MUSC 290: HOW ETHNOMUSICOLOGY WORKS
Spring 2011
Visiting Instructor Andrew Colwell
acolwell@wesleyan.edu
Office Hours: please email for an appointment as I do not have an office
Monday & Wednesday 11am-12:20pm
Rehearsal Hall 003
COURSE DESCRIPTION
The course provides an introduction to the discipline of ethnomusicology, offering an
overview of its intellectual and historical development, while also concentrating on methods,
from fieldwork and interviewing through researching and writing. Weekly focused projects
and a substantial final project will offer orientation to a field that has been central to
Wesleyan's approach to music for nearly 50 years and to the development of global music
studies.
MAIN TEXTS
Barz, Gregory and Timothy Cooley. 2008. Shadows in the Field: New Perspectives for
Fieldwork in Ethnomusicology. New York: Oxford University Press.
Solis, Ted. 2004. Performing Ethnomusicology: Teaching and Representation in World
Music Ensembles. Berkeley: University of California Press.
REQUIREMENTS AND GRADING
Attendance: mandatory
I don’t give points to reward attendance because it is a basic responsibility to attend
seminar. However, I do deduct points if you have attendance issues, including chronic
lateness. You are allowed one unexcused absence. More than 2 absences beyond that will
result in a failed course.
Seminar participation: 20% of Grade
You are expected to have completed the assigned readings and to be able to discuss
them cogently in seminar.
Small projects/roundtables: 50% of Grade
small projects: There will be a total of seven small projects in which students will
use research methods previously discussed in class.
roundtables: Students will take turns leading discussion regarding their small project
findings and experiences in a panel format. Discussions will focus on students’ perspectives
and feelings on their research and how class readings reflect or challenge them. I have
organized the course so that you will finish relevant readings before the small project and so
that you may apply your reading knowledge. Hence, I will be looking for how you engage the
readings in these roundtables. Discussion leaders need only prepare talking points—not
speeches or presentations—in order to initiate discussion with other students.
note: for the small projects, you will often have to conduct research with so-called
“informants” or research associates. I encourage you to focus on the same general subject
or area (be it a scene, genre, community, or instrument) throughout all the small projects and
final paper. This will help you develop an in-depth understanding of your subject and how
ethnomusicological research works.
Final project: abstract, essay, power point, 30% of Grade
The absract will be a 300 word synopsis of your research topic, questions,
methodology, and theoretical framework.
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The final paper (10 pgs., no more or no less) will be a work of original research that
incorporates course materials—specifically readings, ideas, and issues discussed in class—
in an innovative way.
The power point presentation will include visual, audio, and video examples of your
research topic.
Readings: mandatory
You are required to buy Shadows in the Field and Performing Ethnomusicology.
When readings are difficult to get through the library, or require much scanning, I will provide
them for you. However, for articles available on JSTOR or elsewhere online you will be
required to find them on your own in order to familiarize yourself with online resources.
IMPORTANT COURSE POLICIES
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ALWAYS include MUSC 290 in your email subject headers. I can search for it and
capture all your emails.
Late work policy: No late work unless you have a documented excuse.
All assignments must be turned in to me by the specified deadline as well as
uploaded to the course Moodle by the same deadline, unless the project’s format
make this impossible. We will discuss this exception when and if the issue arises.
You must keep a hard copy of all your work. This will be primarily for your own
records, in the case that we need to discuss your performance history.
NO PLAGIARISM will be tolerated per Wesleyan policies. Plagiarism is the
passing off of someone else's work as your own and is a serious academic offense.
For Wesleyan’s Honor Code and plagiarism policies see:
http://www.wesleyan.edu/acaf/policy/sc_plagiarism_complete.html
Classroom Etiquette: Walk into the classroom with your cell phones off and put
away. Bring to class an open mind.
LAPTOPS…While I appreciate how they enable us to work more effectively, I will not
tolerate any misuse during my class (e.g., checking Facebook). You are allowed to
bring laptops for note taking only, but if I find that anyone is using them
inappropriately I will ban them from class. Let me forewarn you that I take this very
seriously and it reflects negatively upon one’s class participation grade when it
happens.
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COURSE OUTLINE
PART I
PRODUCING ETHNOMUSICOLOGY
Note: this is a living document and is subject to change. If you have any suggestions, please
do let me know!
Week 1
Mon 1/28
Introductions
Screening, if time allows: Zemp, Hugo. 1979/2011. ʹAreʹare Music. 141
mins. Watertown: Documentary Educational Resources.
