MUSC 4000 - Special Topics in Music

(3) Credit Hours
Prerequisite: ENGL 1102   and (MUSC 1100 , ARTS 1100 , FILM 1005  or THEA 1100 )
Selected special topics of interest to faculty and students related to music, ethnomusicology, music history. Special Topics courses may be repeated as a different topic for up to 6 hours of credit.

Theme Description:
This course explores folk, art, and popular music selected from the following: Sub-Saharan Africa, India, Asia, the Middle East,
Indonesia, Latin America, North America, and (non-art music) Europe. Music will be presented in its cultural context. In addition, this course employs an ethnomusicological approach which will include classification of musical instruments, methods and processes of musical transmission, and culture theory.

Theme Goals and Objectives
Successful completion of this theme will enable students to:

1. Explain in oral and written form how each musical tradition is organized, produced, and valued by its own culture.  This will be evaluated through exam questions and class discussions.
2. Construct a compelling argument about the importance of music as a human (and humanizing) activity.  This will be evaluated in exam questions, class discussions and the final term paper.
3. Demonstrate proficiency in cross-cultural analysis by comparing and contrasting two global music traditions in order to establish the relationship between music and culture, as well as musics involvement in processes of cultural change.  This will be evaluated in exam questions and the final term paper.
4. Demonstrate advanced research skills by producing a term paper that discusses the religious, political, literary, linguistic, and economic associations of a music tradition not of their own.