Music 672  #14618-7   WI 08    Introduction to Ethnomusicology 

W, F   4-5:18 PM    meeting room SU 0166                                              

 

Dr. Ron Emoff                                                                                                                      

740 366-9271 (office)

740 344-5516 (home)

emoff.1@osu.edu

                                                                                   

 

This course offers a theoretical and historical approach to the development and professionalization of ethnomusicology.  Emphasis will be on ethnomusicology as an interdisciplinary field that has incorporated ethnographic research, use of oral and literate sources, lab transcription and analysis, critical analysis, and interpretative techniques.  We will examine the major theoretical debates that have shaped ethnomusicology, and will trace varied orientations in the field towards, for example, music and culture, music in culture, and music as culture.

 

A primary aim of this course is to thoroughly acquaint the students with the historical, bibliographic, and conceptual resources of ethnomusicology.  The reading materials selected have been chosen to provide an overview and foundation for further work and study in ethnomusicology, and to suggest a bridge between this field and other domains of musical, humanist, and social science scholarship such as the disciplines of historical musicology, socio-cultural anthropology, folklore, and linguistics.

 

Each student will be responsible for reading extensively from the bibliography, and to synthesize, discuss/debate in class, question, and critically evaluate the materials in the bibliography.  The course structure consists prominently of in-class discussions led by varying students and based upon the readings assigned for each week. Each class, a pair of students will be responsible for presenting the assigned readings, commenting critically on the readings, and leading a class discussion.  The class should be prepared to engage in discussion with each week’s discussant(s), thus each student will prepare a list of at least 5 questions or comments upon the week’s readings.  Students will be called upon in class to ask these questions and to voice these comments. Grades will be dependent upon engagement and participation in class meetings.  All students are responsible for reading all assigned texts, whether or not they are presenting these texts to the class.  A variety of audio and visual examples and samples will be presented in class throughout the quarter for analysis, discussion, and critique.

 

There will be 3 papers due in this class, each 10-15 pages (double-spaced, 12-point font, 1-inch margins, with citations in the style found in the journal Ethnomusicology.  

There will be no exams.

 

Paper 1   

A review/critique of an ethnomusicological monograph that focuses upon an area or topic of individual interest. Students will incorporate their own definition or explanation of “ethnomusicology” thus far, and will examine the fundamental tenets, parameters, goals, methods, and/or loci of this field as they are (or are not) presented in each particular monograph. Students will integrate abundant references to the class readings in order to support or contest the ideas, methods, and theoretical approaches set forth in the monograph. 

 

 

Paper 2   

Each student will prepare a grant proposal for an imagined ethnographic research project.  In the paper, ethnographic method, theoretical approach, and specific delineation of the research site and project shall all be carefully explained.

The student will address in clear and succinct terms the significance of the project to the field of ethnomusicology as well to other related fields. Students should refer to on-line guidelines for Fulbright, Wenner-Gren Foundation, National Endowment for the Humanities, Social Sciences Research Council, National Science Foundation, and any other granting agencies that might fund ethnomusicological or ethnographic research (some agencies fund for specific themes or regional areas).

 

 

Paper 3  

Ethnographic work requires extended stays in and integration into a fieldwork locale and with local people. This paper will consist of the write-up of a brief field project in which only some of the facets of performing ethnographic research will be experienced and explored (due to time constraints).  Each student will choose a viable fieldwork site and will write on particular aspects of participatory interaction, aesthetics, ethnographic voice, or a host of other issues to be chosen individually.

 

Grades will be determined as follows:

1st paper..............................................................15%

2nd paper.............................................................20%

3rd paper.....................................………………...25%

In-class presentation of final project………….20%

class participation……………………..................20%

 

Grading scale:

All grades in this class will be presented in letter-grade form.  “+” and “-“ grades are possible (A-, B+, for example).

 

As mentioned, attendance and engagement in class discussions and projects will be vital.   Unexcused absences (i.e., ones not presented to and authorized by me in advance) cannot be tolerated, and may count against one’s grade. Missing a class on which you are supposed to make a class presentation would be a serious matter. If you become ill or need to miss a class for some other reason, be certain to speak with me in advance (call or e-mail me).  Late work will only be accepted in the case of an excused absence, in other words, only with authorization from me prior to an assignment’s due date.

Students with any sort of special needs please see me the first day of class.


