Music Appreciation: Music in Culture

Explore the ways music serves as a powerful force in human experience across cultures—not only as entertainment, but as a tool for ceremony, connection, work, and political expression.

In this four-week course, you’ll analyze how music shapes some of life’s most meaningful moments, from birth and marriage to worship and protest. You’ll discover how rhythm, meter, and melody operate within marches, dances, and rituals across cultures, and how musical elements signal emotion, movement, and intent. You'll listen to examples from various traditions and time periods that reveal how music gives structure and meaning to life’s events.

Each week includes interactive discussions, listening assignments, and short creative assignments with personalized feedback from your instructor, all designed to help you apply your understanding of musical form, phrasing, and cultural context. You’ll analyze the role of music in family life and friendship, consider how harmonic and melodic choices convey narrative, and study how music has helped coordinate labor and inspire social change. You'll also get the chance to reflect on your own musical experiences and even compose short musical ideas tied to daily life.

What you will learn:

Prerequisite skills:

• No prior music theory knowledge is required—just curiosity and a willingness to listen closely.