Introduction to World Music

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Introduction to World Music

• Dr. Tamara Livingston
• http//ksuweb.kennesaw.edu/tlivings/worldmusic.ht
  m

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Course Goals

• Think critically about music
• Be able to see music as more than just
  entertainment
• Understand how music means how is musical
  meaning created?
• Develop respect for the significance of
  non-Western music systems in their respective
  cultures

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Ethnomusicology

• The study of music in culture (cultural context)
  the study of music as culture.
• Sounds
• Concepts
• Behaviors

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Defining the Issues

• Music or Musics
• Music systems is Western Art Music one or many
  music systems?
• Universality vs. Differences
• Universal language vs. personal music
• Defining Music
• Politics of Music (musical meaning and discord)
  (exs. Wagner in Israel Mozart in Berlin)

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Music Examples

• Is it music?
• What can we say about it?
• What does it mean?
• How does it mean? (what other information might
  we need before addressing this?)

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Defining Music

• Soundscape the characteristic sounds of a
  particular place, both human and nonhuman R.
  Murray Schafer (Canadian composer)
• Music is sound that is humanly patterned or
  organized J. Blacking (British
  ethnomusicologist)
• Music-culture the way of life of a people,
  learned and transmitted from generation to
  generation, as it relates to music.

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Culture

• that complex whole which includes knowledge,
  belief, art, morals, law, custom, and any other
  capabilities and habits acquired by man as a
  member of society E.B. Tyler (anthropologist)

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Elements of a Musical Performance
MUSIC
PERFORMERS
AUDIENCE
TIME AND SPACE
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A Music-Culture Model
AFFECTIVE EXPERIENCE
PERFORMANCE
COMMUNITY
MEMORY/HISTORY
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Another Music-Culture Model
SOUND
Melody Rhythm and Meter Texture Form
CONCEPT
BEHAVIOR
Aesthetics Ethos Theory Meanings Repertoires Ident
ity History
How music is produced Who produces it Who
participates Ritual Rules Audience/Performer
interaction Movement
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Thinking / Writing About Music

• Why do we need music-culture models? Isnt music
  analysis all that is needed?
• Why do ethnomusicologists seem to be more
  interested in cultural aspects rather than the
  music itself?

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Description and Theory

• Description of musical practice includes
  Face-to-face observation and participation
  insider interviews fieldwork (immersion in a
  music-culture)
• Theoretical analysis attempts to ground the
  what in the why by linking description to
  meaning within a cultural context

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Ethnomusicological Theories

• Cultural Evolutionism and Diffusionism
  (Comparative)
• Structural-Functional Approaches
• Linguistic Approaches
• Marxist Approaches
• Performance Theory
• Gender, Ethnicity and Identity Approaches
• Postmodernism, Postcolonialism, and Globalism

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Analysis Example

• Gilberto Gil (Brazilian Singer/Songwriter), from
  The Spirit of Samba The Black Music of Brazil,
  Jeremy Marre.