Academic misconduct of any sort, in particular plagiarism, will not be tolerated.  Students must clear with me any citation from an internet source that they might intend to use in their work–some sites are not reliable or otherwise acceptable scholarly sources.

 

Academic Misconduct

It is the responsibility of the Committee on Academic Misconduct to investigate or establish procedures for the investigation of all reported cases of student academic misconduct. The term “academic misconduct” includes all forms of student academic misconduct wherever committed; illustrated by, but not limited to, cases of plagiarism and dishonest practices in connection with examinations. Instructors shall report all instances of alleged academic misconduct to the committee (Faculty Rule 3335-5-487). For additional information, see the Code of Student Conduct (http://studentaffairs.osu.edu/resource_csc.asp).

 

Disability Services

Students with disabilities that have been certified by the Office for Disability Services will be appropriately accommodated, and should inform the instructor as soon as possible of their needs. The Office for Disability Services is located in Hopewell 53, 1179 University Drive, Newark, OH 43055; telephone (740) 366-9246; http://www.newarkcampus.org/studentlife/Disability_Services/

 

 

Texts for MUS 672, available at the University Bookstore (Barnes and Noble)

 

Blacking, John

1973    How Musical is Man?Seattle: University of Washington Press.

 

Feld, Steven

1990 (1982) Sound and Sentiment: Birds, Weeping, Poetics, and Song in Kaluli

Expression.  Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press (2nd Edition).

 

Merriam, Alan P.

1964    The Anthropology of Music. Evanston: Northwestern University Press.

 

Nettl, Bruno

1983    The Study of    Ethnomusicology: Twenty-nine Issues and Concepts. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.

 

Taylor, Timothy D.

2007    Beyond Exoticism: Western Music and the World. Durham and London: Duke University Press.

 

Initial bibliography for Introduction to Ethnomusicology

 

 We will refer throughout the class to varied seminal ethnomusicological book-length texts which represent major syntheses of the field and some of its key issues, as well as to numerous theoretically-oriented  books in which are expressed current modes of thought on and in the field.  [Books listed below which contain readings assigned for class are on reserve in the music library.]

 

Agawu, Kofi

1995    African Rhythm.  Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

______

2003    Representing African Music: Postcolonial Notes, Queries, Positions. New York and London: Routledge.

 

Attali, Jacques

1989    Noise: The Political Economy of Music. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

 

Barz, Gregory and Timothy Cooley, eds.

1997    Shadows in the Field: New Perspectives for Fieldwork in Ethnomusicology. New York: Oxford University Press.

 

Béhague, Gerard, ed.

1984    Performance Practice. New York: Greenwood.

 

Berliner, Paul F.

1981    The Soul of Mbira.  Berkeley: University of California Press.

 

Bigenho, Michelle

2002    Sounding Indigenous: Authenticity in Bolivian Musical Performance.

 

Blacking, John

1973    How Musical is Man?Seattle: University of Washington Press.

______

1987    A Commonsense View of All Music.  New York: Cambridge University Press.

 

Blum, Stephen, Philip Bohlman, and Daniel Neuman

1991    Ethnomusicology and Modern Music History. Urbana: University of Illinois      Press.

 

Chernoff, John Miller

1979    African Rhythm and African Sensibility. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

 

Cohen, Ronald D., ed.

2005    Alan Lomax: Selected Writings 1934-1997. New York and London: Routledge Press.

 

 

 

D’Andrade, Roy

1995    The Rise of Cognitive Anthropology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

 

Dowling, W. J. and D. L. Harwood

1986    Music Cognition. Orlando, FL: Academic Press.

 

Emoff, Ron

2002    Recollecting from the Past:  Musical Practice and Spirit Possession on the East Coast of Madagascar. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, Music and Culture Series.

 

Emoff, Ron and David Henderson, eds.

2002    Mementos, Artifacts, and Hallucinations from the Ethnographer’s Tent.                              London and New York: Routledge Press.

 

Erlmann, Veit

1999    Music, Modernity, and the Global Imagination: South Africa and the West. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press.

 

Feld, Steven

1990 (1982) Sound and Sentiment: Birds, Weeping, Poetics, and Song in Kaluli

Expression.  Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press (2nd Edition).

Feld, Steven and Charles Keil, eds.

1994    Music Grooves: Essays and Dialogues. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

 

Fox, Aaron A.

