740-144 Music Cultures of Asia and the Pacific

Availability

Credit Points

Coordinator

Prerequisites

Faculty Musicianship Test or 740-139 Introduction to Music 1-2

Semester

Contact

Subject Description

Students will have an overview of the major musical cultures of our region, a basic knowledge of the ethnomusicological methods used to study various music cultures and a capacity to identify aurally the musics studied.

Topics covered include introduction to the key issues and concepts of ethnomusicology, its theory and methodology, and case studies of various genres, for example, the bamboo ensembles of the 'Are'Are people of the Solomon Islands; Balinese gamelan; Chinese Opera; North Indian classical music, song cycles from Arnhem Land, Australia; Japanese Gagaku; Mongolian song genres.

Assessment

Written project of 3000 words (35%); Listening test (35%); Transcription assignment or case study (30%).

Prescribed Texts

• Malm WP, Music Cultures of the Pacific, the Near East and Asia. 3rd ed New Jersey Prentice Hall 1996 (plus cassette).
• Kaemmar, J E, Music in Human Life. University of Texas Press, 1993 (plus cassette).