National Taiwan Normal University

Graduate Institute of Ethnomusicology

113-1 Music, Society, and Culture

Fall 2023

Instructor: Dr. Hsu Hsin-Wen (Associate Professor, GIEM)

Teaching Assistant: Fu-Sheng Chen (MA student, GIEM)

Course Type: Elective Course

Type of Class Meeting: 16 weeks 

Time for Class Meeting: Tuesday 10:20-12:10

Classroom for Class Meeting: GIEM Seminar Room

This course aims to lead students to engage in music studies that deal with socio-cultural issues. Specifically, it introduces the ways ethnomusicologists adopt existing and develop new socio-cultural theories for understanding musical practitioners in different societies and cultures across the globe and their ways of tackling various kinds of crises of the Anthropocene. Through engaging with instructor’s lectures, and participating in in-course presentation and discussion sessions, as well as completing mid-term presentation and individual term paper, students will learn how people around the world have been engaged in the promotion of socio-cultural diversity, human well-being, and environmental sustainability through musical practices. In addition, the reading materials and weekly discussions are expected to help students develop their skills of critical thinking, public presentation, and academic writing in English.

Course Grading:

This course adopts the following criteria to evaluate students’ performance:

1. Attendance and Participation. 10%
2. In-class Presentations (ICP): Students are to be divided into four groups; each group needs to do two times of ICP, in which group members need to propose main points of the article, provide supporting examples, and lead discussion. 2*20%=40%
3. Response Paper: One for guest lecture. 10%
4. Midterm Project (oral and written): Research topic, research questions, research background, research purpose, and literature review on a selected issue. 2000 words or above. 20%
5. Final Project (oral and written): Revision of midterm project + research method, research analysis and findings, conclusion, and bibliography. 3000 words or above. 20%

NTNU Grade Scale and Conversion Chart: http://www.aa.ntnu.edu.tw/files/archive/2080_5d7298ff.pdf

Plagiarism:

       Students are to abide by and subject to all university policies in relation to academic integrity. Following academic ethics, especially appropriate citation, is a must. Students are encouraged to consult the instructor regarding appropriate citation and circumstances that may constitute academic dishonesty. Plagiarism and other forms of academic misconduct will not be tolerated in any way. Any work that is found to be involved with such misconduct will receive a failing grading and the incident will be handled according to the policies of the university.

Course Schedule:

Week 1 (Sept. 03, 2024): Course Introduction

Week 2 (Sept. 10, 2024): Let’s Talk About Music and Being a Researcher/Artist

Self-introduction

Week 3 (Sept. 17, 2024): Moon Festival. No class.

Week 4 (Sept. 24, 2024): Musicking

Material for Class Discussion:

Small, Christopher. “Musicking—The Meanings of Performing and Listening. A Lecture.” Music Education Research vol. 1, no. 1 (1999): 9-21.  

Week 5 (Oct. 1, 2024): Music and Health

        Guest Lecturer: Zoe Weng (Music Therapist)

        Response paper due at 11:59 pm, Oct 2.

Week 6 (Oct. 8, 2024): Bimusicality 

Material for Class Discussion: 

Titon, Jeff Todd. “Bi-Musicality as Metaphor.” The Journal of American Folklore vol 108, no. 429 (1995): 287-297. (ICP 1)

Week 7 (Oct. 15, 2024): Fields of Music Making I

Material for Class Discussion: 

Turino, Thomas. “Chapter 2: Participatory and Presentational Performance.” In Music as Social Life: The Politics of Participation. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2008, 23-65. (ICP 2)

Week 8 (Oct. 22, 2024): Fields of Music Making II

Material for Class Discussion: 

Turino, Thomas. “Chapter 3: The Recording Fields: High Fidelity and Studio Audio Art.” In Music as

Social Life: The Politics of Participation. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2008, 66-92. (ICP 3)

Week 9: (Oct. 29, 2024): Oral Presentation of Midterm Project

Written Paper of Midterm Project Due at 23:59, Nov. 1, 2024     

Week 10 (Nov. 5, 2024): Music Sustainability

Material for Class Discussion:  

Schippers, Huib. “Sound Futures: Exploring the Ecology of Music Sustainability.” In

Sustainable Futures for Music Cultures: An Ecological Perspective, edited by Huib Schippers and Catherine Grant, pp. 1-18. New York: Oxford University Press, 2016. (ICP 4)

