Designed for the general student, this course explores the music cultures of the lands of the legendary Silk Road: those routes taken by traders between Venice and Japan from the time of the Middle Ages and later. Songs, instruments, dances, and ideas about music travel, both now and in the past, and act as agents of change in the way a culture makes its music. This course will be an exploration of those melodies, modes, instruments, dances, philosophies and aesthetics that make up the music cultures of several places on the Silk Road: Japan, Korea, China, India, Central Asia, the Middle East, and Venice and the West. No prerequisites: the ability to read music is not necessary. This course fulfills the CORE Cultural Perspectives requirement.