Syllabus
for
Introduction to Ethnomusicology
Music 2121 (cross-listed with CLST 3121)
Andrew Weintraub
Instructor
Fall 2000
Tuesday, 9:30-11:50
Music Building, Room 114
Department of Music
University of Pittsburgh
Music 2121: Introduction to Ethnomusicology
|
Fall,
2000 Tuesday,
9:30-11:50 Music
Building, Room 114 |
Instructor:
Andrew Weintraub Office:
Music Building, Room 214 Phone:
624-4184 E-mail:
anwein@pitt.edu Office
Consultation: By appointment |
Course
Description
Introduction
to Ethnomusicology is one of four core courses for graduate study at the
University of Pittsburgh, required of all entering candidates for graduate
degrees. The course examines the formation of the discipline through a survey
of its history, theory, and methodology. We will read and discuss the works of
major scholars in the field. We will also examine the interdisciplinary nature
of ethnomusicology, particularly its relationship with historical musicology,
anthropology, folklore, linguistics, communication, and cultural studies. A few
special projects will complement theoretical discussions, and technical aspects
of research activities commonly associated with the field such as fieldwork and
transcription will be briefly covered.
Students
will be expected to:
--finish
all weekly reading assignments before the next meeting.
--participate
actively in class discussion.
--write
reviews of selected readings and present them orally in class.
--deliver
oral responses to selected readings in class.
--compile
a journal of keywords.
--complete
additional assignments.
Schedule of Readings, Assignments, and Exams
*= items placed on reserve for you in the Music Library
GLRE=Shelemay, Kay Kaufman, ed.
1990. The Garland Library of Readings in Ethnomusicology. New York and London: Garland.
YTM=Yearbook for Traditional
Music
8/29 Introduction
to Ethnomusicology
concise
historical overview; Blacking’s burning question; Nettl’s credo;
what do ethnomusicologists do?
For 9/5,
READ:
*Blacking,
John. 1973. “Humanly Organized Sound.” In How Musical Is Man?, 3-31. Seattle: University of
Washington Press.
Reviewer: Respondent:
Krader, Barbara. 1980.
“Ethnomusicology.” In The New Grove Dictionary of Music and
Musicians, ed. Stanley Sadie,
275-282. [GLRE 1]
Reviewer: Respondent:
*Nettl, Bruno. 1983.
“Prelude.” In The Study of Ethnomusicology: Twenty-Nine Issues
and Concepts, 1-11. Illinois:
University of Illinois Press.
Reviewer: Respondent:
*Anonymous.
“eth-no-mu-sic-o-lo-gy.” 1995. Rhythm Music 4(5):22-26. [photocopy on reserve in music
library].
Reviewer: Respondent:
[additional
reading]
*Blacking,
John. 1973. “Music in Society and Culture” In How Musical Is
Man?, 32-53.
Seattle: University of Washington Press.
9/5 Ethnomusicology among the Ologies
What is
an “Ethnomusicological Approach”? “New Musicology”;
absolute music; value and hierarchy; disciplinarity.
For 9/12,
READ (in order):
*Babbitt,
Milton. 1958. “Who Cares if You Listen?,” High Fidelity Magazine
8(2):38-40; 126-27 [photocopy on reserve in the music library]
McClary, Susan. 1989. “Terminal Prestige: The
Case of Avant-Garde Music Composition.” Cultural Critique (spring): 57-81.
Reviewer: Respondent:
*Kerman,
Joseph. 1985. “Ethnomusicology and ‘Cultural
Musicology.’” In Contemplating Music: Challenges to Musicology. Cambridge: Harvard University
Press.
Reviewer: Respondent:
Nettl,
Bruno. 1989. “Mozart and the Ethnomusicological Study of Western Culture:
An Essay in Four Movements.” YTM 21:1-16.
Reviewer: Respondent:
*Kingsbury,
Henry. 1988. “Social Context and Absolute Music.” In Music,
Talent, and Performance: A Conservatory
Cultural System, 3-31. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
Reviewer: Respondent:
Becker, Judith. 1986. “Is Western Art Music
Superior?” Musical Quarterly
72(3):341-359.
