This module offers an introduction to ethnomusicology through regional and thematic studies of music as a unique expression of the human condition. Students will study examples of music-making from an anthropological perspective and will examine the development of ethnomusicology in Europe and North America.

The module aims to:

• study the significance of music for human life, showing how musical practices, instruments, theories and values are an integral part of the human condition;
• introduce the history of ideas in ethnomusicology, showing the development of different past and present scholarly traditions in Europe and North America;
• highlight the relevance of anthropological theory in ethnomusicology, studying the role of interpretative, behavioural, sociological and linguistic approaches in the discipline;
• demonstrate how theory intersects with practice, each theoretical position being explained with reference to a range of the world’s musical cultures including Africa, The Caribbean, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, the Celtic World, and South-East Asia.

• aurally and conceptually identify diverse musical traditions on the basis of musical structures, instruments, and performance practices;
• explain core ideas, values, and issues in ethnomusicology with an awareness of their development within Anglophone scholarly traditions;
• understand and apply the basic concepts in anthropological theory in ethnomusicology;
• articulate an understanding of the relationship of theory to practice in diverse musical traditions.

Teaching on this module takes the form of ten 50-minute lectures, with supporting consultations in office hours as appropriate. Prepared handouts and/or PowerPoint slides available in electronic format on Learning Central form an integral part of the teaching and learning materials. Students are expected to spend additional time preparing for lectures with prescribed reading and listening as an important element of their independent learning. All ethnomusicology students are strongly advised to audition for the West African ensemble Lanyi and/or the Javanese gamelan orchestra in order to put theory into practice.

Discipline-specific skills

The ability to:

• understand and explain musical behaviour as an aspect of culture;
• link music to regions, local history, economy and environment;
• appreciate the diversity and validity of musical cultures around the world.

Generic skills

The ability to:

• absorb concepts, build upon them and communicate the resultant synthesis accurately and convincingly in a coherent and communicable form;
• demonstrate initiative and transferable research and analytical skills;
• develop a broad cross-cultural awareness; 
• demonstrate the ability to carry out effective, self-directed research with the available resources in order to comply with the requirements of summative assessment.

Type of assessment

%Contribution

Title

Duration
(if applicable)

Approx. date of Assessment

Summative assessment

40

1500–2000 word essay

Week 7 (Autumn)

Summative assessment

60

Written examination

2 hrs

Autumn semester exam period (January)

Is it possible to be human without music? Is music a defining characteristic of the human condition, and should music-making being understood as a unique kind of human behaviour? Music involves distinctive and culture-specific types of social organisation and a humanly-organised sonic system associated with specific cultural contexts. In this module, students will study the place of music in human experience from an ethnomusicological perspective, showing how culture-specific modes of music-making require different manners of explanation. In particular, students will examine the place of anthropological theory in ethnomusicology, studying geographically the emergence of different academic schools and tracing historically the development of distinctive theoretical positions, each presented in lectures with reference to specific musical cultures.

Blacking, John, How Musical Is Man? (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1973)

Blum, Stephen, Philip V. Bohlman and Daniel M. Neuman, Ethnomusicology and Modern Music History (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1993)

Brinner, Benjamin Elon, Music in Central Java: Experiencing Music, Expressing Culture (New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008)

Hood, Mantle, The Ethnomusicologist (New York: McGraw Hill, 1971)

Kartomi, Margaret, On Concepts and Classifications of Musical Instruments (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990)

McLean, Mervyn, Pioneers of Ethnomusicology. Coral Springs, FL: Llumina Press, 2006)

Merriam, Alan P., The Anthropology of Music (Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 1964)

Nettl, Bruno, Theory and Method in Ethnomusicology: Twenty-Nine Issues and Concepts (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1983)

Rice, Timothy, Ethnomusicology: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014)

Villepastour, Amanda, Ancient Text Messages of the Yorùbá Bàtá Drum: Cracking the Code (Farnham: Ashgate, 2010)

Bohlman, Philip Vilas, ed., The Cambridge History of World Music (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013)

Clayton, Martin, Trevor Herbert and Richard Middleton, eds., The Cultural Study of Music: A Critical Introduction (New York: Routledge, 2003)

Geertz, Clifford, The Interpretation of Cultures (New York: Basic Books, 1973)

Harris, Rachel, and Rowan Pease, Pieces of the Musical World: Sounds and Cultures (New York: Routledge, 2015)

Nettl, Bruno, Ruth M. Stone, James Porter and Timothy Rice, The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music (New York: Garland Publishing, 1998); also online at http://search.alexanderstreet.com.abc.cardiff.ac.uk/glnd

Post, Jennifer C., Ethnomusicology: A Contemporary Reader (New York: Routledge, 2006)

Small, Christopher, Musicking: The Meanings of Performing and Listening (Hanover, NH; London: Wesleyan/University Press of New England, 1998)

Stone, Ruth M., Theory for Ethnomusicology (New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2008)

Wade, Bonnie C., Thinking Musically: Experiencing Music, Expressing Culture (New York: Oxford University Press, 2004)

Music Online: Smithsonian Global Sound for Libraries (log into your university account to access this link)