Music and Religion (Fall 2007)

Music 464/564: Topics in Ethnomusicology: MUSIC & RELIGION

Classes: Friday 9:00-11:50, Music Library 2-109A Instructor: Federico Spinetti Office: 3-65 Fine Arts Building; office hours: Tuesday 10:00-12:00am, or by appointment. Tel. 492-7534; spinetti@ualberta.ca Teaching Assistant: Melaena Grierson (melaena@ualberta.ca)

Course description

This course explores the relationship and interconnectedness between music and religious beliefs and practices, calling upon both ethnographic studies and theoretical perspectives. It aims at developing familiarity with a diverse range of religious, musical and socio-cultural settings through the study of scholarly ethnographic literature primarily drawn from the field of ethnomusicology, but also touching upon anthropology and sociology, and through selected audio and visual examples. It also addresses a variety of theoretical approaches to the study of music and religion and encourages students to engage in critical thinking and interpretive openness in respect of a plurality of methodological, epistemological and cultural-philosophical perspectives (structural-functional approaches, phenomenology, hermeneutics and experiential approaches, Marxism, cultural studies, postcolonial and postmodern studies, critical theory). In addition to the areas of inquiry and the topics selected by the instructor, students will be encouraged to undertake independent pieces of research (including a fieldwork assignment) and contribute with their interests and experience to shaping the contents, approaches and materials of the course. No formal knowledge of music history, theory or ethnomusicology is required.

Issues addressed will include:

- the often contested and fluid boundaries entrenching the notions of sacred and secular, and the ways in which music is involved in the relationship between them;

- critical examination of the very notions of “music” and “religion”, and their relevance to scholarly analysis as well as to the values and concepts of a number of musical cultures around the world. To what extent are music and religion separate domains? To what extent is religion distinct from law, science, ethics, aesthetics, politics?

- critical attention to the relationship between scholarly concerns and insiders' worldviews and interpretations;

- the relevance of historical, social, ideological and political contexts to musical and religious practices, concepts and meanings. How the relationship between music and religion relates to social ideologies, affecting issues of ethics, status of musicians and musical genres, social regulation and censorship.

- the relationship between religious values and/or sonic practices and the development of aesthetic paradigms and modalities of experience. To what extent is religion involved in the development of artistic expressive cultures?

- religion as relevant to politics, identity and power, and how that is manifested and articulated musically;

- the relationship between music and cosmology, religious symbolism and mythology; the relationship between music and ritual performance, sacred texts and ecstatic/mystical practices and beliefs;

- music as a site of articulation and contestation of notions of religious orthodoxy and syncretism;

- the role of music in the construction of religious meanings and experiences; what makes “religious music” religious?

- religion and popular music, the media and market economy; the impact of commodification on religious music, and the role of religious music and themes in local and international music industries, cultural and economic globalization, and popular culture.

Prerequisites

Undergraduates should enroll in 464; graduates should enroll in 564.

Course requirements

Attendance and participation. Includes:

1) doing weekly readings and participating in class discussions. Students will be invited to take turns in leading discussion or to present on specific readings with an eye to extracting salient ethnographic and theoretical topics.

2) written reading or listening reports may occasionally be required. Such reports should be concise (not exceeding two paragraphs per reading and two pages overall). They should include a short description as well as a critical evaluation of your readings/listenings.

3) students will occasionally be invited to identify additional readings related to weekly topics and to discuss their findings in class.

Mid-term paper:

a written piece on a musical-religious tradition that has not been discussed in class, or on novel aspects of one already discussed. Your paper shall include essential bibliography (at least 3 articles or 1 book+1article) and a list of listenings. It will provide some ethnographic detail and critically assess the theoretical/methodological approach of your sources. Sources may include also non-scholarly works (magazines, websites, etc). Please do not exceed 2,000 words. DUE WEEK 7 – October 19. Be prepared to present and discuss your work in class on WEEK 7.

Fieldwork project:

musical ethnography of a religious community of your choice, in Edmonton or surrounding areas. Includes:

1) choosing a religious group and defining your research purposes in relation to their rituals/musical performances (possibly by WEEK 2);

2) obtaining permission from the community (possibly by WEEK 3), preparing and submitting an ethics application to the UofA Ethics Board;

3) submitting a short fieldwork project proposal (by WEEK 4);

4) conducting fieldwork including participant-observation, fieldnotes, interviews, and audio-visual recordings (where applicable);

5) writing and submitting a fieldwork report by WEEK 12 (not exceeding 3,000 words). Your report should contain a description of your chosen ethnographic setting, a description of your research methodology, an overview of your ethnographic findings (nature and characteristics of musical rituals and/or performances, “emic” perceptions in relation to religious and musical meanings and practices, etc), and your interpretation grounded on some key theoretical perspectives drawn from the course. No secondary scholarly literature is required. Please be prepared to present your work in class on WEEKS 12 and 13.

Final paper:

a written piece of research that will

1) be entirely based on secondary literature

2) compare at the least two musical/religious traditions of your choice (one of which can be related to your fieldwork project, but must be approached from a historical/analytical perspective and on the grounds of existing scholarly publications);

3) summarize the salient ethnographic features of the cases examined; you should then develop a critical discussion of your sources and assess the musical-religious traditions under consideration in the light of available theories and models of interpretation.

Length: 3,000-4,000 words for undergraduate students; 4,500-5,500 for graduate students. DUE DECEMBER 15 (paper proposal, with provisional bibliography, due week 11).

No final exam.

Assessment

Each assignment will be marked according to the numeric scale of evaluation given below. Individual assignment marks will be combined to obtain a final numeric grade, which will be translated into the correspondent final letter grade. Expectations for graduate students will be higher than for undergraduates

A 4.0

A- 3.7

B+ 3.3

B 3.0

B- 2.7

C+ 2.3

C 2.0

C- 1.7

D+ 1.3

D 1.0

D- 0.7

F 0.0

The relative weight of each assignment on the overall grade is as follows:

Attendance and participation: 20%

Mid-term paper & presentation: 20%

Fieldwork project: 25%

Final paper: 35%

Resources

There are no required textbooks for this course. There are no required textbooks for this course. Most class readings will be on reserve at the Music Library or available on-line through the library database – mainly JSTOR. Relevant bibliographic or audio-visual materials that may not be available on reserve will be handed out in class or included in the course mediawiki page (http://folkways.tapor.ualberta.ca/mediawiki). I will use the course mediawiki page to post updated reading assignments and changes of schedule. The mediawiki may also function as a class forum, and please do not hesitate to post in your messages, comments or questions.

Useful journals: Ethnomusicology; Yearbook for Traditional Music (formerly Journal of the International Folk Music Council); The World of Music; African Music; Asian Music; Ethnomusicology Forum (formerly British Journal of Ethnomusicology); Selected Reports in Ethnomusicology (UCLA). History of Religions; Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion; Journal of Religion; Journal of Religion in Africa; Numen; Review of Religious Research; Sociology of Religion; Studia Islamica.

Dictionaries/Encyclopedias: The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (Grove music online); The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music; The Oxford Dictionary of World Religions; The Hutchinson Dictionary of World Religions.

Websites: Society for Ethnomusicology; British Forum of Ethnomusicology; SmithsonianGlobalSound; International Council for Traditional Music; FreeMuse: Freedom of Musical Expression