Moving

I am in the middle of moving to another house right now. I am doing my best to check e-mail when I have a chance, but calling me will be your easiest way to get in touch with me. The phone number is on the course information sheet I gave you the first day.

BC students: right now my first priority is to help Suffolk students with their exams (which are December 11-12). I will begin grading your fieldwork projects and assignments after that.

Suffolk students: I am making every effort to grade your fieldwork projects by Tuesday morning. Assignment 11 may or may not be graded at that point.

Final exam review

The list of terms to review for the final exam is now available under Course Documents at right.

YouTube links for final class

Barack Obama Bollywood video
Delta Air Lines ad featuring Adiemus, Finnish vocal group that sings in an invented language

YouTube links for reggae

Jimmy Cliff, "The Harder They Come" from 1972 film of same name: the first exposure many North Americans had to reggae
Jimmy Cliff, "I Can See Clearly" from 1993 Disney film Cool Runnings, about the Jamaican bobsled team

BC: Syllabus correction

BC students: I have fixed the incorrect dates on the syllabus. The version on the website now is correct.

Suffolk: No class Monday, 11/26/07

Suffolk students: I will not be able to hold class today, Monday, November 26, because my wife had a medical emergency this morning and is in the emergency room. Within the next few minutes, I will upload a revised syllabus for the remaining days.

YouTube links for African American music

Rev. Clay Evans, whooping sermon
A provocative argument on the minstrel show

YouTube links for Native America

Navajo Song and Dance contest - see p. 51 of Titon.
Navajo grass dance
Powwow in Oklahoma

BC: Exam 2 clarification

BC students:

Please do not worry about the material on North America and Balinese gamelan on the exam 2 review. This material had to be included on the Suffolk exam but is not on yours.

Review for exam 2

The review for exam 2 is now posted under Course Documents at right. I apologize for the delay.

Suffolk students: This exam will have some material from the North American music we study this week. I will add terms from this material to the review in the next few days.

YouTube links for Africa

Jali performing on the kora at a festival in England
Mbira performers
1932 film of so-called "Pygmies": good example of the "bad old days" of colonialism and racism
Batwa of Uganda: current situation
San of the Kalahari Desert

Suffolk: exam 2 postponed

Suffolk students:

I have postponed exam 2 until Monday, November 5. I should have a review guide posted by tomorrow afternoon.

Please note that this change means your next short assignment is due on Friday, November 2.

BC: Major syllabus update

BC students:

I discovered a major mistake in the syllabus: I had scheduled one week more of classes than exist in the semester! The new syllabus posted under Course Documents corrects this problem. If you printed out the previous syllabus, be certain to update your copy.

Away at conference

I am currently at the Society for Ethnomusicology conference in Columbus, Ohio. I can check e-mail but it may take longer than usual for a response.

Suffolk students: Remember that the next short assignment is due by 11:00 am tomorrow (Friday). Please do not expect an immediate acknowledgment message. I will try to have them graded by Monday.

Syllabus update 10/24/07

I have finalized the listening and writing assignments for all classes up to the Thanksgiving break. If you have printed a copy of the syllabus, be sure to update your copy.

Upcoming concerts at MFA

The Museum of Fine Arts is hosting two events that would both be excellent sites for the fieldwork project:

1. Demonstration of Japanese noh theater (the predecessor to kabuki). Sunday, November 18, 12:30-2:00. I believe this is free.
   
2. Tinariwen (west African rock band). Sunday, November 25, 7:30. $30.
   

BC students: Arts careers workshop

CAREER NIGHT FOR THE ARTS
Tuesday, October 30
7:00-9:00 PM
McMullen Museum of Art, Devlin Hall
Informal night of networking with alumni working in the performing, visual, and literary arts
www.bc.edu/artscareers

Indian music at Suffolk

There will be an excellent opportunity for those of you who are interested in Indian music. Shahid Parvez will perform on the sitar on Tuesday, October 30, 4:00-6:00, at the C. Walsh Theater.

(BC students: this is at 55 Temple St., Beacon Hill, behind the State House).

Admission is free.

Malaysia and Indonesia

NPR ran an interesting story this morning that underlines the musical similarities between Indonesia and Malaysia.

Suffolk: syllabus update 10/12/07

Suffolk students only:
My apologies for the confusion. When I revised the syllabus to account for my day away at a conference, I changed the wrong day. The syllabus currently posted is correct.

Syllabus change: Absence on Oct 25-26

I will be attending the Society for Ethnomusicology conference on Thursday, October 25, and Friday, October 26. The absence requires small adjustments in both syllabuses. Please update your copy if you have printed it.

BC: You will have a class meeting on Thursday. You will watch a film that day, and one of my colleagues will show the film.

