Syllabus 

Online and Printed Resources 

Research 
Assignments 

Student Research  

Musical Examples

Course Description:                                                                        Top 
 This course provides an anthropological perspective on the musical cultures of selected areas in the non-western world.  This perspective involves developing an ability to discriminate and describe the sound and organization of the musical styles that are covered and, as importantly, learning to understand music in its socio-cultural context, that is, the perceptions and meanings that people have about music, learning the norms and roles of music production and consumption, the uses and functions of music in society, how music changes and how musical cultures interact and mutually influence one another.  

 Each week, we cover a topic from the field of ethnomusicology, for example, such things as the history of the field, doing fieldwork, music categories, the function and meaning of music in society, etc. We will also be studying distinct musical cultures and listening to and describing examples of music from those culture areas.  

Books:                                                                                               Top 
 Elizabeth May -- Music of Many Cultures 
 Peter Manuel — Popular Music of the Non-Western World 
  Selected xerox materials on reserve and handouts 

Requirements:                                                                                 Top 
 Short Reports:  
   "Music in My Life"                              10% (due Jan. 28) 
   Performance ethnography                     10% (Feb. 11) 
 * Readings summary and/or quizzes       15% 
 Portfolio research:(see below              **50% (installments due Feb. 25, March 25, 
  for details)                                                         and April 22) 
 Participation                                              15% 
                                                                     ____  
                                                                    100% (or, 1000 points) 

*I recommend keeping one notebook for lecture material and another, a course portfolio for your reports and readings summary (to be handed in), and a research portfolio for your web work and three research installments. 
** Broken down: each installment is worth 15% for a total of 45% and 5% for final group work. 
 

Pedagogical Goals:                                                                          Top 
1. WARITEA goals: Since this course is a follow up to Comp. 100, great stress is put on learning productive research strategies, good writing (style, organization, grammar, and creativity), and communication and collaboration among learners.  To achieve this, you will be given research assignments that involve both the library and internet resources.  You will be given a number of writing assignments that include:  "free" writing about the music we listen to, descriptive writing based on readings and observation, and formal writing based on your research of a musical culture and culture area.  Your formal writing  will accumulate as segments of your portfolio and periodically will be posted on the course web site.  The portfolio assignment will involve students working in groups of three dividing their labor, sharing the results of their labor, and offering critiques of one another's ideas and writing in the positive atmosphere of collaboration. 

2. Musical goals: Whether or not you have had much musical training , this course should help you develop a "musical vocabulary" in the sense of aiding your  understanding of the formal and stylistic properties of music.  If you actively listen to music , you will discover that you will very quickly be able to describe the musical examples you listen to in terms of vocal and instrumental properties, organizational features, and melodic and rhythmic properties.  You will be given a style sheet to help you out. 

3. Anthropological goals: Anthropology tries to understand humans as cultured animals.  Thus, all cultured behavior is subject to intense scrutiny, from kinship systems to modes of production.  Expressive cultural forms — music, art, dance, and religion  —  are also fair game for the investigator.  In this course, our goal is to uncover some of the social correlates of music to culture, the meanings and functions of music in society, and the various roles, musical concepts, and values that particular groups develop about their music.  Also, as we will see, non-Western music, like other cultured forms and social institutions, is radically transforming under the pressures of urbanization, massification of Western music, and globalization.  A big part of our intellectual quest will be to understand the interaction of music traditions and impact of new technology on traditional musics. 
 
 
 

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                                                 Schedule 

Jan. 21  Introduction to the course.  Brief history of ethnomusicology.  Guide to listening  to  music. 
Writing exercise: "Music in My Life."  (Following class, write up what you have so far in  a report to be handed in next week — 3-4 pages) 
Web work or video: Nature of Music Part I. 

Jan. 28  Doing musical fieldwork.  Typology of world instruments. 
Reading: May book, chap. 1; Merriam xerox - chap.3; Kaemmer xerox chap. 4. 
Listening: Music of the Guajiro Indians of Venezuela 
Web work: collect bibliographic and discographic references about world music. Hand in first report.  Prepare for second report. 

