Music stimulates our emotions and enriches our daily lives. It circumvents barriers of language and culture, and communes directly with our shared sense of aesthetics. What makes music so recognizable across cultures despite the use of different scales, instruments, and techniques? In this course, you will explore the physics of sound and how one’s perception transforms waves of pressure into music. You will learn how different instruments gives rise to different sets of overtones, affecting both timbre and tuning. You will explore different systems of tuning in western music, and contrast these with musical scales from around the globe. This course is designed for non-science majors and geared toward a general audience; no musical or scientific background is required. Topics courses are 2 or 4 credit, in-depth, thematic courses that may be repeated for credit under a different theme. May be repeated up to two times for a maximum of 12 credits. GE: Natural Science
- Teacher: Daniel Gallimore