Understanding World Music

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

This course is a gateway to the study of music around the world. Rather than thinking of different musics as a number of regionally defined systems, we will look at a number of ways in which this social and cultural phenomenon may be understood. This course, therefore, takes a thematic approach to the question of studying music, whether it is oceans away or just around the corner, and whether people might agree on calling it "music" or not. At a time when distances no longer seem to matter much and categories appear to account for little, this course addresses questions along the lines of how to think about music, before looking at where it comes from and what systems it might follow. The course is open to majors and non-majors.