WRTG 2080 - Writing about Music

This course is designed as an opportunity to explore the power of music and its relationship with writing and rhetoric traditions. Over the course of the class, students investigate the contours of that relationship—from music’s power to influence our personal tastes and transverse the depths of our cultural ideals, to its ability to represent and communicate emotions that are otherwise difficult to express. The class also provides students an opportunity to focus on the difficult but rewarding task of attempting to bridge the gap between language and music. Students study the art of writing about music, and in so doing, learn to use language to describe what makes music so indescribable.