Music 665 weekly schedule (2012)

short link to this page: http://bit.ly/isem12s
back to the home page: http://bit.ly/isem12

NB: This schedule will be updated periodically - check weekly.

A note on assignments, from the course outline:

Except as noted (e.g. if you're to edit the wiki), all assignments are to be prepared in a word processor, 
then emailed to the instructor as an attachment,  with the subject line "ISEM12".  
Please ensure that each file contains one and only one assignment, 
and that your last name appears at the top of the document, 
and at the start of the filename. 
Please send all submissions attached to a single email if possible 
(this will not be possible if you're submitting something late...
but hopefully you won't!). All page counts refer to Times New Roman font, 1" margins, 
single spaced, 8.5 x 11 pages.  
Please cite references as needed, using Zotero to do so.

Week 1 : 10-Sep. Introduction.

Discuss

• Brief introductions...people and interests
• The Big Questions (what are yours?)
• What is EM? What's it for?
• Abbreviations and terms to know
• MF's EM research (a shotgun approach)
• What defines research? Research proposals.
• Course outline

Introducing...

• Defining EM
• Research: aims and goals > models > queries and methods > results
• What are EM's aims and goals and how are they achieved?

Assignment

Gather definitions of EM and cognative disciplines

Read current definitions of EM and its cognate disciplines

(e.g. Musicology, Comparative Musicology, Anthropology of Music, Popular Music studies, Folklore).

Examine current articles for the following terms in Oxford Music Online (available via http://www.library.ualberta.ca/databases/), following as many hyperlinked cross-references as you can, in order to understand how EM is defined in relation to juxtaposed fields:

1. Musicology (especially Adler's subdivisions; skim the rest)
2. Comparative Musicology, Folk Music (especially Part 2: Studies, in Grove)
3. Popular Music (mainly part 6: The study of popular music)
4. World Music
5. Ethnomusicology (especially Introduction, Philip Bohlman’s portion on the post-1945 period, and Martin Stokes’ theoretical summary)

Browse The Garland encyclopedia of World Music, especially Vol. 10, The World's Music: General Perspectives and Reference Tools; what definitions emerge here?

Look up "Ethnomusicology" in the Oxford English dictionary, and Encyclopedia Britannica (available via http://www.library.ualberta.ca/databases/).

Find definitions in Nettl's revised edition of The study of ethnomusicology, available on reserve.

Locate any other definition from anywhere you like.

Browse a few older definitions

...from the early 1990s and before, such as the following books on Music Library reserve or Reference:

Meyers, H. (Ed.) (1992) Ethnomusicology: An Introduction

Herndon, M., & McLeod, N. (Eds.). (1979). Music as culture (2nd ed)

Hood, M. (1971) The Ethnomusicologist

Merriam, A. (1964) The Anthropology of Music

Nettl, B. (1964) Theory and Method in Ethnomusicology

Kunst, J. (1950) Musicologica; a study of the nature of ethno-musicology, its problems, methods, and representative personalities

Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians (reference) published in 1904, 1918, 1936, 1954 (note that you will not find the term "ethnomusicology" per se before 1950...and when is 'musicology' first introduced?)

Prepare the following

• Defining EM. Come to Week 2 prepared to discuss the following issues: What is EM? (consider: scope, theory, method, social network) Is EM a discipline? Why or why not? How is EM positioned with respect to other areas of music studies? with respect to other academic fields? (e.g. area studies? anthropology?) What is the logical or sociological overlap among fields? How has EM (or its cognates) changed over time? What is the historical relation among the subfields of music studies? Characterize approaches towards music scholarship of various types. When does any explicit definition of music studies start to emerge? How does EM vary across cultures? Consider definitions of EM for various regions of the world. Write 1-2 pages summarizing what you have discovered. (You don't have to answer all the above questions individually in your summary, though you should touch on them.)
• Works and lives. Select three products classified (by publication venue, or library catalog) as EM research (e.g. CD, book, article) from three periods and by three different authors: (1) 1990 to present; (2) 1950 to 1990; (3) before 1950. You may like to compare three articles from a single journal. Take note of differences in aim, model (theory, queries, methods), issues/topics, areas. Find and scan author biographies. Write a 1-2 page critical review, comparing the three, calling attention to author biographies – where are these scholars coming from? Try to use Jstor or other online databases and submit links to online versions. Be prepared to discuss.
• Research proposal paragraph. Prepare a one-paragraph proposal for your own ethnomusicological research, including (a) one-line title (research topic); (b) research aim, research value; (c) research area and scope, following my template for Research Proposals in Ethnomusicology. We will discuss your ideas together next week.