2004    Real Country: Music and Language in Working-Class Culture. Durham and London: Duke University Press.

 

Frith, Simon and Lee Marshall, eds.

2004    Music and Copyright. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

 

Hagedorn, Katherine J.

2001    Divine Utterances: The Performance of Afro-Cuban Santería. Washington and London: Smithsonian Institution Press.

 

Herndon, Marcia and Norma McLeod

1981 (1979)     Music as Culture. Darby: Norwood Press.

 

Hood, Mantle

1981 (1971)     The Ethnomusicologist. Kent State University Press, 2nd edition.

 

Jackendoff, Ray and Fred Lerdahl

1980    A Deep Parallel between Music and Language. Bloomington: Indiana University Linguistic Club.

 

 

Kaemmer, John E.

1993    Music in Human Life: Anthropological Perspectives on Music. Austin: University of Texas Press.

 

Kisliuk, Michelle

2001    Seize the Dance!: BaAka Musical Life and the Ethnography of Performance. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

 

Koskoff, Ellen, ed.,

1987    Women and Music in Cross-Cultural Perspective. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, Inc.

 

Kunst, Jaap

1959    Ethnomusicology.  The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff.

 

Laderman, Carol and Marina Roseman, ed.s

1996    The Performance of Healing. New York and London: Routledge.

 

Lomax, Alan and the Cantometrics staff

1968    Folk Song Style and Culture. Washington: American Society for the           Advancement of Science.

 

Magrini, Tullia, ed.

2003    Music and Gender: Perspectives from the Mediterranean. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press.

 

McAllester, David P.

1954    Enemy Way Music: A Study of Social and Esthetic Values as Seen in Navaho Music. Cambridge, MA: Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University vol. XLI, no. 3.

 

McLeod, Norma and Marcia Herndon

1980    The Ethnography of Musical Performance. Darby: Norwood Editions.

 

Meintjes, Louse,

2003    The Sound of Africa: Making Music Zulu in a South African Studio. Durham and London: Duke University Press.

 

Merriam, Alan P.

1964    The Anthropology of Music. Evanston: Northwestern University Press.

______

1967    Ethnomusicology of the Flathead Indians. Chicago: Aldine.

 

Moisala, Pirkko, and Beverley Diamond, eds.

2000    Music and Gender. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press.

 

Myers, Helen, ed.

1992    Ethnomusicology: an Introduction. NY: W. W. Norton.

 

Nattiez, Jean-Jacques

1990    Music and Discourse: Toward a Semiology of Music. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

 

Nettl, Bruno

1964    Theory and Method in Ethnomusicology. New York: Free Press.

______

1983    The Study of    Ethnomusicology: Twenty-nine Issues and Concepts. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.

_____

1985    The Western Impact on World Music.  New York: Schirmer Books.

 

Nettl Bruno and Philip Bohlman

1991    Comparative Musicology and Anthropology of Music. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

 

Post, Jennifer C., ed.

2006    Ethnomusicology: A Contemporary Reader. New York and London: Routledge Press.

 

Roseman, Marina

1991    Healing Sounds from the Malaysian Rainforest: Temiar Music and Medicine.  

Berkeley: University of California Press. 

 

Seeger, Anthony

1988    Why Suya Sing: A Musical Anthropology of an Amazonian People. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

 

Seeger, Charles

1977    Essays in Musicology, 1935-1975.  Berkeley: University of California Press.

 

Serafine, Mary Louise

1988    Music as Cognition: The Development of Thought in Sound. New York: Columbia University Press.

 

Shepherd, John

1991    Music as Social Text. Cambridge: Polity Press.

 

Taylor, Timothy D.

1997    Global Pop: World Music, World Markets. New York and London: Routledge.

______

2007    Beyond Exoticism: Western Music and the World. Durham and London: Duke University Press.

 

Turnbull, Colin M.

1961    The Forest People. New York: Simon and Schuster.

 

Yost, William A. and Charles S. Watson, eds.

1987    Auditory Processing of Complex Sounds. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
In addition, readings will be assigned from the following basic bibliography of articles and book chapters. These readings cover the literature from the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s concerning the definition, aim, scope of, and approaches to the field; the theoretical debates and issues of the 70’s and 80’s; and methods, problems, and styles of being an ethnomusicologist and conveying ethnomusicological research, all prominent topics in the 90s and beyond.  It is suggested that each student add to this bibliography those readings in particular that are germane to her/his interests and studies, and that each student begin to compile a bibliography of monographs that address her/his own regional area or theoretical topic of interest.

