Introduction to World Music (2011)

Music 102. Introduction to World Music

Classes: Monday, Wednesday & Friday, 2:00PM - 2:50PM

Location: FAB 2-20

Instructor: Dr. Federico Spinetti (spinetti@ualberta.ca)

Teaching assistants: Niyati Dhokai (ndhokai@ualberta.ca) and Mahsa Pakravan (pakravan@ualberta.ca)

Office: 3-34A Arts & Convocation Hall; office hours: Wednesday 10:00AM - 12:00PM, Friday 12:00PM - 1:50PM; tel. 492-7534. NOTE: there will be no office hours on the following Fridays: Oct 15, Oct 29, Nov 19 and Nov 26. However, there will be office hours on Friday, Dec 10 (12:00AM - 1:50PM).

Course description

This course provides an introduction to the study of musics from around the world and to the discipline of ethnomusicology. It journeys across a variety of locations and musics, from continental Europe, to the Middle East, South and East Asia, the Caribbean and Latin America, Africa and the Anglo-American world. Issues addressed include the anthropological study of music; music of transnational diaspora communities; the construction and negotiation of cultural identities in music; the study of musics in their socio-historical, ideological and political contexts; music and religion; traditional and popular musics vis-à-vis processes of modernization, commodification and globalization; contemporary music technologies and media. The course makes extensive use of audiovisual materials in addition to lectures and readings. No formal knowledge of music theory, history, notation or ethnomusicology is a prerequisite for taking this course.

This course is for undergraduate students only.