Reviewer: Respondent:
[additional
reading]
Bourdieu, Pierre.
1980. “The Aristocracy of Culture.” Media, Culture and Society 2(3), 225-254.
Tomlinson,
Gary. 1984. “The Web of Culture: A Context for Musicology.” Nineteenth-Century
Music 76:350-62.
*McClary,
Susan and Robert Walser. 1990. “Start Making Sense: Musicology Wrestles
with Rock.” In On Record: Rock, Pop, and The Written Word. Edited by Simon Frith and Andrew
Goodwin. New York: Pantheon Books, 277-292.
*McClary,
Susan. 1991. “Sexual Politics in Classical Music.” In Feminine
Endings: Music, Gender, and Sexuality. Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press.
*Higgins,
Kathleen. 1994. “Music ‘in Itself’: Its Development and
Status.” In The Music of Our Lives. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
Assignment #1 (due on 9/26)
*Read
Brenda Berrian’s chapter two (“Kassav’”) on reserve in
the Music Library in preparation for her colloquium on Friday, 9/8.
9/12 Culture
intellectual
history; sociology of knowledge; frameworks underlying frameworks; evolving
definitions of culture.
For 9/19,
READ:
*Stocking,
George. 1968. “Matthew Arnold, E.B. Tylor, and the Uses of
Invention.” In Race, Culture, and Evolution, 69-90. New York: Free Press.
Reviewer: Respondent:
*Geertz,
Clifford. 1973. “Thick Description: Toward an Interpretive Theory of
Culture.” In The Interpretation of Cultures, 3-32. New York: Basic Books.
Reviewer: Respondent:
*Williams,
Raymond.1990 (1977). “Culture” and “The Sociology of
Culture” In Marxism and Literature, 11-20; 136-144. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Reviewer: Respondent:
[additional
reading]
*Nettl, Bruno. 1983.
“Music and ‘That Complex Whole’.” In The Study of
Ethnomusicology: Twenty-Nine Issues and Concepts, 131-146. Illinois: University of Illinois Press.
9/19 Comparative
Musicology (vergleichende Musikwissenschaft)
early
years; disciplinary formation; influential studies and ideas.
For 9/26,
READ:
Adler,
Guido. 1981 [1885]. “The Scope, Method and Aim of Musicology.”
(1885) in English Translation by Erica Mugglestone. YTM.
Reviewer: Respondent:
Ellis,
A.J. 1885. “On the Musical Scales of Various Nations.” Journal
of the Royal Society of Arts 33:485-527. OR 1884 “Tonometrical Observations on
Some Existing Non-Harmonic Scales,” Proceedings of the Royal Society 37:368-387. [GLRE 7]
Reviewer: Respondent:
Kunst,
Jaap. 1948. “Around von
Hornbostel’s Theory of the Cycle of Blown Fifths.” Mededeling 79. [GLRE 2]
Reviewer: Respondent:
Herzog, George. 1935. “Plains Ghost Dance and
Great Basin Music.” American Anthropologist 37:403-419. [GLRE 7]
Reviewer: Respondent:
Scan the
following:
*Harrison,
Frank. 1973. Time, Place and Music: An Anthology of Ethnomusicological
Observation c. 1550 to c. 1880. Amsterdam: Frits Knuf.
Rousseau, Jean Jacques. 1975[Reprint of the 1779
edition, first published in 1768]. A Complete Dictionary of Music. New York: AMS Press.
[Hillman Lib Special Collections (Room 363)
(Non-circulating); Call Number:
ML108 .R82 1779
*Wallaschek, Richard. 1893. Primitive Music: An
Inquiry into the Origin and Development of Music, Songs, Instruments, Dances
and Pantomimes of the Savage Races.
London: Longmans, Green and Co.
Nadel,
S.F. 1930. “The Origins of Music.” Musical Quarterly 16:531-546.
9/26 Politics
of Representation I
writing
culture; who speaks, for whom, and why it matters; ethnographic authority;
Orientalism; postcoloniality; objectivity.
