This class explores the diversity of music making across time and place as a socially embedded practice. It looks at the value and meaning that music contributes to the lives of individuals and communities, as they seek to understand the past, fully experience the present, and to imagine themselves into the future. Case studies range from the music culture of Warren Wilson College to various international contexts. Along the way, students critique the notion of “music culture” as a fixed or stable entity, and recognize the ways that all individuals exist at the intersection of multiple spheres of cultural influence. This class takes an ethnomusicological approach, and addresses the intersections of music with religion, politics, race, gender, identity, and other critical themes.
- Teacher: Benjamin Krakauer