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;
• an ability to undertake scholarly work using bibliographic tools and discussion/analysis of primary sources.

Four short assignments due throughout the semester of 400 words each (5% each); mid-semester written-up class presentation of 1200 words (40%); one take-home examination essay of 2000 words (40%) due during the examination period.

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

This subject is not available as a breadth subject.

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.