Feb. 4   What is music?  Categories of music: art, folk, popular, world music. 
Listening: examples of categories. 
Read: Manuel book: introduction and Kaemmer book chaps. 3,4 
Web work: culture area research 

Feb. 11  Musical meaning  — how music communicates.  Alan Lomax and the cultural correlates of song.  Read: May book, chap. 17 
 Listening: Native American styles. 
 Video: Nature of Music II 
 Performance ethnography due today 

Feb. 18  The functions of music in society.  Musical area  — Africa. 
Read: Kaemmer xerox of chap. 6; May book, chaps. 10 and either 11 or 12. 
Listening: examples of traditional music from Africa 
Video: Mbira - Technique of Mbira 
Web work: culture area and musical culture research. 
 

Feb. 25  Musical concepts: talent, musicianship, and composition. 
Read: Merriam xerox of chaps. 7,8,9; Manuel book chap. 5; Nettl xerox of chap. 3 
Listening: Music of the Middle East 
Video: JVC Video - Middle East 
Portfolio research due today-Part I: background report on culture area with bibliography and webliography. 

March 4  Music change, influence, and sycretism.  World Music. 
Read: Kaemmer xerox of chap. 7; Taylor xerox of chap. 1 
Listening: assorted examples. 
Web work: resources on the web, e.g. on-line journals, music stores 

March 11  Spring Break 

March 18  World Music: Spanish, English, and French Caribbean. 
Read: Manuel chap. 2 
Listening: popular music from the Caribbean 
Video: Dance Black America;  Web work: research your musical culture area  — bibliography/ discography 

March 25  World Music: Africa 
Read: Manuel 3; Waterman xerox on "JuJu" 
Listening: African popular music 
Portfolio research due today- Part II: traditional styles associated with your culture area 
Video: JVC Video - Africa 

April 1  World music: South Asia and Southeast Asia 
Read: Manuel 7 & 8; Nettl xerox of chaps. 2 & 6 
Listening: Asian popular musics 
Video: Raga 
Web work: course web site 

April 8  Traditional and popular music of China and Japan 
Read: Manuel 9; Nettl xerox of chaps. 4 & 5 
Group work: bring in your drafts of your section for group critique and suggestions. 

April 15  American experimental music.  Read: Cameron xerox of chaps. 1 & 6; Nettl xerox of chap. 8 
Listening: Musical examples  
Web work: search for experimental composers 

April 22  Group presentations: each member reports on (1) culture background of area; (2) traditional styles; (3) new urban styles. 
Portfolio research due today- Part III: New Traditions 

April 29  Group presentations 
Group portfolio due today  — assembled from individual portfolios. 
We will begin to attach group files to the course web site  
 
 

                                Writing Assignments 

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Report #1: "Music in My Life" 

Write up a paper that details your life experience with music to date.  The paper should be 3 to 4 pages (or more) in length — typed and checked for grammar and spelling.  Think about the following and organize in any way you like: 
 

• would you describe yourself as a "musical person"?  Explain. 
• when do you remember paying any special attention to music 
• have you studied an instrument or singing?  What's your experience with that? 
• do you like to sing/ What kinds of music? 
• do you go to concerts?  What kind, how often? 
• do you own CD's?  What styles do they represent?  What kind of musical equipment do you own? 
• do you know much about popular, art, or folk music?  Your study so far? 
• how is your music taste different from other people in your family, i.e. siblings, parents, grandparents, others? 
• has your musical taste changed over time? 
• what meaning does music have in your life?  How important is it to you?  If you were stuck on a desert island, what three CD's would you want to have? 
• anything else you'd like to report on. 

 Attend a concert of your choice (any style, any venue, on- or off-campus).  If you are really stuck, you can watch a tv concert, but make that a last resort.  Observe the entire event in all of its aspects  — forum or venue, audience, performers, and the musical performance.  Write up your observations in a 3 to 5 page report, typed, spell- and grammar-checked.  Attend to the following points: 

Describe the physical setting; describe all those assembled there in terms of age, sex, dress, demeanor, etc.  Break down description between the performers and the audience. 

