World Music and Cultures

Studies the music and musical cultures from around the world. Musical traditions throughout the world are considered through analytical, social, and aesthetic approaches. Introduction to the music and contexts of South America, Africa, India, Japan, and Indonesia. Topics include popular and folk music, music and ritual, communication, and self-expression, with consideration of modal structures, instruments, forms, and performance practices. Discussion of issues such as orientalism (i.e., Western representations of the Orient) and the need to develop cultural identities in once-colonized countries. (This course fulfils the Interdisciplinary and Intercultural category).