On a new course: The physics of music and language.
Manuel Ortega-Rodríguez · The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America · 2010
The presentation describes the experience of designing and teaching the course “The Physics of Music and Language” at Universidad de Costa Rica. Even though the course is taught at the Physics Dept., it has drawn large enrollment from music students as well as other majors such as education, biology, and the social sciences. The course has now been taught five times and has become part of the mandatory curriculum for music students. In this course, a traditional approach to acoustics is extended to include topics on psychoacoustics as well as a discussion of the anthropology of music and the relationship between music, language, and poetry. This makes the course a truly transdisciplinary exercise. Rather than despairing at the heterogeneity of the audience, it is argued that the situation should be seen as an opportunity to generate debate among students from diverse majors.