World Musics and Cultures 0909
Fall 2013 MWF 12-12:50 Presser 101
Instructor: Dr. Lindsay Weightman ()
Teaching Assistant:
Text and recordings: Music of the Peoples of the World. William Alves. 3rd Ed.
You can rent the ebook with CourseMate access to all recordings plus many more website activities for $89 from the bookstore. Please use ISBN 9781133112945 when ordering.
Students requiring extra help should feel free to contact Dr Weightman or the teaching assistant after class or by email to arrange a meeting. Any student who has a need for accommodation based on the impact of a disability should contact me privately to discuss the specific situation as soon as possible.
This course explores music as a reflection of the diverse cultures around the world. Emphasis is placed on learning to identify, describe and discuss all aspects of the various musical styles and become acquainted with a variety of instruments, compositional forms and performance contexts. Class meetings will include listening to recorded music, performing aspects of that music and watching live performances and ethnographic videos.
The course emphasizes listening skills as a primary tool in this exploration of the musical culture of the world. Listening assignments are primarily on the website recordings that accompany the course text. Supplementary materials will be heard in class. Students are encouraged to attend additional relevant performances in the Philadelphia area.
Students are responsible for attendance at all class meetings, participation in class discussion and reading and listening assignments. The course grade is based upon the results of:
Class tests 45% (Total of three at 15% each)
A music ethnography paper 25% ( class wiki research post 10%, 4-page paper 15%)
Connect Your Playlist 5%
Philadelphia site-specific sound group projects 15%
Attendance and class participation 10%
Grades will be posted on Blackboard throughout the semester. If you discover an error relating to any of your grades, you must notify me within two weeks of the grade’s posting.
There is NO extra credit for this class. You are expected to take the tests at the specified times. Any student who misses a test without notifying the instructor in advance will forfeit that part of the grade. Students who have a valid medical excuse for missing a test may make it up by writing a further ethnography paper but they will be penalized by having their grade lowered by one full point.
Class Participation (10%)
Points are earned for coming to class and participating in class discussion and class music making (eg. clapping African rhythms). No previous musical experience is necessary, just a willingness to listen, react and take part. Three or more missed classes and attendance at less than complete class sessions will result in a lower grade.
Listening to musical examples is a large part of each class experience. Silence and attentiveness is expected of all students.
Tests (45%)
The tests include a listening quiz requiring identification and discussion of musical examples, geographical identification of the countries being studied, and a short written section involving identification, definition of terms and/or short essay questions relevant to class lectures and reading. All students must be present for the tests. In exceptional circumstances, students must inform Dr. Weightman in advance if alternative arrangements need to be made.
ALL tests include geographical identification of the countries discussed in class. Please study the maps in the text book.
The third test includes identification of listening examples from all six cultures covered in class.
Music Ethnography (wiki research post 10%, paper 15%)
1) Wiki. Find an article relevant to the South Indian violin performance of Oct 29 (we will discuss in class what kinds of topics to research and where to find information). Post it in the wiki by Oct 18 with a 300-word summary. Between Oct 19 and 27 respond to at least 1 other student post.
2) A 4-page paper, submitted on blackboard by Nov 22 at 11:59pm based on your attendance at the R.K.Shriramkumar violin lecture/performance at Temple’s Rock Hall on Tuesday, Oct 29th from 4-5:30 pm.
You are encouraged to submit a draft of your paper (at least 3 days before the deadline please) for feedback from Dr Weightman.
Ethnography is derived from ethno meaning culture or people and graphy referring to something written.
An ethnography is an analytical description of a cultural setting, cultural event, or subculture based on field research. Field research means that you will attend a live performance, and your observations of this event together with your background research will be the basis of your paper. Your proposal requires you to list the primary source (the performance that you will attend) and do some preliminary research of secondary sources (written materials).
Please read the page later in this syllabus describing the differences between plagiarism, common knowledge, paraphrase and direct quotation.
