Macbeth and Banquo Meeting the Witches on the Heath by Théodore Chassériau. Source: the Musée d'Orsay, Paris, France.
Instructor(s)
Prof. Charles Shadle
Prof. Mary Fuller
MIT Course Number
21M.013J / 21A.113J / 21L.013J
As Taught In
Fall 2013
Level
Undergraduate
Course Description
Course Features
Course Description
This course explores the relationship between music and the supernatural, focusing on the social history and context of supernatural beliefs as reflected in key literary and musical works from 1600 to the present. It provides an understanding of the place of ambiguity and the role of interpretation in culture, science and art. Great works of art by Shakespeare, Verdi, Goethe (in translation), Gounod, Henry James and Benjamin Britten are explored, as well as readings from the most recent scholarship on magic and the supernatural.
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