MUS 239
Introduction to World Music
M, W, F 10:00 – 10:50 a.m.
Ellis Hall Room 226
Instructor: Dr. John Prescott
Office: HHPA 309
Office Hours: T.B.A.
Phone: 836-5748
Email: johnprescott@missouristate.edu
Course Web Site: www.faculty.missouristate/edu/j/jsp304f
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18 January 2006
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Distribution of Syllabus
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Class Overview
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Student/Teacher Course Expectations
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Introduction to World Music,
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Text
Titon, Jeff, ed. Worlds of Music, An Introduction to the
Music of the World's Peoples. Shorter
Version/Second edition. Belmont, California:
Schirmer/Thomson Learning, 2005.
http://www.wadsworth.com/music
QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (Uncompress ed) dec ompres sor
are needed to s ee this pic ture.
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Reading Assignment
for Week One

Chapter 1
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What are the four components of a Music-Culture?
Can you hear and feel the metrical rhythm in the
pieces you are listening to?
Chapter 9

What type of music do YOU want to learn about?
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MUS 239
Introduction to World Music
Chapter 1: The Music-Culture as a World
of Music
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What is music?
 Soundscape:
characteristic sounds of
a place
 In general, music is sound that is
humanly organized.
 Sometimes it’s not easy to separate
sound and music.
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Patterns in Music
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Rhythm & Meter
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Melody
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Principal tune made of a succession of tones in
particular rhythm
Harmony


Metrical rhythm: rhythm with recurring accent
pattern
Accompaniment to a melody
Form
 Structural
arrangement of musical ideas
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Harmony; Four Kinds
Monophonic (distinct single melody)
 Homophonic (single melody with
accompanying harmony)
 Polyphonic (more than one melody)
 Heterophonic (single melody but each
instrument plays it differently)

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Ways of Looking at Musical
Instruments: Classification

(Sachs-Hornbostel Instrument
Classification)

Idiophone
Membranophone
Chordophone
Aerophone
(Electrophone)
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Idiophone: examples
a percussion instrument, for example
a gong or xylophone, that is made
from resonating material that does
not have to be tuned
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Membranophones: examples
instruments that make sounds when a
stretched skin (membrane) vibrates
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Chordophone: examples
a stringed instrument
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Aerophones: examples
A wind instrument; noise is made by
pushing air through a tube.
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Lines are not always easy to
draw
There are hybrids such as tambourines or
kazoo; distinctions can be fuzzy
 Greater interest now in insider’s words,
context, style.

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Ways of Looking at the Cultural
Elements that Surround and
Give Meaning to Music
Four Components of a Music
Culture
1. Ideas about music
2. Activities involving music
3. Repertories of music
4. Material culture of music
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First: Ideas About Music
 Music
and the Belief System
 Aesthetics of Music
 Contexts for Music
 History of Music
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Second: Activities Involving
Music

Basic aspects of social
organization
 Status and role
 Other considerations
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Third: Repertories of Music
Definition: stock of ready
performances
 Style; combined elements
 Genres
 Texts
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

Composition
Transmission
Movement
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•Fourth: Material Culture of
Music
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
Material objects that a culture
produces, such as
• Musical instruments
• Paintings, documents, art
• Scores, books, sheet music,
books
Impact of mass media
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Worlds of Music,
General Comments

Co-existent musics in most communities; musiccultures are dynamic rather than static; rarely
“dies out; ” world is a fluid, interactive,
overlapping soundscape
 Changes occur to meet expressive and
emotional desires
 Ethnocentrism is generally not a positive
element in the study of world musics
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Discovering and
Documenting
a World of Music
Some Organizing Principles:

Family
 Generation & Gender
 Leisure
 Religion
 Ethnicity
 Regionalism
 Nationalism
 Commercial Music
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Subject Options

Chart the music you hear daily (journal,
recordings, mappings, etc.)
 Examine music in your own background
 Explore music in your community
 Individual musician
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Research, Documentation & Reporting:
some things to consider
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Gaining Entry
Library & Internet Research
Participation and Observation
Ethics
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Gain permission
Honesty
Field Gear
Interviewing (open questions, not leading)
Sharing the information (Report)
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Homework

Project Proposals

Assignment No. 1
 Online
quiz on chapter 1, sent to my email
by Monday, January 23, 5:00 PM.
 Your answers to questions 3, 11, 17, on
pp. 29-30, and question 5 on p. 339, due in
class Friday, January 27.

Read Chapter 2:
North America/Native America
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