Electronic Chamber Music Concert in Detroit
Electronic Chamber Music Concert in Detroit
Academic Year:
2014 - 2015 (June 1, 2014 through May 31, 2015)
Funding Requested:
$500.00
Project Dates:
-
Applicant(s):
Overview of the Project:
The goal of Electronic Chamber Music (PAT 413) is for students to gain understanding of important movements in the history of electronic music. Each year, the course focuses on a musical theme, with which students engage through reading, listening, composition, and performance. The theme for 2015 is "Techno"—students will explore the technologically mediated dance music that originated in urban centers in the U.S. and Europe, including Detroit. For this project, the class will hold a free, public concert in Detroit, for which students will compose, perform and produce all the music. Detroit being the birthplace of Techno, this is a natural fit, but the concert offers significant educational opportunities. Performing in front of a large, public audience will foster a different kind of engagement with the subject. Listening, reading, and composing are important modalities for learning about music; active engagement with the music through performing will be an invaluable complement to promote experiential, embodied learning. The event will also use music to broach a number of complex and vexing cultural, social, and aesthetic topics. In preparing for the concert, we will inevitably discuss questions of race, class, poverty, privilege, urban renewal, and gentrification. These issues are inherent in the music the students are studying, but producing a concert in Detroit will bring them to the fore in ways that would not otherwise be possible. The process of creating, composing, and presenting music will offer an outlet for students to creatively and critically express themselves on these subjects beyond discussion.