects has become a complex, yet readily understood, language termed 'sound
design'.
Artistic response to these changing conditions has not been one of unequivocal approval. John Cage first conceived of a 'silent piece' as a silent recording to be inserted into the constant stream of Muzak. R.
Murray
Schafer's term 'schizophonia' refers to the separation of a physical sound from its electroacoustic manifestations (via amplification, recording, or broadcast) in pathological terms. John Oswald's 'Plunderphonics' are
meticulously
documented appropriations from other recordings reworked with great invention and savage humor. As a compact disc that could not be legally sold, it presented the mirage of a musical recording that in a very literal
sense
cannot become a commodity.
The course will review the history of recording as an artistic practice through readings, listenings, and discussion while teaching the techniques of recording and sound design required
to create
your own.
COURSE FORMAT: Seminar
Level: UGRD Credit: 1 Gen Ed Area Dept: HA CHUM Grading Mode: Graded
Prerequisites: NONE
Last Updated on MAR-19-2004
Copyright Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, 06459