This course surveys contemporary Western art music within the transformed political, cultural, and technological environment of the post–Cold War era. Musical composition is considered against this changed backdrop, placing it in the context of globalization, digitization, and new media. The course employs a new approach to the study of contemporary music that relies less on taxonomies of style and technique and more on the comparison of different responses to common themes of permission, fluidity, excess, and loss. Students glimpse the rich, broad picture of the new music ecosystem, both inside and beyond the concert hall. Prerequisite: MUSC 260.