MUS 523

Spring 2018 All Classes

All Classes

Seminar in Musicology

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Credit: 4 hours.

Problems in historical and systematic musicology or ethnomusicology; discussions of special problems and reports on individual research.

May be repeated to a maximum of 8 hours. Prerequisite: Graduate standing in musicology or consent of instructor. Graduate students in music will be considered if they passed MUS 528A (consult Class Schedule for specific section information).

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MUS 523 class schedule data for spring 2018
	CRN	Type	Section	Time	Day	Location	Instructor	Section Details
	34782	Lecture-Discussion	A	1:00PM -3:50PM	T	Music Building	Buchanan, D	Part of Term: 1 Date Range: 01/16/18-05/02/18 Special Approval: Instructor Approval Required Section Info: Topic:Performance in Practice: Ethnomusiclogical Perspectives Since the late 1960s, folklorists, anthropologists, and music scholars have argued for a broader approach to the study of performance practice that takes into account, in specific detail, how and why contextual and other social factors influence the ultimate shape of a particular expressive or artistic product, message, or event. This seminar traces the evolution of paradigms associated with such an approach, glossed generally as the “ethnography of performance.” We will consider 1) the inception of performance paradigms in the fields of literature and folklore (the ethnography of speaking, verbal art as performance, the ethnography of communication); 2) their transformation and application in the social anthropology of ritual, festivity, and theater; 3) the turn to performativity in gender studies and the far-reaching ramifications of this development for other disciplines, including music; 4) performance studies and performance ethnography as methodological companions to musicological studies; 4) performance as ethnographic technique; and 5) contemporary applications of performance theory in ethnomusicological, anthropological, and performance studies scholarship. Topics will include oral literature (epics, tales, and tale-singers); music(s) in oral tradition; the anthropology of space and place; musical occasions, cultural performances, and their analysis (carnivals, festivals, masquerades, parades, concerts, civic rites, religious ceremonies, calendrical customs, life-cycle rites, dramas, exhibits, public culture, heritage displays, multimedia productions, etc.); performance practice; and performance as pedagogical and/or methodological strategy in period (i.e., early music or similar) and non-western music ensembles, among others. Special attention will also be given to how the ethnography of performance relates, historically and methodologically, to the performance of ethnography. This course is suitable for any graduate student in music, folklore, anthropology, or related disciplines interested in adopting a critical perspective toward theorizing or analyzing performance as event or practice, one that “targets performance occasions as potential dramatizations of difference and social dialectics, performers as creative agents in (and embodiments of) their enactment, and expressive media as embedding and articulating real social questions and power asymmetries.” Readings will derive from a broad range of musicological, anthropological, folklore, and performance studies scholarship; in addition to weekly readings and their discussion, seminar participants will be expected to develop a term project and accompanying paper. Restriction(s): Restricted to Graduate - Urbana-Champaign. Restricted to students in the Music department.
	34785	Lecture-Discussion	B	1:00PM -3:50PM	W	Music Building	Silvers, M	Part of Term: 1 Date Range: 01/16/18-05/02/18 Section Info: TOPIC: Musical Instruments and Society: In this class, we will explore the social histories and meanings of musical instruments from multiple global contexts. Following a brief introduction to the history of the field of organology, we will ask: How are instrument constructed, celebrated, and played as culturally significant objects? What does the commodification and industrialization of musical instruments entail? What are the musical and social consequences of the international spread of instruments through colonialism and global capitalism? What is the environmental impact of the production of musical instruments and how can the necessary resources be managed sustainably? Case studies will range from wax cylinders, turntables, and iPhones to violins, accordions, guitars, and Central African drums, among many others. Restriction(s): Restricted to Graduate - Urbana-Champaign. Restricted to students in the Music department.