Music: The Medium and the Message - 20043

Our experience of music, whether by Beethoven, Billie Holiday, the Beatles or the Bad Plus, consists of the emotions and subjective impressions communicated and inspired by the arrangement of sounds. As in verbal communication, both the sounds themselves and the particular method of organizing them determine these effects. In MUSC 114 , the focus is on the vocabulary, grammar and syntax of this language of sound (the message). In PHYS 107 , the focus is on the actual sounds themselves, in terms of their mathematical and physical relationships (the medium). Studying musical material from both these perspectives deepens our understanding and appreciation of this essentially mysterious phenomenon.