 

Babiracki, Carol M.

1997    “What’s the Difference? Reflections on Gender and Research in Village India.” In Shadows in the Field: New Perspectives for Fieldwork in Ethnomusicology. New York: Oxford University Press, Gregory Barz and Timothy Cooley, eds., pp. 121-36.

 

Baily, John

1988    “Anthropological and Psychological Approaches to the Study of Music Theory and Musical Cognition.” Yearbook for Traditional Music 20: 114-124.

 

Becker, Judith and Alton Becker

1981    “A Musical Icon: Power and Meaning in Javanese Gamelan Music.” In The Sign in Music and Literature, Austin: University of Texas Press, Wendy Steiner, ed., pp. 203-215.

 

Blacking, John

1971    “Deep and Surface Structures in Venda Music.” Yearbook of the International Folk Music Council 3: 91-108.

______

1977a  “Some Problems of Theory and Method in the Study of Musical Change.”              Yearbook of the International Folk Music Council 9: 1-26.

_____

1977b  “Can Musical Universals be Heard?” The World of Music 19(1/2): 14-22.

______

1981    “The Problem of Ethnic Perceptions in the Semiotics of Music.” In The Sign in Music and Literature, Austin: University of Texas Press, Wendy Steiner, ed., pp. 184-94.

______

1986    “Identifying Processes of Musical Change.” The World of Music   28(1):3-12.

 

Blum, Stephen

1975    “Towards a Social History of Musicological Technique.” Ethnomusicology   19(2): 207-231.

______

1992    “Theory and Method: Analysis of Musical Style.” In Ethnomusicology: an Introduction. New York: W. W. Norton, Helen Myers, ed., pp. 165-218.

 

 

Boilès, Charles

1982    “Processes of Musical Semiosis.”  Yearbook for Traditional Music 14: 24-         44.

 

Bright, William

1963    “Language and Music: Areas for Cooperation.” Ethnomusicology 7(1): 23-32.

 

Chase, Gilbert

1973    “American Musicology and the Social Sciences. In Perspectives in

Musicology. New York: Norton, Barry Brook, Edward Downes, and Sherman Van Solkema, eds., pp. 202-226.

 

Clayton, M., U. Will, and R. Sager

2004    “In Time with the Music: The Concept of Entrainment and Its Significance for Ethnomusicology.”  ESEM-Counterpoint, vol. 1

[may be accessed at:

                 http://ethnomusicology.osu.edu/EMW/Will/will.htm]

 

Deschênes, Bruno

1998    “Toward an Anthropology of Music Listening.” International Review of the Aesthetics and Sociology of Music 29(2): 135-53.

 

Ellingson, Ter

1992    “Theory and Method: Transcription.” In Ethnomusicology: an Introduction. New York: W. W. Norton, Helen Myers, ed., pp. 110-152.

 

Emoff, Ron

In press(a)  “Tromba Children, Maresaka, and Postcolonial Malady in Madagascar.”  Ethos.

 

In press(b)   “Truth, Talk, and History in the Non-Nation: Gwo Ka’s Place on

Marie-Galante, French Antilles.” Ethnomusicology Forum (British Journal of Ethnomusicology).

______

2002    “Phantom Nostalgia and Recollecting (from) the Colonial Past in Tamatave, Madagascar.” Ethnomusicology 46 (2): 265-283.

 

Erlmann, Veit

1990    "Migration and Performance: Zulu Migrant Worker's Isicathamiya Performance in South Africa, 1890-1950." Ethnomusicology 34(2): 199-220.

 

Fales, Cornelia

1998    “Issues of Timbre: The Inanga Chuchotée.  In The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music Volume 1, Africa, Ruth Stone, ed. New York and London: Garland Publishing, Inc., pp. 164-207.

 

 

 

Feld, Steven

1974    “Linguistic Models in Ethnomusicology.”  Ethnomusicology 18(2): 197-         217.

______

1976    “Ethnomusicology and Visual Communication.” Ethnomusicology 20(2): 293-325.

______

1981    “‘Flow Like a Waterfall’: The Metaphors of Kaluli Musical Theory.”            Yearbook for Traditional Music 13: 22-47.

