MUSIC & MYTH

The course explores the relationship between music and myth in Western culture, with particular emphasis on the role that mythological narratives continued to play in societies where rituals and other forms of symbolic behavior were gradually displaced and abandoned. Greek civilization provided the model for a dramatic representation of human behavior rooted in the union of music and myth. Despite the decline of ritual in modern Western societies, the model of ancient tragedy continued to inspire ritual-like performances of mythological themes in complex literary, musical, and theatrical works. We will develop in-depth analyses of myths
that gave rise to particularly influential and rich musical traditions, including those of Odysseus, Orpheus, Oedipus, Ariadne, and Semele, as well as Wagner’s use of Norse mythology. In the process, we will investigate how myths were borrowed, adapted, reinterpreted, transformed, or recreated within the context of changing cultural configurations and against the backdrop of different claims about the meaning of the knowledge preserved and transmitted as myth.