Course content

This course offers an introduction to the field of ethnomusicology. While ethnomusicology used to involve the study of music in distant parts of the world and oral traditions in the West, ethnomusicologists have in the last forty years turned their attention to all forms of traditional, popular and classical musics. Today, ethnomusicology is a dynamic interdisciplinary field practiced all over the world that seeks to understand music in its cultural, social and political context through ethnographic research methods. Ethnomusicological perspectives thus offer significant insights into the complex globalised world we live in today.

In this course, we will explore different aspects of the discipline’s history, methods, and current topical debates. We trace earlier strands of the discipline shaped by problematic notions of nationalism, cultural evolutionism, and salvage ethnography. We connect today’s diasporic and Indigenous music traditions to histories of oppression, articulations of belonging, and the politics of resistance. Accounting for the impact of technology on music, we review discussions on representation, revitalisation, and cultural appropriation. We also turn attention to ourselves, looking at the ways in which music shapes our own everyday life and sense of identity in a digital world. Through focusing on feminist and postcolonial perspectives, we furthermore look at how ethnomusicologists have revised their research methods, fieldwork ethics, and ways of communicating their work through academic texts, popular media, and museums. In particular, we survey applied ethnomusicological perspectives that highlight the responsibilities and potentials of researchers such as those working in contexts impacted by the HIV/AIDS pandemic and forced migration. Finally, we inspect recent discussions concerning decolonising the field of ethnomusicology and what the discipline can offer a world currently facing armed conflict, rising fascism, and climate change.

Learning outcome

Knowledge:

Students who complete this course successfully will have:

• gained knowledge of the history of the discipline of ethnomusicology, the methods ethnomusicologists employ and the theories that have shaped the field
• learned about specific musical artists, traditions, and institutions around the world
• deepened their understanding of important contemporary debates in the field of ethnomusicology

Skills:

Students who complete this course will have:

• gained the ability to discuss ethnomusicological literature
• developed their skills in critically analysing audio-visual material
• deepened their expertise in presenting (both orally and in writing) original thoughts on current debates

Learning methods and activities

This course will consist of lectures and seminars with obligatory attendance (minimum 80% participation). Each lecture will be based on readings and audio-visual case studies. The lectures will also incorporate student discussions and group activities. In addition, the course may include guest lectures, a trip to music archives, a dance/music workshop and a short fieldtrip exercise. It is expected that students will be prepared to discuss the set texts and their views on them at each lecture. Students are also required to keep a journal/diary charting their learning after each class. One week before the submission of semester essays, students will be required to give and receive peer-feedback on assignments.

Compulsory assignments

• Satisfactory participation in compulsory instruction
• Fieldnotes diary
• Assignment peer-feedback

Specific conditions

Recommended previous knowledge

It's recommended that students have a general understanding of current debates in music studies, have an interest in musics from different parts of the world and are open to explore music in its social, cultural and political context.

Credit reductions