Musics and Cultures
Code: 100657 ECTS Credits: 6| Degree | Type | Year |
|---|---|---|
| 2500240 Musicology | FB | 1 |
Contact
- Name:
- Jordi Roquer Gonzalez
- Email:
- jordi.roquer@uab.cat
Teaching groups languages
You can view this information at the end of this document.
Prerequisites
It is desirable (but not strictly necessary) to have a basic musical knowledge.
Objectives and Contextualisation
The aim of this course is to make students aware of the link between the music and the context of the culture in which they manifest themselves. This connection makes the difference of cultural and organizational environments in the organization of society evident, in correspondence with the various logical structures of music and the different environments of activity where each music is produced.
The educational outcome must be a broad enough picture of music that is located and explained from the corresponding human environment. On the other hand, this will allow for the students to perceive the great cultural areas with respect to music and to show the basic elements of the culturalist approach in the study of the music.
Competences
- Students must be capable of applying their knowledge to their work or vocation in a professional way and they should have building arguments and problem resolution skills within their area of study.
- Students must be capable of communicating information, ideas, problems and solutions to both specialised and non-specialised audiences.
- Students must have and understand knowledge of an area of study built on the basis of general secondary education, and while it relies on some advanced textbooks it also includes some aspects coming from the forefront of its field of study.
Learning Outcomes
- Analysing the recipients of an artistic phenomenon in a specific cultural context.
- Apply and transmit knowledge acquired to the social demands related to the musics of other cultures.
- Apply knowledge acqured in emerging areas of musicology, both in the field of historical musicology and in that of urban , popular tradition and non-western music.
- Conceptualize the notion of music as a vision between cultures and in a critical position present in our social surroundings.
- Critically taking part in classroom oral debates and using the discipline's specific vocabulary.
- Discern the basic elements of the main areas of music and culture and relate them to musical praxis. Develop the experience of cultural relativity in the act of listening.
- Drawing up an academic text using the discipline's specific vocabulary.
- Identify the main trends in current musical research.
- Recognise in musical praxis element of different cultures and different historical periods.
- Recognise the role of music and art in today's society, its function in performing arts, its relation to audio-visual culture, technology and informatics, as a well as with culture and leisure companies.
- Relate musical creations with their different contexts, discriminating between the different social funtions of the music, its role and that of the musician in society and in relation to other artistic manifestations.
- Summarising acquired knowledge about the origin and transformations experienced in its several fields of study.
Content
Music as a communicative process: Implications in cultural terms.
The logics of culturally driven sound: The clash between cultural paradigms.
An introductory approach to the oral polyphonies of Europe.
Eastern Europe: From Albanian isopolyphony to aksak models.
Music in Central Asia: Throat- and multifonic singing.
The music of the Aboriginals in the Arnhem region: Didgeridoo, songlines, and dream time.
The cultural logics of Balinese music.
South Africa and apartheid: Music and politics; music and resistance.
The dichotomies of high culture / popular culture; orality / writing; anonymous / authored.
Gender issues in music.
The cultural basis and implications in the works of John Blacking.
The basic concepts of ethnomusicology: Emic / etic; purpose / function; ethnicity; enculturation / acculturation; appropriation; gender; social relevance; ethnicity; patterns of rejection; narrativity; synchronic / diachronic.
An introduction to technology applied to musicology.
Activities and Methodology
| Title | Hours | ECTS | Learning Outcomes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Type: Directed | |||
| Debate Seminars | 15 | 0.6 | 3, 5, 6 |
| Study of class contents | 70 | 2.8 | 1, 3, 4, 6, 10, 12 |
| Theory sessions | 30 | 1.2 | 1, 3, 4, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11 |
| Type: Supervised | |||
| Supervision | 2 | 0.08 | 2, 3, 12 |
| Type: Autonomous | |||
| Information search | 30 | 1.2 | 1, 2, 6, 8, 11, 12 |
The course combines theoretical and practical concepts. Thus, expository sessions of general theoretical training will be alternated with others where the theoretical concepts are debated collectively.
The comprehension of the concepts related to ethnomusicology and culturalism within the context of the social sciences and humanities, as well as the ability to situate major musical and cultural areas, studied will be assessed.
15 minutes of a class will be reserved, within the timetable established by the centre/title, for the complementation by the students of the assessment surveys of the teaching staff's performance and the assessment of the subject.
Annotation: Within the schedule set by the centre or degree programme, 15 minutes of one class will be reserved for students to evaluate their lecturers and their courses or modules through questionnaires.
