Semester
Spring
Date of Graduation
2019
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Type
MA
College
College of Creative Arts
Department
School of Music
Committee Chair
Travis Stimeling
Committee Co-Chair
Evan MacCarthy
Committee Member
Evan MacCarthy
Committee Member
Matthew Heap
Abstract
As government programs such as NASA and SETI seek signs of intelligent life in space and privately-funded programs such as SpaceX finalize plans to colonize Mars in the coming decades, representations of space and extraterrestrial life in American culture have become increasingly relevant. Focusing on Jóhann Jóhannsson’s musical score for Denis Villeneuve’s science-fiction film Arrival (2016), Terry Riley’s Sun Rings (2002) for string quartet, chorus, and recorded space sounds, and former International Space Station Commander Chris Hadfield’s “Songs about Space” Spotify playlist, my research problematizes the ways in which composers, musicians, and even astronauts depict alterity through music and reinforce colonial narratives about outer space. Drawing upon the work of postcolonial theorists and musicologists such as Charles Forsdick (2003), Olivia A. Bloechl (2008), Ania Loomba (2015), and others, this thesis argues that musical depictions of extraterrestrials and space exploration, more generally, reveal the potential for discrimination, misrepresentation, and abuses of power to emerge from space colonization. But, back on Earth, this study also suggests that such fraught theoretical relationships between human colonists and extraterrestrials echo the real-life suffering of colonized indigenous groups and the necessity of decolonization.
Recommended Citation
Zalman, Paige, "Listening for the Cosmic Other: Postcolonial Approaches to Music in the Space Age" (2019). Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports. 3797.
https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/etd/3797