MUS2651 – Music and the environment
Course description
Course content
What is the relationship between music and the environment? Music has been thought of as "the sound of circulation in Nature’s veins" and likened to "the clutter of the unkempt forest." It has evoked breathtaking landscapes and voiced environmentalist criticism. But music has also contributed to noise pollution, and it has generated tons of greenhouse gas emissions. Indeed, music has always been a significant exploiter of both natural and human resources.
This course is about the history of musical thought and scholarship on the environment. It is equally about the history, current state, and future of the relationship between music and the environment. We will learn about foundational fields such as acoustic ecology and soundscape studies as well as emerging fields such as ecomusicology and the environmental humanities.
Learning outcome
On passing this course, students will be able to:
1. Critically analyze relationships between music and the environment, drawing upon:
- A range of musical genres and practices since the nineteenth century and around the world
- A range of traditions of critical thought both within and without musicology as such acoustic ecology, soundscape studies, political ecology, and environmental humanities
2. Describe and evaluate the broad history and development of music’s relationship to the environment in theory and practice, including:
- How these histories manifest in past and present musical practices.
- Questions arising from environmental studies, soundscape studies, and infrastructural media studies.
3. Outline and participate in current debates, explain different theoretical and academic positions, concepts, and methodologies relevant to musical and environmental research, in forms such as:
- Short critical written summaries of key literature
- Oral presentation and discussion
- Scholarly essay in the form of a white paper
Admission to the course
Students who are admitted to study programmes at UiO must each semester register which courses and exams they wish to sign up for in Studentweb.
If you are not already enrolled as a student at UiO, please see our information about admission requirements and procedures.
Overlapping courses
- 10 credits overlap with MUS4651 – The Political Ecology of Music (discontinued).
Teaching
- 8 double lectures
- 4 double periods of seminars
The seminars will be held after the lecture sequence. They will consist of discussions and clarifications of course concepts, workshopping essay ideas, developing writing and presentation techniques. The oral examinations will also be held during seminar time.
Compulsory activities
- Qualification Assessment 1 (English or Norwegian): three short critical summaries on core readings of the student`s choice, with their submissions distributed evenly throughout the semester (i.e. approximately one critical summary per month). Students should submit their summaries after the core readings have been presented and discussed in class, so that they may incorporate class discussion into their own commentaries.
- Qualification Assessment 2: Oral presentation (English): a 10-minute presentation on the research for their final essays, followed by 5 minutes of class discussion.
Information about the qualification assessments and the deadlines will be given during the teaching and in Canvas. You must hand in the assessments by the deadlines and you are responsible for familiarising yourself with the requirements for the qualification assessments.
Read more about compulsory activities here.
Apply for a valid absence from compulsory activity or attendance.
Examination
Term paper
The main assessment for this course is an essay of 10 pages, each consisting of approximately 2300 characters (spaces not included). Students who choose to submit creative/practical components (see below) will write half as many pages. The essay asks students to experiment with environmental ideas that may lead toward post-catastrophic musical media, instruments, or performance practices.This could take place in the future tense—imagining new music technologies and forms of music-making. But students may also reimagine how music’s environmental and human consequences could have been mitigated in the past.
Students may also choose to include a creative/practical component that illustrates how post-catastrophic media might work. Creative/practical components may include recordings, videos, devices, and so on—as long as the creative component may be submitted for assessment. In cases where students choose to include a creative component, the creative component will account for half of the overall grade for the written examination. This means that students are expected to spend half of the time they would on the essay in developing the creative component.
In any case, the essay component will take the form of a white paper on the future of music. "White paper" is defined here as a concise report on a complex issue that is designed to provide information and offer proposals that allow readers to solve a problem, make a decision, or take action. Students who submit creative components must base their white paper on that component.
You must fulfill the requirement for compulsory activities to submit the exam.
The grading guidelines for MUS2651 can be found here.
Language of examination
You may write your examination paper in Norwegian, Swedish, Danish or English.
Grading scale
Grades are awarded on a scale from A to F, where A is the best grade and F is a fail. Read more about the grading system.
Resit an examination
More about examinations at UiO
- Use of sources and citations
- Special exam arrangements due to individual needs
- Withdrawal from an exam
- Illness at exams / postponed exams
- Explanation of grades and appeals
- Resitting an exam
- Cheating/attempted cheating
You will find further guides and resources at the web page on examinations at UiO.