Suffolk: You will not have a class meeting on Friday, but you have a writing assignment to be turned in by e-mail by 11:00 on Friday morning.

BC: Updated Javanese gamelan PowerPoint

BC students:
I prematurely uploaded the PowerPoint presentation for Javanese gamelan to the WebCT site. I have just uploaded the latest version of the file. Please be sure to update your copy.

Repost: Javanese gamelan video

I thought I would repost the Javanese gamelan video with additional explanation, since it is such a rich source.

0:21 - gender (left foreground) plays rapid, high notes, while slenthem (right foreground) plays the skeleton slowly, one note at a time
1:50 - closeup of bonangs (kettle gongs)
2:57 - closeup of rebab (vertical spike fiddle)
3:30 - closeup of kenongs (large kettle gongs) and kethuk (in red frame)

Suffolk: Balinese gamelan not on exam 1

Suffolk students only:

So that we are not rushed on Wednesday, I have decided to concentrate on reinforcing the material on Javanese gamelan that we introduced today. We will have a brief introduction to Balinese gamelan on Wednesday as well, so please do the indicated preparation on the syllabus. However, the Balinese gamelan material will be tested on Exam 2, not on Friday.

YouTube links for Indonesia

Javanese gamelan - soft style with singers
Suling player - notice that he is not able to perform the circular breathing technique that many suling players use to produce a continuous tone
Bali and Beyond Gamelan - excellent Balinese gamelan examples. See 2:27 and 6:35 for good examples of kotekan (interlocking).

Updated PowerPoint slide for Beijing opera

After grading your assignments on Beijing opera, I have added another slide to the PowerPoint presentation for that day's class, in order to provide more detail on the history of China in the 20th century. In particular, a number of you confused the Communist Revolution (1949) with the Cultural Revolution (1966-1969). The portions of Farewell, My Concubine that we watched do not address the Cultural Revolution.

Be sure to update your copy of the slides if you have downloaded them.

Terms for review for Exam One

I have compiled a list of terms you can use to review for the first exam. This is available at a link on the syllabus (find the date of the exam), or with this link.

BC: Listening assignments on WebCT

BC students only:

In a few cases, assigned listening is not available at sites like Rhapsody, Napster, and iTunes. You will need to log on to the course's WebCT site to listen to these tracks as streaming audio.

The Beatles songs assigned for Thursday are now posted to WebCT. Click on the "Listening Assignments" graphic.

Suffolk: syllabus update 9/20/07

Suffolk students only:

I would like to show about 15 minutes more of Farewell, My Concubine in class on Friday and then conduct discussion based on your assignments. Most of our scheduled material on Indian art music will have to wait until Monday. I have updated the syllabus to reflect this change. Dates of assignments and exams are not affected.

Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra

Another example of Japanese pop music:
Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra

More links for Japan

Taiko drummers at Tokyo Marathon
Taiko drumming in Auckland, New Zealand
Taiko for tourists

YouTube links for Japanese art music

Gagaku performance (close-ups begin at 2:40)
Bunraku performance

PowerPoint presentations

The PowerPoint presentations used in class are now available to both BC and Suffolk students.

BC: Click on "WebCT" at right and select MUS 301.

Suffolk: Click on "Blackboard" at right, log in to Campus Cruiser, select Blackboard, then select HUM 223. (Warning: Blackboard will not open if your web browser is set to block popup windows.)

These files generally will be uploaded to the site after class.

Suffolk syllabus update 9/7/07

Suffolk students only:

On the HUM 223 syllabus, I have removed some old assignments that were inadvertently left in the document for some days in October and November. Please update your copy if you have printed it.

YouTube links for 9/4/07

Here are links to two YouTube videos for traditions we will not have a chance to study in depth during this course:

Mongolian overtone singing
Australian aboriginal didjeridu

Course overview

This course provides an overview of the world’s musics, using in-depth case studies from around the world. In each case, we will be sure to relate musical expression to its cultural context. While most of us primarily consider music a source of entertainment, in this course we will encounter many other contexts for the production of music: education, work, politics, religion, ethnic identity. A major concern will be globalization: what happens to a musical tradition when it comes into contact with the international music business and is commodified for American listeners? Our ultimate goal is to encourage critical thinking about the role of music in our own lives, in part by coming into contact with ways of life in which the role of music is different from what we take for granted.

This is a course in music history, not music theory or performance. This course assumes no particular background in music, such as the ability to read notation or to perform on an instrument. Therefore, listening assignments, both in class and on your own, are essential to the course experience. You will learn new concepts and techniques for listening to musical performances and analyzing them. At the conclusion of the course, you will apply these techniques by writing about a performance of your choice.

While the purpose of this course is primarily to broaden your background, rather than to provide specific job skills, nevertheless you will find that employers find broadly educated people more desirable as job applicants.