Analyzing World Musical Pieces
Analyzing World Musical Pieces Every musical piece tells stories about its place of origin, the artists who create and perform it, the contexts of its performance, the audiences that experience it, and the meanings associated with it. Yet, these stories are often unobvious to listeners without the right tools to analyze and interpret the piece. In this seminar we will develop critical skills for analyzing exemplary musical pieces from Africa, Asia, Europe, the Americas, and the Middle East. Through readings, writing assignments, lectures, discussions, mini-performances, research activities, and oral presentations, we will learn how to appreciate and represent diverse musical works and their accompanying stories more fully and appropriately, as extensions of their sonic and extra-sonic worlds. No musical background is required.
Analyzing World Musical Pieces Every musical piece tells stories about its place of origin, the artists who create and perform it, the contexts of its performance, the audiences that experience it, and the meanings associated with it. Yet, these stories are often unobvious to listeners without the right tools to analyze and interpret the piece. In this seminar we will develop critical skills for analyzing exemplary musical pieces from Africa, Asia, Europe, the Americas, and the Middle East. Through readings, writing assignments, lectures, discussions, mini-performances, research activities, an …Read more
I absolutely enjoyed learning about ethnomusicology, and my favorite parts were guest visits from folk musicians like Han Hazy, Aduonum and the numerous opportunities to observe ethnomusic in person. Although the readings and papers gradually became extremely overwhelming for me, I believe that they were necessary to understanding music analysis and ethnomusicological frameworks because each reading introduces new concepts and techniques that pertained to our course. Every week we explored a select framework through readings from Analyzing World Music Pieces, and we would complete an assignment with Quotes, Questions and Quandary (QQQ). Then, we discussed the framework in class and he would send out an essay prompt for the week. You can see how this can get overwhelming after missing a couple classes. However, Kafumbe is an extraordinary person, and it was a great joy to feel heard because he understood how much I love ethnomusicology, although I was struggling with work in all my classes. He was very accommodating to my needs, and I'm sad that my performance in the class was affected by other factors. If I could, I would more than definitely retake this class, and I would have him as a professor for any course. Thank you Professor Kafumbe.
I absolutely enjoyed learning about ethnomusicology, and my favorite parts were guest visits from folk musicians like Han Hazy, Aduonum and the numerous opportunities to observe ethnomusic in person. Although the readings and papers gradually became extremely overwhelming for me, I believe that they were necessary to understanding mu …Read more
This course seemed interesting at first, an intro to ethnomusicology that involves a case study on one song... chose your song wisely, you will develope a deeper understanding of your song by analyzing that song through 8 different ethnomusicological frameworks. You will be practically writing the same essay every single week, I cannot stress enough how you must really, really, really enjoy the song you are choosing, and make sure the song is incredibly culturally rich or else writing essay after essay after essay will become increasingly difficult. In class Kafumbe lectures you about the reading you have just read the for the week before. Its nice that theres only one or two readings per week, but they must be completed before your first class for the week alongside a written response "QQQ" as he calls them. You can usually BS the QQQ by skimming and choosing random quotes, but you usually have to read the whole reading to answer the weekly essay efficiently/cohesively.
This course seemed interesting at first, an intro to ethnomusicology that involves a case study on one song... chose your song wisely, you will develope a deeper understanding of your song by analyzing that song through 8 different ethnomusicological frameworks. You will be practically writing the same essay every single week, I cann …Read more