In your document you should include careful observations and descriptions of sounds that are used and considered meaningful in your social setting. Music is often part of social and cultural processes, it may serve as a focus of cultural identity as in national anthems, or counter-cultural identity as in punk rock subculture. It may contribute to a community-building spiritual experience as in a church, synagogue or temple. It may embody social solidarity as in African or calypso drumming. And it may symbolically represent other things or ideas, as in Native American dancing. Your ethnography should move beyond mere descriptions of sound qualities to an analysis of the social and cultural dynamics of which music is a part. You should aim to connect your observations with class discussions, reading and recordings.
When describing or analyzing a cultural setting, aim to be as detached and objective as possible. We all have assumptions and biases that influence our perceptions and conclusions. However, good social scientists refrain from making subjective statements: they gather all the evidence they can to support their interpretation of the event. In your project, rather than judge a sound by your own standards, find out all you can about the artistic and cultural values of the audience or musician so that you may better understand the background for this musical event. Learning to put aside your own assumptions and biases is an important step in becoming a better observer of other cultures.
Your paper should be (a minimum of) 4 pages long, typed, double-spaced and grammar/spell-checked. It should be carefully written with full citations of your sources using footnotes or endnotes and a bibliography. Failure to submit a professional-looking paper will result in a lower grade.
Summary and time-line of ethnography assignments
By Oct 18, 11:59pm You will post a link to, or PDF of, plus a 300-word summary, of a scholarly article on the subject of South Indian music in preparation for the performance on Oct 29 and the ethnography paper that is due on Nov 22. You cannot post the same article as another student so the earlier you post the better.
Between Oct 19 and 27, 11:59pm Respond, in the wiki, to at least one other student post/article.
Tuesday, Oct 29th from 4-5:30 pm in Rock Hall. Attend the performance: R.K.Shriramkumar violin lecture/performance.
By Nov 22 Your paper is due on Blackboard by 11:59 pm. You may send the completed paper by email () at least 3 days in advance of this date if you would like to receive feedback from Dr Weightman before the deadline.
Connect your playlist (5%)
Students will be randomly selected to complete a “Connect Your Playlist” assignment according to the following guidelines:
After you are assigned a vocabulary term you will be given a few days to search for musical examples from your own popular music library. These will be briefly presented to the class, discussed, and analyzed to reinforce vocabulary terms and concepts.
When it is your turn, you must post your example on the Blackboard discussion forum by 6pm the night before it is due. In your post you will: define the term; provide a link to a musical example that exemplifies the term; then write a brief description of how the term is heard in the example and also post the exact time markers for when to start and stop each piece. In class, you will give a brief (2 minute) presentation for the class and a 30-second clip from your musical example will be played.
Site-specific sounds. Group projects. (15%)
What is music? How is it different from sound? As a complement to studying the culture and music of East Asia, where Buddhist philosophy reminds you to ‘live in the moment’ and pay attention to the smallest details, this project challenges you to find music and art anywhere and everywhere. This task provides an opportunity to change your attitude to the world around you and think differently about sounds that you might normally take for granted.
In the study of traditional Chinese and Japanese music we notice that both cultures place great value on the sounds of nature, often try to imitate them in music, and aim above all to live in harmony with the natural world. In Philadelphia we are living in an urban environment so we will consider out relationship with urban sounds. Your task is to pick a place in the community - it can include urban and/or natural sounds, sit there without speaking for at least an hour, and take notes and recordings of the specific sounds that are generated in that environment. Each group will make a short presentation to the class on Nov 13 or 15 about their findings and reactions. More detailed directions will be posted on blackboard and discussed in class before you start this project.
Gen Ed Arts courses build skills that enable students to gain insight into works of art, the creative process, and the role of the arts in social, cultural, or historical contexts. Such insight is fundamental to the development of artistic literacy, which in turn can be an invigorating element of lifelong learning.
Gen Ed Arts courses are intended to teach students how to:
· Experience and respond to a work of art or creative process;
· Recognize or interpret a work of art or creative process in its social, historical and cultural context;
· Describe or evaluate a work of art or creative process using appropriate terminology;
and
· Appreciate the value of art in our lives and in society
COURSE CALENDER
Reading and listening assignments must be completed before the class meetings in which they will be discussed.
