FAIR 364 - World Music and Culture

This course examines various non-Western music traditions, along with their many surrounding cultural contexts. The study of specific musical styles and traits will be accompanied by an examination of its use in society, the role of the performer, performance settings, and other similar topics. The course will focus on various traditional and popular musics of India, Africa, Indonesia, and the Middle East. Special focus will be given to ways of thinking about music that fall outside of the standard conceptions of Western music. This includes West African concepts of time in music, which are often cyclical rather than linear, or the Indian raga, which is an abstract concept with no Western analog that defines many fundamental aspects about how a song is performed. Specific topics will include Indian Bollywood film music, Indonesian puppet theatre (Wayang kulit), and West African storytelling music of the Griot. This course will also examine basic concepts surrounding ethnomusicology: the academic field involving the study of music in its cultural context. What are some common ethnographic methods for studying a culture and their music? What are the implications of the roles of outsider and insider with regards to a music and its surrounding culture? S/U grading.

Prerequisites & Notes: FAIR 201A with concurrency; FAIR 203A with concurrency; or instructor permission.
Credits: 5
Grade Mode: S/U