For 10/3,
READ:
Nketia, J.H. Kwabena. 1962. “The Problem of Meaning
in African Music.” Ethnomusicology 6:1-7.
Reviewer: Respondent:
*Clifford,
James. 1986. “Introduction: Partial Truths.” In Writing Culture, ed. James Clifford and George
Marcus, 1-26. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Reviewer: Respondent:
Said,
Edward. 1989. “Representing the Colonized: Anthropology’s
Interlocutors.” Critical Inquiry 15(2):205-25.
Reviewer: Respondent:
Agawu,
Kofi. 1992. “Representing African Music.” Critical Inquiry 18(2):245-266.
Reviewer: Respondent:
[additional
reading]
Becker, Judith, and Lorna McDaniel. 1991. “A
Brief Note on Turtles, Claptrap, and Ethnomusicology” and “Turtle
Relations.” Ethnomusicology
35(3):393-98.
10/3 Post-War
American Ethnomusicology
definitions,
concepts, objectives,
scope, approaches, theory, methods, programmatic statements; music in culture.
For
10/10, READ:
Anonymous.
“Whither Ethnomusicology?” 1959. Panel Discussion. Ethnomusicology 3(2):99-105.
Reviewer: Respondent:
Hood,
Mantle. 1960. “The Challenge of Bi-Musicality.” Ethnomusicology 4:55-59.
Reviewer: Respondent:
Merriam,
Alan. 1960. “Ethnomusicology: Discussion and Definition of the
Field.” Ethnomusicology 4(3):107-114. [GLRE 1]
Reviewer: Respondent:
Seeger,
Charles. 1970. “Toward a Unitary Field Theory for Musicology.” Selected
Reports in Ethnomusicology 1(3):171-210.
Reviewer: Respondent:
[additional
reading]
Merriam,
Alan. 1977. “Definitions of ‘Comparative Musicology’ and
Ethnomusicology: An Historical-Theoretical Perspective.” Ethnomusicology 21(2):189-204. [GLRE 1]
Assignment #2 (due on 10/24)
10/10 Fieldwork
what is involved? designing a project; the
importance of subjectivity and reflexivity.
For 10/17, READ:
*Nettl, Bruno. The Study of Ethnomusicology:
Twenty-Nine Issues and Concepts
(chapters 18-22). Urbana: University of Illinois Press. [see review by Timothy Rice in YTM 18:183-85].
Reviewer: Respondent:
Gourlay,
K.A. 1978. “Towards a Reassessment of the Ethnomusicologist’s Role
in Research.” Ethnomusicology 22(1):1-35.
Reviewer: Respondent:
Turino,
Thomas. 1990. “Structure, Context, and Strategy in Musical
Ethnography.” Ethnomusicology 34(3):399-412.
Reviewer: Respondent:
*Babiracki,
Carol M. 1997. “What’s the Difference? Reflections on Gender and
Research in Village India.” In Shadows in the Field, ed. Gregory F. Barz and Timothy
J. Cooley, 121-138. New York: Oxford University Press.
Reviewer: Respondent:
[additional
readings]
Library
of Congress. 1990. Folklife and Fieldwork: A Layman’s Introduction to
Field Techniques.
http://lcweb.loc.gov/folklife/fieldwk.html
Marcus,
George. 1998. “Contextualizing Fieldwork Projects.”
http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~anth/new/word.htm
10/17 Transcription
and Analysis I
writing
of musical sounds; description and analysis of style.
For
10/24, READ:
Seeger,
Charles. 1958. “Prescriptive and Descriptive Music-Writing.” Musical
Quarterly
44:184-95. [also in McAllester 1971, 24-35].
Reviewer: Respondent:
*Hood,
Mantle. 1971. “Transcription and Notation.” In The
Ethnomusicologist.New
York: McGraw-Hill.
Reviewer: Respondent:
Reid, J.
1977. “Transcription in a New Mode.” Ethnomusicology 21(3):415-433.
Reviewer: Respondent:
In
addition, each person will report on one approach to a) transcription and b) analysis. Please bring in the article or book that exemplifies the
approach into class for discussion.