All students are required to attend a lecture/performance of South Indian violin music, given by R.K.Shriramkumar, on Tuesday, Oct 29 from 4-5:30 pm in Rock Hall (Broad and Cecil B. Moore). This will be the basis for your ethnography paper.
Please contact Dr Weightman immediately if you cannot attend.
Aug 26-Sept 6. Introduction to musical analysis.
Read Alves chapters 1-5.
Class #1 Intro to ethnomusicology. What is music? What is an ethnomusicologist? The function of music in society-why does it exist and why does each cultural group have a different idea of how to perform music? Religious, political, aesthetic reasons for choices about music. Definitions of art, folk and pop music.
Class #2 How do different cultures around the world decide on the building blocks of music? Building a vocabulary to talk about music. We examine each parameter in turn, comparing examples played on piano or CD. Class participates where possible.
Texture and form.
Class #3 Pitch/scale/melody and rhythm/beat/meter.
Class #4 Instrumentation and tone color. Additional musical techniques: ornamentation, improvisation, the relationship between words and music.
Class #5 Class project-compose a melody on xylophone in one of a number of scales from around the world. Choose whether to use a steady beat/pulse as a basis of the melody or to play non-pulsatile. How do different scales affect the sound and mood of melody?
Sept 9-20. India. Alves, chapter 9. CD 1 # 10-14
Class #1 Indian music, shared characteristics between the north and the south and the different historical influences that led to 2 distinct styles of art music. The drone as a constant background element in Indian music. Excerpts from movie “ Music of India”
Class #2 North Indian gat. The synthesis/balance of composed and improvised music in one performance.
Class #3 South Indian kriti. Formal structure of a kriti. The decisions made by the performer in influencing the final form of a performance, much like in western jazz.
Class #4 Guest performer. Sitar or sarod player. Performance and question/answer session. Class learns the hand gestures that accompany Indian tala/rhythmic cycles and performs them along with the music
Class #5 Bollywood film music. Excerpts from movie “ There’ll Always be Stars in the Sky”, video clips from Bollywood movies.
Class #6 review for test
Sept 23-Oct 2. Middle East/North Africa. Alves, chapter 7. CD 1 # 9-11
Class #1 General characteristics of Middle-Eastern music. Practice singing quarter-tones. Islam and music.
Class #2 Egypt. Complex rhythmic patterns. Heterophony-music without chords. “Tarab”, the concept of musical ecstasy in the Middle East. Learn to dance the Lebanese “Dabkeh”
Class #3 Guest performer Jeff Werbock, demonstration of 3 Azerbaijani string instruments. Improvisation and ornamentation as essential elements in the middle-eastern musical style. Use of micro-tones as an intensification device in melodic shape.
Class #4 Iran. The tar solo string music. Sufi poetry and music.
Class #5 Middle Eastern drumming class.
Class #6 Oct 4 TEST #1. India and Middle East/North Africa
Oct 7-23. Sub-Saharan Africa. Alves, chapter 6.
Listen to CD 1 tracks 1-8
Class #1 General characteristics of African music. Music in the workplac2
Class #2 West Africa. Dance drumming of the Anlo-Ewe. Polyrhythm-learn how to sub-divide a 12-beat pattern into meters of both 4 or 6 even pulses at the same time. Learn all of the drum, rattle and bell rhythms one by one.
Class #3 Drumming cont. Class performs different rhythms simultaneously. Learn to find the 4-beat pulse in the recordings as you dance the “Dance of the Middle of the Back”
Class #4 Movie “Listening to the Silence”. Polyrhythms and the importance of music in all aspects of African society.
Class #5 West Africa. Mande kora music. The history of the Mali empire (13th century) and the social structure which produces the hereditary craftsman/woman such as the griot (professional singer/songwriter/historian)
Class #6 Southern Africa. Shona mbira music. The bira religious ceremony. Afro-pop and its political/social impact.