ENCW 231 - Writing About Music and Writing Musically

CR: 3
This is a multi-genre, interdisciplinary class ideal for English & Creative Writing and Music students
but open to all students interested in exploring the intersection between the written and spoken word
and the medium of music. Texts and topics will include shorts stories, poems, and nonfiction essays
about music, “ekphrastic” attempts to translate music into writing (and writing into music), music
journalism and album reviews, sound poetry, performance writing, and musician/writer collaborations.
We will meet controversial questions head-on, for example the common claim that song lyrics aren’t
real poetry, and examine terminology common to both music and writing but with subtly different
meanings, such as form, exposition, theme, development, cadence, rhythm, and meter. This course satisfies CORE 150.