Course Description

This course introduces students to the music of selected non-Western musical cultures. Through listening, lectures, and hands-on performance workshops we explore multiple approaches to transmission, improvisation, composition and the roles of music and musicians in society. By examining what music means in a variety of cultures, students explore what music means in their own lives. Special attention is given to a variety of concepts of music and time (rhythm, meter, interlocking and cross-rhythms, cyclicity and linearity), pitch (tuning systems, modes and melodies), instruments and vocal techniques, textures, and timbres.