Week 11 (Nov. 12, 2024): Ethnomusicological Praxis

Material for Class Discussion: 

Diamond, Beverly and Salwa El-Shawan Castelo-Branco. “Ethnomusicological Praxis: An Introduction.” In Transforming Ethnomusicology, Vol. I: Methodologies, Institutional Structures and Policies. Edited by Beverly Diamond and Salwa El-Shawan Castelo-Branco, pp. 1-24. New York: Oxford University Press, 2021. (ICP 5)

Week 12 (Nov. 19, 2024): Gender and Sexuality

Material for Class Discussion: 

Sugarman, Jane C. “Theories of Gender and Sexuality: From the Village to the Anthropocene.” In Theory for Ethnomusicology: Histories, Conversations, Insights, pp. 71-98. Edited by Harris M. Berger and Ruth M. Stone. London: Routledge, 2019. (ICP 6)

Week 13 (Nov. 26, 2024): Sound Ecology

Material for Class Discussion:

Titon, Jeff Todd. “The Nature of Ecomusicology.” In Toward a Sound Ecology: New and Selected Essays, pp. 223-235. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2020. (ICP 7)

Week 14 (Dec. 3, 2024): Challenge to Musical Cosmopolitanism

Material for Class Discussion: 

Stokes, Martin. “On Musical Cosmopolitanism.” The Macalester International Roundtable 2007. 3.
https://digitalcommons.macalester.edu/intlrdtable/3 (ICP 8)

Week 15 (Dec. 10, 2024): Participation in a World Music Concert

Event: Finnish Folk Music Night: Tallari and NTCH GIEM Ensemble

Date: 19:30-21:30 pm, Dec. 9

Venue: Recital Hall, National Theater and Concert Hall

Written Paper of Final Project Due at 23:59, Dec. 14, 2024

Week 16 (Dec. 17, 2024): Oral Presentation of Final Project

Resources for Academic Writing:

1. Swales, John, and Christine Feak. Academic Writing for Graduate Students: Essential Skills and Tasks, 3rd Edition. Ann Arbor, Michigan: University of Michigan Press, 2012.
2. NTNU Center for Academic Literacy: www.cal.ntnu.edu.tw
3. Morton Benson, eds. The BBI Combinatory Dictionary of English, 3rd Edition. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing, 2010.

廖柏森、朱雯琪著。《論文全英語發表—800句學術口語報告句型與應用》（The Ultimate Guide to Giving Academic Presentations in English: 800 Sentence Patterns with Scenarios and Applications）。臺北：眾文圖書公司，2022。

Diamond, Beverly and Salwa El-Shawan Castelo-Branco. “Ethnomusicological Praxis: An Introduction.” In Transforming Ethnomusicology, Vol. I: Methodologies, Institutional Structures and Policies. Edited by Beverly Diamond and Salwa El-Shawan Castelo-Branco, pp. 1-24. New York: Oxford University Press, 2021.

Schippers, Huib. “Sound Futures: Exploring the Ecology of Music Sustainability.” In Sustainable Futures for Music Cultures: An Ecological Perspective, edited by Huib Schippers and Catherine Grant, pp. 1-18. New York: Oxford University Press, 2016.

Small, Christopher. “Musicking—The Meanings of Performing and Listening. A Lecture.” Music Education Research vol. 1, no. 1 (1999): 9-21.

Sugarman, Jane C. “Theories of Gender and Sexuality: From the Village to the Anthropocene.” In Theory for Ethnomusicology: Histories, Conversations, Insights, pp. 71-98. Edited by Harris M. Berger and Ruth M. Stone. London: Routledge, 2019.

Titon, Jeff Todd. “Bi-Musicality as Metaphor.” The Journal of American Folklore vol. 108, no. 429 (1995): 287-297.

Titon, Jeff Todd. “The Nature of Ecomusicology.” In Toward a Sound Ecology: New and Selected Essays, pp. 223-235. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2020.

Turino, Thomas. “Chapter 2: Participatory and Presentational Performance.” In Music as Social Life: The Politics of Participation. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2008, 23-65.

Turino, Thomas. “Chapter 3: The Recording Fields: High Fidelity and Studio Audio Art.” In Music as Social Life: The Politics of Participation. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2008, 66-92.