MUS252

Designed for students interested in music cultures based outside the West, this course introduces selected historical and contemporary musical traditions of East Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Pacific Islands, with an emphasis on the integration of music, dance, theater, and ritual. The mutual constitution of music and social worlds is a core premise of the course. Music and/as place, the performance of group and individual identities, and issues of cultural representation are unifying themes. Several hands-on sessions, in which students learn to play instruments of the Bates Indonesian gamelan, enhance the grasp of formal principles common to a variety of Southeast Asian musics. Regional/cultural focus may vary.