Please
choose one approach to transcription discussed in:
*Ellingson,
Ter. 1992. “Theory and Method: Transcription” In Ethnomusicology:
An Introduction
edited by Helen Myers. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 110-152:
Please
choose one approach to analysis discussed in:
*Blum,
Stephen. “Theory and Method: Analysis of Musical Style.” In Ethnomusicology:
An Introduction
edited by Helen Myers. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 165-218):
[additional
reading]
England,
Nicholas. 1964. Ethnomusicology 8(3):223-277.
10/24 Transcription
and Analysis II
[continuation
of last week]
For
10/31, READ:
Herndon,
Marcia. 1974. “Analysis: The Herding of Sacred Cows?” Ethnomusicology 18(2):219-262.
Reviewer: Respondent:
Blum,
Stephen. 1975. “Towards a Social History of Musicological
Technique.” Ethnomusicology 19(2):207-31.
Reviewer: Respondent:
Qureshi,
Regula Burckhardt. 1986. “Musical Sound and Contextual Input: A
Performance Model for Musical Analysis.” Ethnomusicology 31:56-86.
Reviewer: Respondent:
*Read
Jonathan Sterne’s article on reserve in the Music Library for Friday
colloquium.
[additional
reading]
Koetting,
James. 1970. “Analysis and Notation of West African Drum Ensemble
Music.” Selected Reports in Ethnomusicology 1(3):116-46.
10/31 Globalization,
World Music, (Trans)Nationalism
For 11/7,
READ:
Appadurai,
Arjun. 1990. “Disjuncture and Difference in the Global Cultural
Economy.” Public Culture 2:1-24.
Reviewer: Respondent:
Guilbault,
Jocelyne. 1993. “On Redefining the ‘Local’ Through World
Music.” World of Music: 33-47.
Reviewer: Respondent:
Hosokawa,
Shuhei. 1999. “‘Salsa No Tiene Frontera’: Orquesta De La Luz
and the Globalization of Popular Music.” Cultural Studies 13(3):509-534.
Reviewer: Respondent:
*Lipsitz,
George. 1996. “Kalfou Danjere.” In Dangerous Crossroads: Popular
Music, Postmodernism and the Poetics of Place. London
and New York: Verso, 3-21.
Reviewer:
Respondent:
Assignment
#3 History of Ethnographic
Representation (Due 11/28)
11/1 -
11/5 Toronto
Music Conference
11/7 Music
as Culture I
cantometrics;
sociomusicology; new(er) comparative approaches.
For
11/14, READ:
Lomax,
Alan. 1962. “Song Structure and Social Structure.” Ethnology 1:425-451. [also in McAllester
1971, 227-252.]
Reviewer: Respondent:
Feld.
1984. “Sound Structure as Social Structure.” Ethnomusicology 28(3):383-409.
Reviewer: Respondent:
Roseman,
Marina. 1984. “The Social Structuring of Sound: The Temiar of Penninsular
Malaysia.” Ethnomusicology 28(3):411-445.
Reviewer: Respondent:
Responses
by Keil, Robertson, Seeger, Becker and Becker, Gourlay, Powers, Basso, and
Dentan, pp. 446-466.
Reviewer: Respondent:
Reviewer: Respondent:
11/14 Music
as Culture II
iconicity;
music and metaphor; homologies; coherence.
For 11/21,
READ:
*Kaeppler,
Adrienne. 1978. “Melody, Drone and Decoration: Underlying Structures and
Surface Manifestations in Tongan Art and Society.” In Art and Society, ed. Michael Greenhalgh and
Vincent Megaw, 261-74. New York: St. Martin’s Press.
Reviewer: Respondent:
Becker,
Judith. 1979. “Time and Tune in Java." In The Imagination of Reality, ed. A.L. Becker and Aram
Yengoyan, 197-210. N.J.: Ablex. [GLRE 3] *[also on reserve for Music 1352]
Reviewer: Respondent:
Feld.
1989. “Aesthetics as Iconicity of Style, or
‘Lift-up-over-sounding’: Getting into the Kaluli Groove.” YTM 20:74-113.*[also in Music
Grooves].
