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MUHL5321MUHL5321Course overview: See also Blackboard

• Texts: Post & pdf’s• Requirements• Blackboard: syllabus, readings, reading notes, discussions, learning modules• Goals• Topics• Definitions• Survival skills: “How to read for musicological content”

MUHL5321MUHL5321Course overview: Stream I: historiography

• What is ethnomusicology?• Where does it come from?• Who were/are its exemplars?• What are its key insights or contributions?• What have been/are currently its usages?• What are its pitfalls?• What is its relevance to other music studies?

MUHL5321MUHL5321One definition:

Grove Dictionary of Music and MusiciansGrove Dictionary of Music and Musicians

“The study of social and cultural aspects of music and dance in local and global contexts. Specialists are trained primarily in anthropology and in music,

but the multidisciplinary nature of the subject leads to different interpretations.”

MUHL5321MUHL5321Another definition:

WikipediaWikipedia

“Ethnomusicology (from the Greek ethnos = nation and mousike = music), formerly comparative musicology, is the study of

music in its cultural context, cultural musicology. It can be considered the

anthropology or ethnography of music.”

MUHL5321MUHL5321Another definition:

Course websiteCourse website

“The study of musical behavior in its original

contexts, and its history, philosophies, methods, and

areas of concentration.”

Relation to other humanistic disciplines

MUHL5321MUHL5321Some historical factors: scholarly and Some historical factors: scholarly and

intellectual points of originintellectual points of origin

• Philology & linguistics• Anthropology• musikwissenschaft

MUHL5321MUHL5321Opening-out the definition and

skill-set:

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For discussion: examples of music-in-context, and methodologies for their

study:

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Bela Bartok, Transylvania, c1906

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Unidentified guru leading pakawaj class, UCLA c1975

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Curt Sachs (1881-1959), author of

Zeitschrift für Ethnologie

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Stephen Feld in Papua, New Guinea, c1982

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Francis Densmore (1867-1957) recording, c1916. Film

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Alice Fletcher with Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce, pre-1904

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Edward Bunting (c1792): the Belfast Harp Festival

MUHL5321MUHL5321Ralph

Vaughan Williams

Percy Grainger

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Cecil Sharpe, William Kimber, & the Headington Quarry Morris Dancers, c1895

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Mac Rebennack a/k/a Dr John the Night Tripper (b1940, New Orleans)

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Bob Margolin & Jerry Portnoy with the Muddy Waters Blues Band, 1976

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Johnny Otis (1921-2012) & the Dreamers

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Ry Cooder (b1947), Compay Segundo (1907-2003) & Buena Vista Social Club

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Fieldwork: defining musical communities

Course overview: Stream II - practice

MUHL5321MUHL5321Practice assignment

Fieldwork observation

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• By age group• By gender• By ethnicity• By media of transmission• By musical function• By economic infrastructure• By genre specifics• By language, dialect, or creole• By event• By taxonomic sources• By venue• Other?

Conceptualizing fieldwork: defining musical communities

MUHL5321MUHL5321For Thursday: Geertz discussion

See article & Reading Notes