Musics of the world: Ethnographic and embodied perspectives I

Specific Foundation

The course is also offered to exchange programme students.

Upon the successful completion of the module, students will have: 1. gained an understanding of a range of music ethnographies on traditional and popular musics from areas such as Brazil, West Arica, Greece, Indonesia, Iran and the USA, among others, 2. gained an understanding of key-topics in the interdisciplinary dialogue between fields like ethnomusicology, music, sound and sociocultural anthropology, focusing on issues of identity, community and culture-making under critical analysis of concepts such as race, nationality, ethnicity, religious and political affiliation, gender and sexuality, as well as of issues like migration, vulnerability and crisis, 3. gained an understanding of basic principles of music performance between and beyond distinct musical traditions, 4. gained experience in learning music orally, 5. developed skills in body coordination at individual and group level, 6. developed skills in individual and group expression and improvisation through voice [sound-song-speech (oral/written)] and body movement, 7. approached the learning of distinct musics as a method of intercultural encounter. while developing a sensitive approach to musical, cultural and social difference.

The course offers a dual approach to understanding traditional and popular musics of the world, through examples of ethnographic research and embodied experimentation with such musics. Each weekly class corresponds either to the theoretical or practical part of the course. The theoretical part of the course (ethnographic approach) focuses on an interdisciplinary dialogue around issues of identity, community, and cultural constitution, under the critical analysis of concepts such as race, ethnicity, nationhood, religious, political, gender, and sexual orientation, as well as issues like migration, vulnerability, and crisis. These issues are explored through local and translocal musical formations relating to regions such as Brazil, West Africa, Greece, Iran, Indonesia, and the United States of America, among others. Lectures employ a range of audio-visual material to exemplify musical and cultural performance across distinct music traditions of the world, and to establish the ground for active participation in class discussions. The practical part of the course (embodied experimentation) focuses on the understanding and interpretation of the vocal performance process. Starting with the course leaders' areas of specialization (Nigerian gospel music and Epirotic polyphony), students experiment with the embodied experience of performance, not as final product but as a process of exploration and expression on both individual and group levels. However, students are encouraged to suggest repertoires from other traditions (including those discussed in the theoretical part of the course) and/or from their own, original compositions. To actively participate in this course on a weekly basis, students are expected to study a selection of recommended material for both the theoretical part (with a major part of publications in English) and the practical part of the course. The assessment for this module includes: i) for the theoretical part of the course (50%): an individual oral presentation (10%) and an individual written essay (40%), ii) for the practical part of the course (50%): the presentation of individual (optional) and group (compulsory) work, based on material pertaining to embodied experimentation.

musics of the world, interdisciplinarity, ethnography, embodied experience, inter-artistic creativity

09-10-2025