Reviewer: Respondent:
Turino,
Thomas. 1989. “The Coherence of Social Style and Musical Creation among
the Aymara in Southern Peru.” Ethnomusicology 33:1-30.
Reviewer: Respondent:
Scan: *Herndon, Marcia and Norma
Mcleod. 1980. Music as Culture. Darby, Pa: Norwood.
11/21 Politics
of Representation II
emic/etic;
insiders/outsiders; self/other;
For 11/28 READ:
*Pike, Kenneth L. 1966. “Etic and Emic
Standpoints for the Description of Behavior.” In Language in Relation
to a Unified Theory of the Structure of Human Behavior. The Hague.
Reviewer: Respondent:
Burnim, Melonee. 1985. “Culture Bearer and
Tradition Bearer: An Ethnomusicologist’s Research on Gospel Music.”
Ethnomusicology 29(3):432-447.
Reviewer: Respondent:
*Koskoff, Ellen. 1993. “Miriam Sings her
Song: The Self and the Other in Anthropological Discourse.” In Musicology
and Difference: Gender and Sexuality in Music Scholarship edited by Ruth A. Solie. Berkeley: University of
California Press.
Reviewer: Respondent:
[additional reading]
World of Music 35(1) 1993. special issue on emics and etics in ethnomusicology.
11/28 Back to
Basics
old questions, new
answers; new directions, and some classics.
For 12/5 READ:
*Seeger,
Charles. 1977. “Speech, Music, and Speech about Music.” In Studies
in Musicology, 1935-1975. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Reviewer: Respondent:
Feld, Steven.
1984. “Communication, Music, and Speech about Music.” YTM 16:1-18.*[also in Music
Grooves]
Reviewer: Respondent:
Lieberman,
Fred. 1977. “Should Ethnomusicology Be Abolished?” CMS Symposium 17(2):198-206. [GLRE 1]
Reviewer: Respondent:
Rice,
Timothy. 1987. “Towards the Remodeling of Ethnomusicology.” Ethnomusicology 31(3):469-88; and responses.
Reviewer: Respondent:
*Barz,
Gregory and Timothy Cooley. 1997. “Introduction.” In Shadows in
the Field. New
York: Oxford.
Reviewer: Respondent:
12/5
Discussion
of Last Week’s Readings
Take Home
Exam Distributed.
12/12
Take Home
Exam Due.
Reading
Everyone
is expected to do all the assigned reading and to contribute to a discussion of
each item in class. During a given week, some participants will also be
responsible for writing a review of an article, while others will be assigned
to respond to the opinions expressed in those reviews.
Weekly
reviews of articles
Write a
critical 500-750 word review of selected readings. The first part of the review
should address the main theme, argument, or thesis statement of the article.
The second part of the review should present a critical appraisal of the work.
Finally, the review should indicate what specific application(s) or value the
work has for the field. The review should be deposited in the envelope posted
on my office door by Monday noon before the Tuesday class; additional copies
should be distributed via hard copy or e-mail to classmates by Monday noon. The
reviewer will present the review orally in class.
Weekly
responses to articles
Responses
will be presented orally in class and need not be submitted in written form.
Journal
of Keywords
Compile a
list of theoretical concepts from the readings and class discussion. Define the
terms, make reference to sources, and note their relevance to your work. Make a
point to raise questions about these concepts and terminology in class
discussion. I will collect journals periodically.
Assignment
#1 Survey of World Music Textbooks
Survey
world music textbooks and write a 5-10 page report on them. The objective of
this assignment is to familiarize you with these resources. A sheet of
guidelines for this assignment will be handed out a few weeks before the
assignment is due.
Assignment
#2 Five-Year Review of
Ethnomusicology Journals
Review 5
years of a major journal in the field and write a 5-10 page page report on the
main theoretical issues and trends. A sheet of guidelines for this assignment
will be handed out a few weeks before the assignment is due.
If you
attend the conference in Toronto, you may substitue this assignment with a
report on current trends in ethnomusicology.
Assignment
#3 Ethnography Assignment
In an 8-10 page paper, compare three ethnographic
works from three different historical periods (grouped accordingly below).
