BYU London Centre Winter

European Soundscapes: Music, Literature, and Culture in London, Paris, and Croatia

This study abroad program will focus on the relationship between culture, music, and literature through the lens of sound studies. We’ll start with the idea that sound is both an acoustic phenomenon and a means by which we understand and experience the world—the people we meet, the art we experience (whether visual, musical, literary, etc.), and the spaces and places we move through. London will serve as a focal point for this study, a focus supported by its historic place within both British musical and literary history, and its related role in global cultural interaction.

As students fulfill a variety of GE requirements, they will explore questions such as these: How does sound relate to cultural and artistic expression? Can the sounds of a city or natural space denote its musical and cultural history? Can an awareness of different sound environments expand one’s appreciation of different types of music? How do the spaces and geographical locations in which music is performed influence its reception and adaptation? Can a work of literature be noisy or quiet, melodious or cacophonous? How does reading and adapting literature with an awareness of sound and silence relate to aural memory, cultural identity, audience reception, authorial composition, narrative structure, or interpretation?

Students will read a wide variety of literature, study visual art on location in museums in London and elsewhere, and attend musical performances from a range of global cultures and in a variety of performance settings and venues. Aligning with coursework, students will take excursions to sites in both the UK and Europe, including Paris, Croatia, Cornwall, and Canterbury. As they study, students will explore the sonic environments and histories of London and other cities and places and consider their own engagement with the sonic in their daily experiences.

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