Music and Religion (Winter 2010)
Classes: Tuesday 2:00PM-4:50PM
Location: HC 2-30
Instructor: Dr. Federico Spinetti
Office: 3-34A Arts & Convocation Hall; office hours: Wednesday 10:00AM-12:00PM, or by appointment; tel. 492-7534; spinetti@ualberta.ca
Contents
Course description
This course explores the relationship 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 literature primarily drawn from the field of ethnomusicology and through the examination of selected audiovisual 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. In addition to the areas of inquiry and the topics selected by the instructor, students will be encouraged to undertake independent pieces of research and contribute with their interests and experience to shaping the contents, approaches and materials of the course. No formal knowledge of music history, music theory or ethnomusicology is required.
Objectives
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, media and market economy; the impact of commodification on religious/devotional music, and the role of religious music and themes in local and international music industries and in cultural and economic globalization.
Prerequisites
Undergraduates should enroll in 464; graduates should enroll in 564.
Course requirements
- Attendance and participation. Including: doing weekly readings and participating actively and pertinently in class discussions.
- Reading review. A written review of a class reading (article) of your choice (excluding the readings for your Reading presentations, see below). Your review should be of the kind usually found in scholarly journals, that is, it should be polished and well written in an academic style, accurate, and critically sharp. It should include 1) a short description/summary, 2) a discussion of the main arguments, and 3) a critical evaluation of your reviewed reading. Length of review: between 700-800 words. Reviews that do not respect this word limit will be downgraded by one full point on the letter grading scale (i.e. from A to A-, from A- to B+, etc). Likewise, unjustified late submissions will be penalized by one full point on the letter grading scale. Please submit your review both in hard copy and electronically (via email). DUE WEEK 5.
- Reading presentations. Each student will be asked to give two class presentations (duration: 10 min.)) on one individually assigned reading, and to lead class discussion. In your short presentations you should summarize your reading, identify its main argument/s, and critically assess it.
- Final research project proposal (midterm assignment). You will have to outline a written research plan focusing on
A) A musical-religious tradition/community/genre that has not been discussed in class, OR
B) A novel aspect of one musical-religious tradition/community/genre that has already been discussed in class, OR
C) A general theoretical topic (such as music & ritual, religion & musical aesthetics, etc) to be explored through the comparative examination and discussion of two or more case studies.
Your proposal will include:
1) A general description of your chosen musical-religious community/tradition/genre or topic;
2) A set of clearly defined research questions;
3) A provisional annotated bibliography (between 5 and 10 titles).
Length of proposal: 1,000 – 1,200 words for sections 1&2 + 2/3 sentences per annotated reference. Proposals that do not respect the word limit will be downgraded by one full point on the letter grading scale (i.e. from A to A-, from A- to B+, etc). Likewise, unjustified late submissions will be penalized by one full point on the letter grading scale. Please submit your proposal both in hard copy and electronically (via email). DUE WEEK 8.
- Final research project presentation. You will be presenting in class on your work-in-progress for your final research paper (duration: 15-20 min.). Use of audiovisual materials and/or Powerpoint is highly recommended for your presentation. DUE WEEKS 12, 13 and 14.
- Final research project paper: A written piece that will
1) be entirely based on scholarly literature and other written and/or audiovisual sources (that is, not based on your own fieldwork);
2) develop your research project proposal into a full-fledged research paper;
3) reference at least 10 (for undergraduates) or 15 (for graduates) scholarly sources;
Your paper should
A) clearly introduce and present the tradition or topic under consideration;
B) develop a critical discussion and assessment of scholarly sources;
C) discuss the musical-religious traditions under consideration in the light of available theories and models of interpretation.
Length of paper: 3,000-4,000 words for undergraduate students; 4,000-5,000 for graduate students. Papers that do not respect these word limits will be downgraded by one full point on the letter grading scale (i.e. from A to A-, from A- to B+, etc). Likewise, unjustified late submissions will be penalized by one full point on the letter grading scale. Please submit your proposal both in hard copy and electronically (via email). DUE ON APRIL 13.
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 rounded so as to obtain a corresponding final letter grade as shown below.
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: 15%
Reading review: 10%
Reading presentations: 15% (7.5% each)
Final research project proposal (midterm): 10%
Final research project presentation: 15%
Final research paper: 35%
Resources
There are no required textbooks for this course. Most class readings will be on reserve at the Music Library or available online through the library databases. Relevant bibliographic or audiovisual materials that may not be available on reserve will be handed out in class or included in this course mediawiki page. I will use the course mediawiki page to post updated reading assignments and changes of schedule.
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.
Academic integrity
You should be familiar with the Code of Student Behavior as published in Section 26 of the 2009-2010 Calendar and available online at http://www.uofaweb.ualberta.ca/governance/studentappeals.cfm. “Policy about course outlines can be found in section 23.4(2) of the University Calendar”. (GFC 29 SEP 2003) “The University of Alberta is committed to the highest standards of academic integrity and honesty. Students are expected to be familiar with these standards regarding academic honesty and to uphold the policies of the University in this respect. Students are particularly urged to familiarize themselves the provisions of the Code of Student Behaviour (online at http://www.uofaweb.ualberta.ca/governance/studentappeals.cfm.) and avoid any behaviour which could potentially result in suspicions of cheating, plagiarism, misrepresentation of facts and/or participation in an offence. Academic dishonesty is a serious offence and can result in suspension or expulsion from the University.” (GFC 29 SEP 2003)
Class schedule and readings
In the list of readings for each class meeting, Reference readings indicate required readings for everyone in the class. They provide an essential background for class discussion and must be completed prior to coming to class. Assigned readings indicate individually assigned readings for class presentations.
Week 1 - January 5: Introduction to the course
Week 4 - January 26: Sacred texts: recitation, cantillation and chant
Week 5 - February 2: Devotion and mysticism
Week 6 - February 9: Religion, commodification and the music market
Week 7 - February 16: Reading Week
Week 8 - February 23: Music and ritual
Week 9 - March 2: Music, trance and healing
Week 10 - March 9: Religion, popular music and media
Week 11 - March 16: Music, religion and identity
Week 12 - March 23: Music and religious ideology 2: power & social regulation
Week 13 - March 30: FINAL RESEARCH PROJECT CLASS PRESENTATIONS
Week 14 - April 6: FINAL RESEARCH PROJECT CLASS PRESENTATIONS