Wed 1/30
What is ethno:music:ology? What is field:work? I
Myers, Helen. 1992. “Introduction” and “Fieldwork,” in Ethnomusicology: An
Introduction vol.1, edited by Helen Myers, 3-18, 21-49. New York: W.W.
Norton and Company, Inc.
Confirm by email before class what event you will attend for
ethnography project
Week 2
Mon 2/4
What is ethno:music:ology? What is field:work? II
Cooley, Timothy and Gregory Barz, eds.. 2008. “Casting Shadows: Fieldwork
Is Dead! Long Live Fieldwork! –Introduction,” in Shadows in the Field: New
Perspectives for Fieldwork in Ethnomusicology, 3-24. New York: Oxford
University Press.
Kutsche, Paul. 1998. “To Instructors.” & “Ritual,” in Field Ethnography: A
Manual for Doing Cultural Anthropology, xi-xxi, 48-67. Upper Saddle River:
Prentice Hall.
Wed 2/6
Roundtable 1: ethnography project
Week 3
Mon 2/11
Knowing music, musicking knowledge: epistemological issues
Rice, Timothy. 2008. “Toward a Mediation of Field Methods and Field
Experience in Ethnomusicology,” in Shadows in the Field: New Perspectives
for Fieldwork in Ethnomusicology, edited by Timothy Cooley and Gregory
Barz, 42-61. New York: Oxford University Press.
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Titon, Jeff. 2008. “Knowing Fieldwork,” in Shadows in the Field: New
Perspectives for Fieldwork in Ethnomusicology, edited by Timothy Cooley and
Gregory Barz, 25-41. New York: Oxford University Press.
Wed 2/13
Virtual fields: the internet, new media, and more
Cooley, Timothy, Katharine Meizel, and Nasir Syed. 2004. “Virtual Fieldwork:
Three Case Studies,” in Shadows in the Field: New Perspectives for
Fieldwork in Ethnomusicology, edited by Timothy Cooley and Gregory Barz,
90-107. New York: Oxford University Press.
Miller, Kiri. 2007. “Jacking the Dial: Radio, Race, and Place in ‘Grand Theft
Auto.” Ethnomusicology 51(3) : 402-438.
Confirm by email before class what topic you will research for your
virtual fieldwork project
Week 4
Mon 2/18
Hands-on Equipment Training I, TBD
ITS will train us in how to use video and audio recording.
Wed 2/20
Hands-on Equipment Training II, TBD
ITS will train us in how to use video and audio recording.
Week 5
Mon 2/25
Roundtable 2: internet project
Wed 2/27
The interview: politics and ethics of scholarly engagement
Ritchie, Donald. 2003. “Conducting the Interview,” in Doing Oral History, 84109, 211-215. New York: Twayne Publishers.
Slobin, Mark. 1992. “Ethical Issues,” in Ethnomusicology: An Introduction,
edited by Helen Myers, 329-36. New York: W.W. Norton and Company, Inc.
Confirm by email before class who you will interview for interview
project
Fri 3/1
REQUIRED, 1 SESSION:
Music and Public Life: The New Transnationalisms of Music Symposium
The Russell House, time TBA
Week 6
Mon 3/4
Roundtable 3: interview project
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PART II
PRESENTING ETHNOMUSICOLOGY
Wed 3/6
Beyond the ivory tower: applied ethnomusicology
Survey: Slobin, Mark. N.D. Music in the Afghan North, 1967-1972. URL:
www.afghanistan.wesleyan.edu
Read: Wissler, Holly. 2009. “Grief-Singing and the Camera: The Challenges
and Ethics of Documentary Production in an Indigenous Andean Community.”
Ethnomusicology Forum 18(1): 37-53.
Read: Ana Reily, Suzel. 2003. “Ethnomusicology and the Internet.” Yearbook
for Traditional Music 35:187-192.
Read: Seeger, Anthony. 2008. “Theories Forged in the Crucible of Action:
The Joys, Dangers, and Potentials of Advocacy and Fieldwork,” in Shadows
in the Field: New Perspectives for Fieldwork in Ethnomusicology, edited by
Timothy Cooley and Gregory Barz, 271-288. New York: Oxford University
Press.
Screening (excerpt): TBA
Spring Break 3/08 – 3/25
Mid-semester recess begins at the end of classes on March 8 and ends on
March 25 at 8:00 a.m. Friday – Monday
Week 7
Mon 3/25
Roundtable 4: documentation project
Obtain permission from a professor to attend his/her performance class
by this date and confirm with me by email that you have done so.
