“Listening” occupies a special place in Japanese cultures. Indications abound in literature, folklore, and everyday practices that listening has been nurtured as a multisensory experience and that it encompasses a wide range of phenomena. Whether it be in the haiku poetry reading, religious ceremony, political protest, or mundane activity, listening enables people to transcend spatiotemporal boundaries, connect with the intangible and the invisible, and engage in the world and life in a deeper philosophical consciousness. This course explores Japanese sound cultures, with special attention to the underlying unique conceptions of “listening”: how have people in Japan cultivated distinct sensibilities in listening, and how, in turn, such sensibilities have constituted Japanese sound cultures. Course materials (readings and case studies for analysis) are drawn from diverse sources across different art forms and history, e.g., literature, architecture, theater, film, martial arts, contemporary popular culture media, as well as quotidian sound-making and listening activities.
“Listening to Japanese Sound Cultures” is not a Japanese music or culture survey course. This is a sound studies course, focusing on the practice of listening, which is intertwined with various creative and expressive processes, in particular.* No previous training in music is necessary to take this course, but the required coursework includes listening exercises, sound analysis assignments, occasional virtual hands-on and group activities in the spirit of “listening by doing.” Through these exercises, selected readings, and class discussion, students are invited to open their ears, senses, and minds to unique cultural values, sensibilities, and practices of listening in Japanese sound cultures and rigorously question their own practice and conception of “listening.”
“Listening to Japanese Sound Cultures” is not a Japanese music or culture survey course. This is a sound studies course, focusing on the practice of listening, which is intertwined with various creative and expressive processes, in particular.* No previous training in music is necessary to take this course, but the required coursework includes listening exercises, sound analysis assignments, occasional virtual hands-on and group activities in the spirit of “listening by doing.” Through these exercises, selected readings, and class discussion, students are invited to open their ears, senses, and minds to unique cultural values, sensibilities, and practices of listening in Japanese sound cultures and rigorously question their own practice and conception of “listening.”
- Teacher: Junko Oba