MUS 451/551: Introduction to Ethnomusicology
TR 10:00-11:50 AM Room: 167 Frohnmayer Music Building
Ethnomusicology is often defined as “the study of music in/as culture,” but what does that mean? This class begins with a brief overview of the history of the discipline (Rice) from its origins in U.S. cultural anthropology and German comparative musicology. We will then explore the key concepts one senior ethnomusicologist (Turino) has developed over the course of his career to understand musics as diverse as those found in fiestas patronales in the Andes, Bira ceremonies in Zimbabwe, and contra dances in the Midwest. Finally, we delve into a prize-winning ethnography on South African Kwaito music (Steigo) to appreciate what an in-depth fieldwork study can produce. Graduate students participating in the class will be assigned additional readings (including a textbook with an overview of critical theory), class preps, and more intensive writing projects. This course fulfills the IC (International Cultures) Multicultural Requirement.
Texts for 451 (and 551) include:
Rice, Timothy. 2013. Ethnomusicology: A Very Brief Introduction. New York: Oxford University Press.
Steigo, Gavin. 2016. Kwaito’s Promise: Music and the Aesthetics of Promise. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Turino, Thomas. 2007. Music as Social Life: the Politics of Participation. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Berger, Harris M. and Ruth M. Stone. 2019. Theory for Ethnomusicology: Histories, Conversations, and Insights, Second Edition. New York: Routledge.
