Sex, Death and the Ecstatic in Music

This subject is not offered in 2014.

120 hours

AMEB Grade 5 or equivalent, or permission of the coordinator

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It is University policy to take all reasonable steps to minimise the impact of disability upon academic study, and reasonable adjustments will be made to enhance a student's participation in the University's programs. Students who feel their disability will impact on meeting the requirements of this subject are encouraged to discuss this matter with a Faculty Student Adviser and the Disability Liaison Unit.

An examination of examples of Western music from Hildegaard to the present, including some twentieth-century “popular” songs, which contain one or all of the themes of sex, death, and the ecstatic in their compositional circumstances, title, pre-compositional intent, or lyrics (if song or aria). Consideration of these works will be viewed through perspectives from key cultural theories of the late-twentieth or early twenty-first century.

On completion of this subject students should have gained a deeper understanding of, and knowledge of contemporary attitudes towards, music that embodies the elements of sex, death, and/or the ecstatic in music.

Four short assignments of 300 words each due throughout the semester (30%); mid-semester written-up class presentation of 1200 words (30%); essay of 1600 words due one week after the end of semester (40%).

A reading pack will be available for purchase from the Melbourne University Bookshop before the start of semester.

This subject potentially can be taken as a breadth subject component for the following courses:

• Bachelor of Arts
• Bachelor of Biomedicine
• Bachelor of Commerce
• Bachelor of Environments
• Bachelor of Science

You should visit learn more about breadth subjects and read the breadth requirements for your degree, and should discuss your choice with your student adviser, before deciding on your subjects.

On completion of this subject students should have developed:

• a capacity for independent critical thought
• an openness to new ideas
• knowledge, skills and practices which provide a basis for independent critical inquiry and research-based writing.