Wed 3/27
Performing musical knowledge: world music at Wesleyan
Solís, Ted. 2004. “Introduction. Teaching What Cannot Be Taught: An
Optimistic Overview,” in Performing Ethnomusicology: Teaching and
Representation in World Music Ensembles, edited by Ted Solís, 3-19.
Berkeley: University of California Press.
Averill, Gage. 2004. “’Where’s One?’ Musical Encounters of the Ensemble
Kind,” in Performing Ethnomusicology: Teaching and Representation in World
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Music Ensembles, edited by Ted Solís, 93-111. Berkeley: University of
California Press.
Locke, David. 2004. “The African Ensemble in America: Contradictions and
Possibilities,” in Performing Ethnomusicology: Teaching and Representation
in World Music Ensembles, edited by Ted Solis, 168-88. Berkeley: University
of California Press.
Sumarsam. 2004. “Opportunity and Interactions: The Gamelan from Java to
Wesleyan,” in Performing Ethnomusicology: Teaching and Representation in
World Music Ensembles, edited by Ted Solis, 69-92. Berkeley: University of
California Press.
Attend performance class during this week.
Week 8
Mon 4/1
Roundtable 5: performance class observation project
Slobin, Mark. 2010. Music at Wesleyan: From Glee Club to Gamelan.
Middletown: Wesleyan University Press.
Wed 4/3
Musical analysis and transcription
Anthony Seeger, “From Lab to Field: The Mystery of Rising Pitch in a Rainy
Season Song.” In Why Suya Sing: A Musical Anthropology of an Amazonian
People (1987):88-103.
Widdess, Richard. 2006. “Musical Structure, Performance and Meaning: the
Case of a Stick-Dance from Nepal.” Ethnomusicology Forum 15(2): 179-213.
See list of free on-line sound analysis or notation programs given
below.
Wed 4/3 –
Sat 4/6
RECOMMENDED: Time Stands Still: Notation in Musical Practice
Conference/concerts. Tickets required and available through the box office.
Week 9
Mon 4/8
Roundtable 6: transcription project
Wed 4/10
Ethnomusicological writing I
Perlman, Marc. 1998. “Indonesian Traditions on Disc: The Rhetoric of the
Ethnomusicological Recording; Music of Indonesia by Philip Yampolsky.”
Ethnomusicology 42(1): 167-174.
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Slobin, Mark. 2006. “Shalom, Comrade! Yiddish Music in the Soviet Union
1928-1961 by Joel Rubin and Rita Ottens.” Ethnomusicology Forum
15(1):175-176.
Levin, Ted. 2008. About Huun Huur Tu. Concert pamphlet.
Confirm by email before class what recording, film, or website you will
write about for your review project
Week 10
Mon 4/15
Roundtable 7: review project
Wed 4/17
Ethnomusicology’s theories
Rice, Timothy. 2010. “Ethnomusicological Theory.” Yearbook for Traditional
Music 42: 100-134.
Solis, Ted. 2011. “Notes on an Interdiscipline: Music Theory, Analysis, and
Social Theory.” Ethnomusicology 56(3): 530-554.
Confirm by email before class the topic you will write about for your
final project, and begin collecting sources for your bibliography.
Fri 4/19
RECOMMENDED: Hugh Masekela, Crowell Concert Hall, 8pm
Week 11
Mon 4/22
Ethnomusicological writing II: the art of exposition
Harvey, Gordon. N.D. “A Brief Guide to the Elements of the Academic Essay.”
Cambridge: Harvard College Writing Program: 1-3.
Harvard. N.D. “A Student’s Guide to Writing in Social Anthropology.”
Department of Anthropology, Harvard University: 1-18, 26-49.
Wed 4/24
Roundtable: abstract project w/ bibliography
Thurs 4/25Sat 4/27
RECOMMENDED: Indonesian Performing Arts & Public Life Symposium
World Music Hall
Week 12
Mon 4/29
The academic presentation:
Graduate students Garrett Field (TBD) and Heidi Senungetuk (TBD) will give
presentations on their own work as well as discuss how to give a presentation
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Wed 5/1
The MUSC 290 undergraduate conference I: presentations
Students will present their final projects as a formal academic presentation
with a power point.
Week 13
Mon 5/6
The MUSC 290 undergraduate conference II: presentations
Wed 5/8
The MUSC 290 undergraduate conference III: presentations
Fri 5/17
Final paper with abstract and power point due by 5pm posted to
Moodle: NO LATE PAPERS!
GRADING RUBRIC
Please read this rubric carefully. You will be grading against the following criteria:
A range: The student is fully engaged and highly motivated. This student is well prepared,
having read the assigned texts, and has thought carefully about the texts’ relation to issues
raised in class. This student’s ideas and questions are substantive (either constructive or
critical); they stimulate class discussions. This student listens and responds other students.
