Course Syllabus
Course: MUSC 4405
Division: Fine Arts, Comm, and New Media
Department: Music
Title: World Music Studies
Semester Approved: Fall 2018
Five-Year Review Semester: Summer 2023
End Semester: Summer 2024
Catalog Description: This course provides students with a rigorous introduction to selected musical traditions from various parts of the globe. Through the use of a comparative analytical framework, which includes perspectives from ethnomusicology, the cognitive sciences, and psychoacoustics, students will learn to critically analyze and appreciate the selected musical traditions. These traditions will be approached from within their own cultural contexts and viewed as a social process. Students will develop an understanding of what music is, what it means to its practitioners and audiences, and the means by which musical meaning is transmitted. Emphasis is placed on recognition and analysis of the salient musical characteristics of each tradition, the artists who made major contributions to those traditions, and the particular musical instruments that are iconic to each.
Semesters Offered: Spring
Credit/Time Requirement: Credit: 3; Lecture: 3; Lab: 0
Justification: As the demographics of the United States, in general, and Utah, in particular continue to become more culturally diverse, and as access to representative media from various cultures becomes more readily available through the internet and other media, literacy in diverse musical cultures is becoming an essential for professional musicians to function in a competitive marketplace. This course is required for students completing the Bachelor of Music with Emphasis in Commercial Music Degree. This course will provide an understanding of music in the context of an increasingly interdependent global society, promoting understanding and tolerance of cultures different than their own.
General Education Outcomes:
1: A student who completes the GE curriculum will have a fundamental knowledge of human cultures and the natural world, with particular emphasis on American institutions, the social and behavioral sciences, the physical and life sciences, the humanities, the fine arts and personal wellness. Students who complete this course will demonstrate understanding of various musical cultures outside of the Western canon. The course will establish musical baselines found in Western musical tradition and students will analyze the various musical practices being studied against those baselines. This outcome will be assessed via written assignments, listening exams, written tests, and class projects.
2: A student who completes the GE curriculum can read, retrieve, evaluate, interpret, and deliver information using a variety of traditional and electronic media. Each student will be required to read the selected texts and demonstrate understanding through written tests. They will also be required to organize readings of various articles, internet resources, and library holdings to properly research, and write effectively on their chosen topic/project/presentation. This outcome will be assessed via written assignments, listening exams, written exams, written tests, and class projects.
3: A student who completes the GE curriculum can speak and write effectively and respectfully as a member of the global community, and work effectively as a member of a team. Students will demonstrate an understanding of various non-Western musical traditions in the political, cultural and historical contexts in which those traditions evolved. Students will demonstrate their understanding through written assignments, listening exams, research papers/class projects/presentations.
4: A student who completes the GE curriculum can reason quantitatively in a variety of contexts. Students will analyze various non-Western musical traditions by comparing those practices with Western musical baselines. Students will demonstrate their understanding through written assignments, listening exams, research papers/class presentations/class projects.
6: A student who completes the GE curriculum can reason analytically, critically, and creatively about nature, culture, facts, values, ethics, and civic policy. Through historical and informational readings and aural study, students will be able to understand how political and cultural influences impacted and shaped the various musical traditions being discussed. This outcome will be assessed via written assignments, listening exams, written exams, and class projects.
General Education Knowledge Area Outcomes:
2: Students will demonstrate an understanding of the creative process in the context of the various world music traditions being studied. Students will demonstrate their understanding through written assignments, listening exams, research papers/class projects/presentations.
3: Students will demonstrate an understanding of various non-Western musical traditions in the political, cultural and historical contexts in which those traditions evolved. Students will demonstrate their understanding through written assignments, listening exams, research papers/class projects/presentations.
4: Students will analyze various non-Western musical traditions by comparing those practices with Western musical baselines. Students will demonstrate their understanding through written assignments, listening exams, research papers/class presentations/class projects.
Content:
This course will initially establish key musical baseline parameters common to nearly all human beings, e.g. rhythm, melody, internal divisions of the octave, instrumentation, and timbres. These components will then be organized into a comparative analytical framework that will serve as a lens for processing and valuing the musical elements of the traditions studied. We will briefly survey the history and development of each musical tradition.
The following is a list of topics that will be considered throughout the semester:
1. The overtone series and its influence on the construction of musical scales and the division of the octave.
2. The psychological aspects of perceiving musical meter and rhythmic organization.
3. The pan-African method for construction and treatment of polyrhythm.
4. African rhythmic organization's influence on musical traditions outside of Africa: African based religions in the Americas, including Santeria, Candomble, and Vodoun.
5. Cross pollination of African and European music in the Caribbean, and South America (Cuba, Jamaica, Columbia, and Brazil).
6. Use of Arabic maqam: microtones in the music of the Levant (Egypt, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Syria, and Turkey).
7. The influence of nature, the cosmos, and socio-cultural background on Chinese music, and its immense social importance.
8. Qawwali, popular Sufi music, most commonly found in the Sufi culture in South Asia.
9. Latcho Drom ("safe Journey"), the Romani people's musical journey from Northwest India to Spain.
10. The Txalaparta, a giant Basque xylophone for two players.
11. The influence of non-Western musical traditions of popular music today.
Key Performance Indicators:
Written Assignments 20 to 30%
Listening Exams 20 to 30%
Mid-Term and Final Exam 20 to 30%
Research Paper/Project/Presentation 20 to 30%
Representative Text and/or Supplies:
Chernoff, John Miller (1981), "African Rhythm and Sensibility," The University of Oxford Press
Levitan, Daniel J. (2008), "The World in Six Songs: How the Musical Brain Created Human Nature," Dutton/Penquin Books.
London, Justin (2012), "Hearing in Time: Psychological Aspects of Musical Meter," Second Edition, Oxford University Press.
Pedagogy Statement:
This course will be delivered via a combination of lecture, discussion, and student research.
Instructional Mediums:
Lecture
Maximum Class Size: 30
Optimum Class Size: 20