Assessment
Continous Assessment Activities
| Title | Weighting | Hours | ECTS | Learning Outcomes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Final exam | 45% | 1 | 0.04 | 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 |
| Mid term exam | 45% | 1 | 0.04 | 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 |
| Participation and collective exercises | 10% | 1 | 0.04 | 5 |
The evaluation of the course consist of the following elements:
Two written tests, aiming to show the assimilation of the basic theoretical concepts acquired through the expository classes. These two exams, distributed in the middle and end of the course, will each count as 45% of the overall grade. It will be mandatory, for the overall calculation of the grade, to have passed each test separately with more than a 5 out of 10. The remaining 10% of the overall grade will come from attendance and active participation in class.
People who have not taken any of the two written tests will be considered "not assessed". Re-evaluation is intended for those students who do not reach the minimum qualification (5) in the ordinary evaluation.
There will be an initial assessment that will not count in any case for the final grade of the course.
Students who take the single assessment will have to hand in three specific exercises: a) a synthesis of concepts from the compulsory reading books (30%) b) a synthesis of theoretical concepts of the subject (30%) and c ) a specific questionnaire proposed by the teaching staff (40%).
At the time of carrying out each assessment activity, the teacher will inform the students (Moodle) of the procedure and the date of review of the qualifications.
Bibliography
DE LECTURA OBLIGADA:
Cook, Nicholas. 2001. De Madonna al canto gregoriano. Una muy breve introducción a la música, Madrid: Alianza editorial.
Martí, Josep. 2000. Más allá del arte. La música como generadora de realidades sociales. Sant Cugat del Vallès: Deriva editorial.
Small, Christopher. 1980. Música. Sociedad. Educación. Madrid, Alianza editorial.
DE LECTURA RECOMANADA:
García Quiñones, Marta. 2024. La música más allá del cerebro. Barcelona: MRA Ediciones.
Martí, Josep. 1995. "La idea de 'relevancia social' aplicada al estudio del fenómeno musical". Dins: Revista TRANS, Vol. 1 1995.
Merriam Alan. 1964. The Anthropology of Music. Evaston (Illinois) Northwestern University Press.
Roquer, Jordi; Rey, Mauricio; Sola, Gala (2019). "Remixing Merriam, rethinking the prism". Dins de: Enrique Encabo (ed.). Dins: Bits, Cámara, acción. Castelló: El Poblet Edicions.
Small, Christopher. 1998. Musicking: The Meanings of Performing and Listening. Middletown: Wesleyan University Press.
LECTURES COMPLEMENTÀRIES:
Beard, David; Gloag, Kenneth. 2005: Musicology, the key concepts. New York: Routledge.
Bucciarelli, Melania i Joncus, Berta (eds). 2007. Music as social and cultural practice. New York: The Boodle Press.
Cámara de Landa, Enrique. 2003. Etnomusicología, Madrid: ICCM.
Chiantore, Luca; Domínguez, Áurea; Martínez, Sílvia.2018. Escribir sobre música. Barcelona: Musikeon Books.
Clarke, Eric; Cook, Nicholas (Eds). 2004. Empirical Musicology: Aims, Methods, Prospects. New York: Oxford
University Press.
Cook, Nicholas; Inigalls, Monique; Trippett, David (eds).2019. The Cambridge Companion to Music in Digital Culture. Cambridge University Press.
Frith, Simon. 1986. Performing Rites. On the value of popular music. Harvard University Press.
Katz, Mark. 2010. Capturing sound: How technology has changed music. University of California Press.
López Cano, Rubén. 2018. Música dispersa: Apropiación, influencias, robos y remix en la era de la escucha digital. Barcelona: Musikeon Books.
Nettl, Bruno; Stone, Ruth; Porter, James; Rice, Timothy (eds). 1999. The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music, en 10 volums.
Nettl, Bruno. 1996. Música folklórica y tradicional de los continentes occidentales. Madrid: Alianza Ed.
Malm, William P. 1985. Culturas musicales del Pacífico, el Cercano Oriente y Asia, Madrid, Alianza editorial.
McClary, Susan. 1991. Feminine Endings: Music, Gender, and Sexuality. Minneapolis: Minnesota University Press.
Scarnecchia, Paolo. 1998. Música popular y música culta. Barcelona: Icaria Ed.
Zagorski-Thomas, Simon. 2020. The Bloomsbury handbook of music production. Bloomsbury Publishing USA.
Col·lecció Akal de llibres i CD sobre diferents cultures musicals. En aquest moment, han estat publicats 11 volums.
Software
AUDACITY
https://www.audacityteam.org
NEARPOD l
https://nearpod.com
REAPER Digital Audio Workstation.
https://www.reaper.fm
Language list
| Name | Group | Language | Semester | Turn |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| (PAUL) Classroom practices | 1 | Catalan | first semester | morning-mixed |
| (TE) Theory | 1 | Catalan | first semester | morning-mixed |