MH 3120 - Musical Ethnography

Credits: 3

In this junior-level world music course, students engage in the theories, histories, and practices of music from the perspective of the cultures and societies that make it. This course explores notions of musical difference, expression, and value based on local practices and the rich history and research methods of ethnography. Through lectures, readings, listening assignments, and local community research, students will learn critical and comparative thinking skills that are central to understanding music as a trace, or artifact, of ethnic culture. The diverse and interdisciplinary nature of ethnomusicology will foster students’ ability to integrate knowledge from other humanities disciplines, particularly historical musicology, anthropology, folklore, linguistics, communication, and cultural studies. Ultimately, this course is designed to cultivate students’ broader awareness of musical difference and its connection to the rich social and cultural practices within specific communities of makers and listeners that ascribe meaning and value to sounds.

Prerequisites: HU 1110 - Humanities I: World Thought I

Course Learning Outcomes:

Apply critical listening skills to diverse music traditions in consideration of their cultural and contextual significance.
Create written critical responses to ethnographic studies and recordings and present them orally.
Critique, explain, and defend arguments about the music of diverse cultures from a perspective informed by ethnographic research and aware of issues concerning systemic bias and marginalization.