Honors 394–Exploring the Power of Music

This class with Deborah Pierce explored the power of music.  We got a quick overview of the vast interdisciplinary behemoth of music–tastes of performance, history, neuroscience, physics, and anthropology.  The class performed what are best termed “music experiments”–such as chanting our names, giving people a “hum bath,” making odd sounds in an echoey stairwell.   While this class didn’t give me a depth of knowledge in one area, it inspired wonder and made me much happier.  I tried different genres of music than I am used to, and would experiment with my voice every time I left class.  It made me start analyzing how I make music and dance, which led me to present a report on what goes through swing-dancers’ heads along with a live demonstration.

(Winter 2015)