Thinking through Music and the Arts
Overview
Immersion in the Duke departments and programs in music and the arts is an important backdrop for this new Focus cluster that brings artists and musicians to the classroom, as well as taking students to performances in music, theatre, film, and visual arts. The opportunity to combine research, writing and performance will allow students to begin their Duke career in a robust and profound fashion. Courses include lectures in global musical traditions, musical & artistic identities and entrepreneurship, conducting, ethnomusicology, instrumentation, composition, choreography, fine arts from historical and contemporary perspectives, theatre, documentary studies and film, and dance. The IDC seminar will include integrated dinner discussion and participation in events hosted by Duke Performances.
Courses
Music 190FS/Art History 190FS/Cultural Anthropology 190FS/Documentary Studies 190FS - Knowing through Music and the Arts (ALP, CCI, SS)
John Brown, Vice Provost for the Arts; Professor of the Practice of Music
Introduction to fundamental concepts and approaches to the study of music, theatre, dance, documentary film studies, art history, creative writing and performance. Students will have the opportunity to do original research in their field of choice, while also working with a group of Duke and Triangle faculty from across different areas of the Arts at Duke.
Writing 199FS/Dance 199FS/Music 199FS/Theatre Studies 199FS - Writing about Performance (ALP, SS, W, R)
Marcia Rego, Associate Professor of the Practice of Thompson Writing Program
Inquiry into the concept of "performance" broadly construed; not only as it refers to "staged" concerts or plays, but as social ritual and as self-presentation, appropriately situated in cultural context. Writing experiments aimed at capturing the ephemerality of live performance, with attention to how meaning is enacted through movement, sound, lighting, rhythm, voice, emotion, and audience interaction. Regular writer's workshops and field trips to theater, dance, and musical performances. Students compose critical reviews and a research project on a performance genre, an artist's approach, or other related topic of their choosing.