Discuss each one separately in terms of scholarly orientation (theory); method
of data gathering; technique of description/transcription; and analysis of
musical style. In your conclusion, contextualize the works within the field of
ethnomusicology. You may also suggest other works for this assignment, in
consultation with the instructor.
Final
Exam
The final
exam will be a take home exam based on readings and class discussion. It will
examine specific knowledge (names, technical terminology, important works) as
well as larger themes and concepts.
Evaluation
Evaluation
is based on the following criteria: class attendance and participation (20%);
weekly reviews and responses (30%); journal of keywords (10%); additional
assignments (20%); final exam (20%).
Ethnography
Assignment
Group1:
Lafitau, Joseph Francois. 1724.Customs of the
American Indians [Moeurs des
sauvages ameriquains, comparees aux moeurs des premiers temps]
Jones, William. 1964 [1784]. On the Modes of the
Hindoos In Hindu Music from
Various Authors edited by
Sourindro Mohun Tagore. Varansi: Chowkhamba Sanskrit Series, 88-112. Originally
published in Asiatick Researches. Reprinted in Music of Indiaby William Jones and N.. Augustus Wilard, 1962.
Baker, Theodore. 1976 [1882]. On the music of
the North American Indians [Über
die Musik der nordamerikanischen Wilden; translated by Ann Buckley.
Buren, The Netherlands : F. Knuf
ML3557 .B213
Stumpf, Carl. 1886. “Lieder der
Bellakula-Indianer.” Viertlejahrsschrift fur Musikwissenschaft 2:405-426 [GLRE 7].
Fox-Strangeways, A.H. 1914. The Music of
Hindostan. London: Oxford
University Press. Reprinted 1965.
*Densmore,
Frances. 1972 [1918]. Teton Sioux Music. New
York, Da Capo Press. Bulletin (Smithsonian Institution. Bureau of American
Ethnology 61).
Bartok, Bela. 1931. Hungarian Folk Music. London: Oxford University Press.
Group II:
*McAllester, David.
1973[1954]. Peyote Music. New
York: Viking Fund Publications in Anthropology, no. 13.
Malm, William. 1959. Japanese
Music and Musical Instruments.
Tokyo: C.E. Tuttle.
Merriam, Alan. 1967. Ethnomusicology
of the Flathead Indians. Chicago:
Aldine Pub. Co.
Hood,
Mantle. 1954. Patet in Javanese Music.
Slobin,
Marc. 1976. Music in the Culture of Northern Afghanistan. New York: Praeger.
Titon,
Jeff Todd. 1977. Early Downhome Blues: A Musical and Cultural Analysis. Urbana: University of Illinois
Press.
Group
III:
Berliner,
Paul. 1978. The Soul of Mbira. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Keil,
Charles. 1979. Tiv Song. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Chernoff,
John Miller. 1979. African Rhythm and African Sensibility. Chicago: University of Chicago
Press.
Neuman,
Daniel. 1980. The Life of Music in North India. Chicago: University of Chicago
Press.
Feld,
Steven. 1982. Sound and Sentiment. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Coplan,
David. 1985. In Township Tonight! Johannesburg: Ravan Press.
Seeger,
Anthony. 1987. Why Suya Sing. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Yung,
Bell. 1989. Cantonese Opera: Performance as Creative Process. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press.
Waterman,
Christopher Alan. 1990. Juju: A Social History and Ethnography of an African
Popular Music.
Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
*Turino,
Thomas. 1993. Moving Away from Silence. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Walser,
Robert. 1993. Running with the Devil: Power, Gender, and Madness in Heavy
Metal Music.
Hanover, N.H.: University Press of New England.
Rice,
Timothy. 1994. May it Fill Your Soul: Experiencing Bulgarian Music. Chicago: University of Chicago
Press.
Born,
Georgina. 1995. Rationalizing Culture: IRCAM, Boulez, and the
Institutionalization of the Musical Avant-Garde. Berkeley: University of
California Press.
Sugarman,
Jane. 1997. Engendering Song. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.