Music and Cultures
Code: 100657 ECTS Credits: 6| Degree | Type | Year |
|---|---|---|
| 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 objective of the subject is to introduce students to the understanding of music as a cultural phenomenon, closely linked to the social and symbolic contexts in which it is manifested. This perspective allows us to recognize the diversity of cultural environments and the different logics of social organization, together with the multiple forms of musical structure and the spaces of activity in each music present.
Through this approach, we seek to offer a broad and contextualized view of various musical traditions of the world, explained from their human environment. Això has to identify major cultural areas in relation to the six musical practices and introduce the fundamental elements of the culturalist approach of the anthropology of music and ethnomusicology.
Competences
- Make changes to methods and processes in the area of knowledge in order to provide innovative responses to society's needs and demands.
- 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.
- Take sex- or gender-based inequalities into consideration when operating within one's own area of knowledge.
Learning Outcomes
- Analyse a situation and identify points for improvement.
- 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.
- Communicate using language that is not sexist or discriminatory.
- 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 situations in which a change or improvement is needed.
- 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 and relational practice: conceptual and methodological implications for the study of musical phenomena.
Sound organisation as a cultural construct: contrast and coexistence of diverse auditory paradigms.
Diversity in musical structuring: sound organisation, vocal and instrumental practices, and systems of transmission in various cultural contexts.
Musical practices and worldview: the relationship between music, territory, memory and spirituality.
Collective vocal systems and oral polyphony: forms of participation, listening and collective expression.
Rhythmic and metric organization in non-Western contexts: alternative notions of pulse, cycle and asymmetry.
Extended vocal techniques and multiphonic practices as cultural forms of expression and identity.
Music and sociopolitical context: symbolic and political uses of sound in contexts of resistance, oppression or affirmation.
Conceptual and methodological tensions: art/popular, oral/written, authorship/anonimity, and their implications for musical research.
Gender and music: roles, representations and practices associated with gender in diverse contexts.
Conceptual foundations of ethnomusicology and epistemological conflicts: emic/etic perspectives; function vs. purpose; processes of enculturation and acculturation; cultural appropriation; ethnicity; social relevance; gender; identity narratives; synchronic and diachronic approaches.
Introduction to technologies applied to musicological research.
Activities and Methodology
| Title | Hours | ECTS | Learning Outcomes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Type: Directed | |||
| Debate Seminars | 15 | 0.6 | 1, 4, 5, 8, 10, 7 |
| Study of class contents | 70 | 2.8 | 2, 4, 6, 8, 13, 15 |
| Theory sessions | 30 | 1.2 | 2, 4, 6, 8, 11, 13, 12, 14 |
| Type: Supervised | |||
| Supervision | 2 | 0.08 | 1, 4, 3, 5, 10, 15 |
| Type: Autonomous | |||
| Information search | 30 | 1.2 | 2, 3, 8, 11, 14, 15 |
The course combines theoretical and practical aspects. Lecture sessions offering general theoretical training alternate with sessions where theoretical concepts are discussed collectively.
The students will be assessed on their understanding of concepts related to ethnomusicology and the anthropology of music within the context of the social sciences and humanities, as well as their ability to situate the major musical and cultural areas studied.
15 minutes of each class will be reserved, within the timeframe established by the school/degree program, for students to complete the surveys evaluating the teaching staff's performance and the course evaluation.
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 | 2, 1, 4, 3, 5, 6, 8, 9, 11, 10, 7, 13, 12, 14, 15 |
| Mid term exam | 45% | 1 | 0.04 | 2, 1, 4, 3, 5, 6, 8, 9, 11, 10, 7, 13, 12, 14, 15 |
| Participation and collective exercises | 10% | 1 | 0.04 | 2, 1, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10, 7, 13, 12, 14 |
Assessment of the course is based on the following elements:
Two written exams aimed at demonstrating the assimilation of the basic theoretical concepts covered in the lectures. These two exams, scheduled for the middle and the end of the course, will each count for 45% of the final grade. To calculate the overall mark, students must obtain a minimum score of 5 out of 10 in each exam separately. The remaining 10% of the final grade will be based on attendance and active participation in class, through continuous assessment exercises.
Students who do not sit either of the two knowledge-based exams will be classified as "not assessable". A resit opportunity will be offered to those who do not reach the minimum passing mark (5) in the regular assessment.
