There is much to respond to. Here's a few:

I suggest we speak of a "Music/ Sound Department" rather than a "Music Department". When we say "sound" our field of reference is immediately much larger and includes the totality of our students' lives. We are seeking to encourage students to relate to their senses, and sound is what the sense senses. Music is: a construct/ a type of purposeful sound/ a category we project onto experience. By encouraging a wider appreciation of the sonic environment we will deftly contextualize and include sonic experiences that would otherwise be debatable as being music. I am, of course, referencing mindful environmental listening and avant-garde music. In a nutshell, the "silent" John Cage piece.


A workshop- the intent is to open the ears and to become more present in the sound environment.
The Paper Pass:
A large sheet of paper is passed around a circle of standing students. Instructions are given to do this as silently as possible. Moving slowly/ moving quickly. Listening becomes wonderful and vast. After several rounds, a different paper is used, one that makes it easier or more difficult (use paper/ tissue paper/ light cardboard). Use a contact mic to amplify the paper as it is passed- always a hoot.
Variations are to ask students to make a sound on purpose when the paper is theirs or to maintain a particular sound/ sonic texture as it is passed around. Totally awesome. I love this one- got it from R. Murray Schafer.

Another workshop- same basic idea as the first.
Environmental Listening:
Students in small or large groups go to a place to actively listen for a given amount of time- let's say 1-3 minutes. After the listening event, the students take notes on paper of what sounds they experienced and discussion is had. If possible, a recording of the event is played back repeatedly. This can be done anywhere, but finding a great, colorful spot (many layers of soft and intermittent sounds) would be nice, as well as a much more mundane environment.

These above exercises are bedrock experiences in listening that will enhance any "music" that follows.

A fundamental musical experience:
Time: Maintaining a Rhythm:
Establishing a short-lived rhythm is usually not a huge challenge- maintaining it over a span of time usually is. As solos and as groups students will produce extremely simple rhythms (beginning with 2 sounds arranged in short phrases of 4 pulse length) using hand or mallet percussion and challenge themselves to not stray from tempo or rhythmic structure. Complexity is ratcheted up, demanding higher and higher concentration. This experience will teach students to raise their level of engagement with their bodies and aspects of the sounds they produce.

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On "commemoration of emotions"/ the emotional content in art/ music:
I have to raise a question to this as a default presupposition.
In my experience, that happens rarely in the creative process and only slightly less rarely in the moment of receiving. In my experience there are many more times when the creative process is simply that moment of being present with the materials/ getting out of the way. I see creating as a thing to simply do- a process-based mindset to enter without referent to product or "inspiration". Getting into it. Being engrossed. Being there with the materials. Seeing a show or an art object is a moment to appreciate another person's beautiful moment of creativity/ presence.

The emotional content piece is valid, but only as one of many angles.

I feel it's important to include that not all pieces of art work carry a "meaning" or were intended to "express" anything or that they do in fact do that. Framing the subject is crucial- I am uncomfortable with limiting "art" as a goal-oriented communication.

I am not entirely comfortable with going down the path of ascribing emotional meaning to art objects or Beethoven pieces or Hank songs. It's never made sense to me. Sensual experience of anything is subjective and complex- this angle has always seemed limited to me. It has always seemed a distraction from the immediate, fundamental sensual experience- that of luscious sensation. Writing "meaning" on top of a flavor or a color or a sound or any sensation is to leave the mental/ experiential place where the action is- the world is happening! It smells and is noisy and has shape we can see and touch and taste.

The Hank Williams song you mentioned does have lonely/ sorrowful lyrics (like most of his songs), but the music is actually not so much of that feel- it's a danceable major-key waltz. Other words could be written for that exact music and it would be a "happy" song. The issue I have is that the sound is being ignored for the sake of the text of the lyric. That reading of the song would work just fine in a literature class, but I feel limited using this model in a music class.

I get the therapy angle, but I don't want to lose the fundamental of experience angle.