• are the performers separated from the audience.  If so, how. 
• what marks the beginning, progression, and end of the performance? 
• what kind of music is being performed? 
• what instruments are present? 
• comment on the lyrics, if any 
• describe the arrangement of the performers on stage; describe their   various behaviors 
• what instruments are present? 
• what behaviors do you see among the audience? 
• describe the music in terms of any stylistic features 
• what message (themes or ideas such as romance gone wrong, alienation, freedom, youth, contemplation, beauty, religion, etc) is being sent by the music and the performers? 

 You will do this in three installments which are due on Feb. 25, March 25, and April 22.  You do your portfolio individually, but you will also be part of a group.  By the end of the semester, you will put all your individual work together in a group portfolio which will then be appended to the course web page.  Early in the semester I will put you in groups of three and assign you a particular culture area to research for the rest of the semester.  I want you to work out a division of labor within your group: each of you will do a segment of each of the three installments and share that piece with the others in your group.  You will also be given time in class to work together, either sharing information or offering critiques of one another's writing. 
N.B. Keep each installment on a disk for the group work you will do at the end of the semester posting your research on the web site. 

Installment #1: Background research on a cultural area or region. (15%) 

You will pick a culture area (with my help); it can be an area like West Africa, a country, an ethnic group, or an island. I recommend starting with the following two references to locate a geographical area.  These are in the reference section of the library: 

(1) Levinson and Ember - Encyclopedia of Cultural Anthropology 
(2) Levinson - Encyclopedia of World Cultures 

 Your background research should include some or all of the following: physical geography of the area and world wide location; climate, flora/fauna; political and economic geography; description of the population in terms of size, ethnicity, class.  Provide a cultural description of one or more of the groups whose music you will subsequently be reporting on; include any of the following: group's economic base; employment, location whether in urban or rural area; info on marriage and kinship customs; domestic customs; religious practice;  status and role of women and men; the group's status within the larger country; and any other cultural attribute that seems important.  Important: within your group, divide the research among the members.  Try not to replicate what others have done.  
The possible length for each person's installment should be 5 to 10 pages per individual.  Submit in a portfolio folder.  Do include a bibliography and webliography in the proper format. 

Installment #2: Folk Music Traditions (15%) 

 Within your culture area, report on several or one major musical style that is traditional (i.e. not associated with new urban popular music).  This distinction may be a bit fuzzy; in the Caribbean, for example, current popular forms such as merengue or salsa or reggae do have folk roots, so search for the roots.  Describe the musical style(s), genres, or forms in terms of the way we are doing in class: describe musical features (melodic or rhythmic features); organization of the performance group, instruments;  relationship between musicians and singers; contexts for performance;  role, use, and function of music in relation to religion, politics, ritual, arts, etc.; music education for performers (maybe audience); status of musicians in the society (can they make a living?); interaction between "audience" and performers; lyrics; musical aesthetics; vocalization features such as vocal width, rasp, nasality, and any other aspects that seem important. 
 Once again, divide your labor; the group can either do separate styles or part of one major style.  Hand in your section.  Length 5 to 10 pages per individual.   Include a bibiography, discography, and webliography in proper format. 

Installment #3: New Traditions/ Worldbeat Music (15%) 

 Here, you need to focus on the new popular forms that have emerged in the urban areas of your culture area.  There are many things to investigate: the roots of the style or styles of music you have chosen; the influences it has received from other musical cultures (African and the U.S. have a long history of mutual influence); the "stars" of that style and their personal history; stylistic features of the music; description of the audience for that music; performance venues of the music; description of the performance group  — who they are, they way they perform, instruments they use; analysis of the lyrics; recording technology and marketing; record labels used; fame beyond the local area; influence of these musicians abroad; purpose or function of the music  — entertainment or more?  Cite references (biblio, weblio, disco as before) 
 As before, divide you labor and 5 to 10 pages per individual. 

Final Group Work (5%) 

Your group will compile the three installments of each three members into a final report on a disk.  This report will be linked to the course web site.