An initial diagnostic assessment will be carried out, but this will not count towards the final grade for the course under any circumstances.
At the time of each assessment activity, the lecturer will inform students via Moodle of the procedure and the date for grade review.
For this course, the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies is permitted exclusively for support tasks, such as bibliographic or information searches, text correction, translations, and other similar uses expressly authorised by the teaching staff. In any written activity, students must clearly indicate which parts have been generated or assisted by these technologies, specify the tools used, and include a critical reflection on how they influenced the process and the final outcome. A lack of transparency in the use of AI in any assessable activity will be considered academic dishonesty and may lead to partial or total penalisation of the grade for that activity.
This course does not allow single assessment.
Bibliography
Beard, David, & Gloag, Kenneth. (2005). Musicology: The key concepts. Routledge.
Bucciarelli, Melania, & Joncus, Berta (Eds.). (2007). Music as social and cultural practice. The Boodle Press.
Cámara de Landa, Enrique. (2003). Etnomusicología. ICCM.
Chiantore, Luca, Domínguez, Áurea, & Martínez, Sílvia. (2018). Escribir sobre música. Musikeon Books.
Clarke, Eric, & Cook, Nicholas (Eds.). (2004). Empirical musicology: Aims, methods, prospects. Oxford University Press.
Cook, Nicholas. (2001). De Madonna al canto gregoriano. Una muy breve introducción a la música. Alianza Editorial.
Cook, Nicholas, Ingalls, Monique, & Trippett, David (Eds.). (2019). The Cambridge companion to music in digital culture. Cambridge University Press.
Cunningham, Mark. (1998). Good vibrations (2nd ed.). Sanctuary Publishing Ltd.
de Riquer, Borja (Ed.). (2025). La memòria dels catalans. Edicions 62.
Frith, Simon. (1986). Performing rites: On the value of popular music. Harvard University Press.
García Quiñones, Marta. (2024). La música más allá del cerebro. MRA Ediciones.
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. Musikeon Books.
Martí, Josep. (1995). La idea de “relevancia social” aplicada al estudio del fenómeno musical. TRANS: Revista transcultural de música, 1. https://www.sibetrans.com/trans/articulo/19/la-idea-de-relevancia-social-aplicada-al-estudio-del-fenomeno-musical
Martí, Josep. (2000). Más allá del arte. La música como generadora de realidades sociales. Deriva Editorial.
McClary, Susan. (1991). Feminine endings: Music, gender, and sexuality. University of Minnesota Press.
Mendívil, Julio. (2021). La música como invención: Ensayos sobre etnomusicología y antropología de la música. Ciudad de México: UNAM / El Colegio de San Luis.
Mendívil, Julio. (2023). En contra de la música. Herramientas para pensar, comprender y vivir las músicas. Buenos Aires: Gourmet Musical.
Merriam, Alan. (1964). The anthropology of music. Northwestern University Press.
Nettl, Bruno. (1996). Música folklórica y tradicional de los continentes occidentales. Alianza Editorial.
Nettl, Bruno, Stone, Ruth, Porter, James, & Rice, Timothy (Eds.). (1999). The Garland encyclopedia of world music (Vols. 1–10). Garland Publishing.
Roquer, Jordi, Rey, Mauricio, & Sola, Gala. (2019). Remixing Merriam, rethinking the prism. In Encabo, Enrique (Ed.), Bits, cámara, acción (pp. 175–188). El Poblet Edicions.
Scarnecchia, Paolo. (1998). Música popular y música culta. Icaria Ed.
Small, Christopher. (1980). Música. Sociedad. Educación. Alianza Editorial.
Small, Christopher. (1998). Musicking: The meanings of performing and listening. Wesleyan University Press.
Zagorski-Thomas, Simon. (2020). The Bloomsbury handbook of music production. Bloomsbury Publishing USA.
Software
AUDACITY
https://www.audacityteam.org
NEARPOD l
https://nearpod.com
REAPER Digital Audio Workstation.
https://www.reaper.fm
Groups and Languages
Please note that this information is provisional until 30 November 2025. You can check it through this link. To consult the language you will need to enter the CODE of the subject.
| Name | Group | Language | Semester | Turn |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| (PAUL) Classroom practices | 1 | Catalan | first semester | morning-mixed |
| (TE) Theory | 1 | Catalan | first semester | morning-mixed |