The written work is outstanding in form and content. Arguments are clear and insightful; the
writing is original, or it expands in a new way on ideas presented in the course. The
evidence present in support of the arguments is carefully chosen and deftly handled. The
thinking is not only unified and coherent, but also complex and nuanced.
B range: The student participates consistently in discussion. This student comes to class
well prepared and contributes quite regularly by sharing thoughts and questions that show
insight and a familiarity with the material. This student refers to the readings and shows
interest in other students’ contributions. The written work is clear; the arguments are
coherent and present evidence in support of key points. Arguments show good
comprehension of the material and manifest critical thinking about the issues raised in the
course. Written work is reasonably well written and proofread. Arguments, while coherent,
do not have the complexity, the insight, or the integrated structure of an A range student’s
work.
C range: The student meets the basic requirements of class participation. This student is
somewhat prepared and participates once in a while but not regularly. This student’s
contributions most often relate to the readings and offer a few insightful ideas but do not help
to build a coherent and productive discussion. Their written work has some but not all of the
basic components of good argumentation (i.e., unified argument, evidence, coherent
structure): for example, written work may offer a thesis of some kind, but it presents no
evidence to support this thesis; or it may present an incoherent thesis; or it may simply
repeat points made in class without an overall argument. Such written work is usually poorly
organized, written and proofread. Written work will below a “C” if it lacks more than one of
the basic components of good argumentation.
Notes: Failure to fulfill satisfactorily any of these criteria will result in a grade of “D” or
below. I do reward genuine effort when I calculate final grades and especially honor good,
steadfast progress.
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SPECIAL NEEDS OR RELIGIOUS ACCOMODATIONS
Wesleyan has excellent resources and support for persons with learning or other disabilities.
Please bring a letter of accommodations from Dean Sarah Lazare within the first two weeks
of class. If your special need is other, please come see me during office hours and I will
guide you appropriately. Please don’t hesitate to talk to me if I can be of assistance.
If you need to miss classes because of religious obligations, I suggest you first apply your
two allowed absences to those dates. If you need to talk to me, please do!
Athletes: If you are an athlete and have games away, come see me so I can mark the
calendar and we can plan how to keep you on track in the course.
Writing assistance for students: Good writing is a craft with specific skills. It requires one
to know and understand these skills as well as practice. Wesleyan provides a range of
writing assistance to this end. I encourage all my students to consult with a writing tutor as
least once in the semester. For information, see http://www.wesleyan.edu/writing or check
out the Peer Tutoring Program: e-mail slazare@wesleyan.edu.
For Students with Disabilities: It is the policy of Wesleyan University to provide reasonable
accommodations to students with documented disabilities. Students, however, are
responsible for registering with Disabilities Services, in addition to making requests known to
me in a timely manner. If you require accommodations in this class, please make an
appointment with me as soon as possible so that appropriate arrangements can be made.
The procedures for registering with Disabilities Services can be found at
www.wesleyan.edu/deans/disability-students.html.
EQUIPMENT
In this class we will be dealing with recording equipment to a fair extent. The contact
information of our Information Technology Services (ITS) liaison is below:
Brent Morgan
Instructional Media Specialist, Allbritton 017
860-685-3952
bmorgan@wesleyan.edu
For access to music department recording equipment reserved for this class contact:
Deb Shore
Music Department, lobby
860-685-2598
email: dshore@wesleyan.edu
RESOURCES
English-Language Ethnomusicology Journals (see JSTOR):
African Music
Asian Music Journal
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Ethnomusicology
Ethnomusicology Forum, formerly British Journal of Ethnomusicology
Yearbook for Traditional Music
Online Ethnomusicology Journals:
Ethnomusicology Review: www.ethnomusicologyreview.ucla.edu
Free Useful On-line Programs:
Musescore, an easy-to-use notation program that might be good for creating notation figures
in your final paper, if needed: www.musescore.org/
PRAAT, a phonetics analysis program that some ethnomusicologists have been using for
musical analysis: www.fon.hum.uva.nl/praat/
Also see, Cooper, David and Ian Sapiro. 2006. “Ethnomusicology in the Laboratory:
From the Tonometer to the Digital Melograph.” Ethnomusicology Forum 15(2): 301-313.
SPEAR, a powerful, highly recommended sound analysis program:
www.klingbeil.com/spear/
Sygyt Software (demo version), an interesting sound analysis program focused on
visualizing the voice and its harmonic qualities: www.sygyt.com/en/overtone-analyzereditions
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