______

1984a  “Sound Structure as Social structure.”  Ethnomusicology 28(3): 383-409.

______

1984b  “Communication, Music, and Speech about Music.” Yearbook for       Traditional Music  16: 1-18.

______

1994a  "Notes on 'World Beat'." In Music Grooves: Essays and Dialogues. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, Steven Feld and Charles Keil, eds., pp. 238-246.

 ______

1994b  "From Schizophonia to Schismogenesis: On the Discourses and

Commodification Practices of 'World Music' and 'World Beat'." In Music Grooves: Essays and Dialogues. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, Steven Feld and Charles Keil, eds., pp. 257-289.

______

2000    “A Sweet Lullaby for World Music.”  Public Culture 12(1): 145-171.

 

Feld, Steven and Aaron Fox

1994    “Music and Language.” Annual Review of Anthropology 23: 25-53.

 

Frisbee, Charlotte

1980    “Vocables in Navajo Ceremonial Music.” Ethnomusicology 24(3): 347-392.

 

Gourlay, Ken

1978    “Towards a Reassessment of the Ethnomusicologist’s Role in Research.”    Ethnomusicology 22(1): 1-35.

______

1982    “Towards a Humanizing Ethnomusicology.”  Ethnomusicology 26(3): 411-    420.

 

Grame, Theodore C.

1963    “An Historical View of Musicology and Performance.” Ethnomusicology 7(3): 201-205.

 

Harweg, Roland

1968    “Language and Music: An Immanent and Sign Theoretic Approach.” Foundations of Language 4: 270-281.

 

 

 

Harwood, Dane

1976    “Universals in Music: A Perspective from Cognitive Psychology.”   Ethnomusicology 20(3): 521-533.

 

Herndon, Marcia

1974    “Analysis: The Herding of Sacred Cows?” Ethnomusicology 18(2): 219-262.

______

1976    “Reply to Kolinski: Taurus Omicida.” Ethnomusicology 20(2): 217-231.

 

Herzog, George

1934    “Speech Melody and Primitive Music.” Musical Quarterly 20: 452-66.

 

Hood Mantle

1957    “Training and Research Methods in Ethnomusicology.” Ethnomusicology Newsletter 11: 2-8.

______

1963    “Musical Significance.” Ethnomusicology 7(3): 187-192.

______

1969    “Ethnomusicology” in Harvard Dictionary of Music.Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2nd edition. Willi Apel, ed., pp. 298-300.

 

Jakobson, Roman

1985    “Poetry of Grammar and Grammar of Poetry.” In Verbal Art, Verbal Sign, Verbal Time.  Oxford: Basil Blackwell, K. Pomorska and S. Rudy, eds., pp. 37-46.

[also, “Subliminal Verbal Patterning in Poetry” pp. 59-68 in same volume]

 

Keil, Charles

1994a (1985)   "People's Music Comparatively: Style and Stereotype, Class and Hegemony." In Music Grooves: Essays and Dialogue. Chicago: University

of Chicago Press, Steven Feld and Charles Keil, eds., pp. 197-217 [printed initially in Dialectical Anthropology  10: 119-130].

______

1994b (1987 ) "Participatory Discrepancies and the Power of Music." Music Grooves: Essays and Dialogue. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, Steven Feld and Charles Keil, eds., pp. 96-108 [printed initially in Cultural Anthropology 2(3): 257-283].

 

Koetting, James

1970    “Analysis and Notation of West African Drum Ensemble Music.” Selected Reports in Ethnomusicology. 1(3): 116-146.

 

Kolinski, Mieczyslaw

1957    “Ethnomusicology, Its Problems and Methods.” Ethnomusicology Newsletter 10: 1-7.

______

1967    “Recent Trends in Ethnomusicology.” Ethnomusicology 11: 1-24.

 

 

______

1976    “Herndon’s Verdict on Analysis: Tabula Rasa.” Ethnomusicology 20(1): 1-22.

______

1977    “Final Reply to Herndon.” Ethnomusicology 21(1): 75-83.

 

Koskoff, Ellen,

2002    “Is Female to Male as Postmodern is to Modern?: Implications for a New Ethno/Musicology.” In Encomium Musicae: Essays in Memory of Robert J. Snow. Hillsdale, NY: Pendragon Press, David Crawford and G. Grayson Wagstaff, eds., pp. 733- 744.

&