Week 2 : 17-Sep. Defining ethnomusicology.

Submit

Remember to submit each assignment as a separate document via email attachment, prior to class. Please use the subject line "ISEM12" so I can find them easily.

• Defining EM
• Works and Lives
• Research Proposal Paragraph

Discuss

• Definitions of EM, history of EM and EMists
• How to be critical? EM as representation, shaped by larger forces (e.g. colonialism, imperialism...)
• Proposals

Introducing...

• SNA: social network analysis, with applications to citation network, musician networks, fan networks, the relation of EM to CM and HM and other disciplines, the diffusion of musical (and other trends), tipping points...see my course Music culture as a social network for much more on this subject (or browse the pages of the INSNA)
• Databases: see especially Web of Science, Proquest Dissertations database, Jstor
• Analytical approaches to world music: revived analytical direction in ethnomusicology
• Meta-ethnomusicology: If doing ethnomusicology constitutes a kind of musical practice (and a broad definition of 'music' suggests that it does), then its sociological or anthropological (or historical) study must constitute a kind of ethnomusicology: meta-ethnomusicology, or the ethnomusicology of EM. Who are the ethnomusicologists, and what are their resources for research and teaching? How do ethnomusicologists relate to one another socially and intellectually? What are the linkages among their scholarly products? This week, you’ll explore some of the principal sources for ethnomusicological research, the ways in which the scholarly literature develops its citation networks, and the nature of ethnomusicology as a social network.

Assignment: sources and networks in EM

Sources in EM.

EM as text. Using Internet and Library search facilities (see also Reily 2003), draw up a list of key scholarly reference works; professional societies; journals; indices, databases, and bibliographies; scholarly monograph series; regional music overviews; archives, libraries and museums; websites; audio resources (websites, podcasts, record labels and series); and video resources relevant to research and teaching in ethnomusicological and world music. List at least two examples for each category, providing a brief review for each pair, in which you should compare and contrast your examples. Bring your summary to class. We’ll examine some of the online resources together. Also enter your data on the course wiki at http://tinyurl.com/5nk653.

EM as multimedia. Throughout this course we’ll be reading many of EM’s textual products. This week consider EM as a producer of multimedia products as well. Browse our library’s collection of audio-visual resources for ethnomusicology and world music. What sorts of representation claims are made, explicitly or implicitly, in these media objects? Reflect on the relation between these media representations and the music they claim to represent. Consider the issue of source vs. reference, particularly pronounced for multimedia, since it tends to be more commerical than text. Review 2-3 instances. Have a look, in particular, at the JVC video collections and provide your assessment.

Networks of discourse and practice in EM

Draw three networks, as follows:

Discourse network in EM: citations

network #1: citation network (discourse). Learn how to use a citation indices, such as Google Scholar, or Web of Science (available via the University of Alberta Library website, under Databases), a massive citation index for science, social science, and humanities. Try to locate some of the most oft-cited papers in ethnomusicological journals, or the most oft-cited books. Trace their antecedents and descendents in a “double tree” (of cited and citing sources) as explained in Week 2, and share your results in class, in the form of a network. Note that Web of Science will draw these network diagrams for you.

Social networks in EM

What are EM’s social networks of practice? What kinds of practices does EM involve, and how are they different or similar to practices of other fields? Using data available online (e.g. at ethnomusicology.org, bibliographies), initiate a sociological study of the ethnomusicological community. Where are ethnomusicologists living, what are they doing? What is their distribution by gender, age, region, areas or topics of interest? What areas of interest seem to be favored, in each historical era and place? How do ethnomusicologists connect to one another via training, language-culture of discourse, geographical or stylistic areas of musical interest, or theoretical and topical perspectives?

Draw two examples of social networks in EM (on paper, or using a computer drawing tool):

network #2: collaborative relations among ethnomusicologists, including co-authorship, co-participation in books and conferences, lineages of training. You might, for instance, examine the Proquest Dissertations database to determine student-advisor relations. Or you could look for co-authorships in Web of Science. What evidence is there for collaborative ventures in research and teaching?

network #3: the social structure of professional EM societies (e.g. SEM, ICTM, BFE). Using data available on the web, consider how ethnomusicological societies are organized. It will be particularly useful (and enjoyable) to learn about the ethnomusicological community centered upon your own intended research subject. Considerable information is available at www.ethnomusicology.org. Note: you must be a member of SEM in order to browse the member database. Joining is highly encouraged!

Week 3 : 24-Sep. Meta-ethnomusicology.

Submit

Three networks (#1, #2, #3) as defined above.