Music from around the world is abundantly available to listeners today, but how can we understand the immense variety of sounds and meanings? This course introduces selected musical cultures beyond Western European traditions through recordings and live performances. Students will compare their own experiences of identity and personal musical expression to historical and contemporary musical practices around the world and around campus.

 

This course focuses on understanding both the sounds and structures of music, as well as the contextual meanings and practices. Students will become acquainted with a variety of concepts that music scholars use to understand the sonic and cultural aspects of music, especially focusing on the concepts of race, ethnicity, and gender. Students will consider how categories of identity are culturally bound and how they are performed musically in a wide range of geographical contexts.