This course is based on the embodied approach, which sees physical, bodily experience as fundamental to thinking and conceptualizing in any domain, and in particular in music. Throughout the semester we will explore a wide range of intellectual perspectives that emphasize the body’s constitutional role in musical understanding. The readings will be accompanied by musical examples from various genres, including music by Luigi Boccherini, Johannes Brahms, Chaya Czernowin, Ahmad Jamal and Thelonious Monk. A central question to our musical expeditions will be to what extent the embodied musical experience is intersubjective or universal, and whether and how it is mediated by cultural and historical factors.