in recent years scholarship in ethnomusicology and related disciplines has continued to challenge writing as a privileged mode for scholarship. moving beyond ethnographic film and audio-documentary toward new media and immersive installation work, much of this work has participated in a turn toward the senses. meanwhile, a conception of the field has shifted, too, as ethnomusicologists do fieldwork on video games, youtube videos, and virtual performances. responding to scholarship in D/deaf and disability studies, some ethnomusicologists have even asked whether we can study music without sound. in this course, we will reflect on and experiment with multimodal ethnography: what are the promises, perils, and ethics of multimodal work? what does multimodality afford for musicians, listeners, and scholars? how might multimodality be more than a trend but something that calls attention to enduring questions in ethnomusicology concerning musical ontology, transmission, and performance?