MUSC 10500 - Soundscapes: Musical Traditions Of The World

Through a series of case studies, this course will introduce musical traditions of the world through the lens of soundscapes, or the distinctive sounds, settings, and significances of music. This course will invite students to examine the different cultural domains of which music plays a role and empower students to embrace music as part of broader human experience.

Cr. 3.
Student Learning Outcomes
1. Increase musical vocabulary and understanding of key concepts used to discuss musical traditions of the world.
2. Improve written and spoken communication by engaging with musical traditions of the world.
3. Develop deep listening skills that will allow engagement with all musical traditions and the plurality of significances of such musics on a more intellectual level.
4. Become familiar with the diversity of cultural contexts from which music arises.
5. Apply soundscapes as a tool through which to engage with a diversity of sonic experiences.
6. Comprehend the disciplinary differences between ethnomusicology and musicology, including the histories of how both fields emerged and developed.
7. Understand the various agents, including both humans and artifacts, involved in shaping the distinctive sounds, settings, and significances of music.
8. Explore how music works in the brain, with memory, and as a trigger for nostalgia.
9. Develop tools to sensitively discuss music and understand how music signifies in the context of identity construction, migration, colonialism, the tourism industry, politics, dance, and other social aspects of musicking.