Professor Friedson

Office: 313 Music

Office Hours: T, R,11:00 – 12:30 or by appointment

Office phone: 369-7541 Friedson@music.unt.edu

This course takes an in-depth look at the theory and history of the discipline of ethnomusicology from its early days as comparative musicology to its present multi-disciplinary approach to the study of music-cultures.  In particular, the course will explore the relationship between shifting theoretical research paradigms and how they have affected field methodology.  Course work will entail close readings of representative music ethnographies, several short field assignments and reports, and a research project, resulting in a final paper.

Your grade will be based on the following percentages:

Class participation 20%

Assignments and reports 30%

Final research paper 50%

There are four required books for this course:

1.         Barz, Gregory, and Timothy Cooley. 1997. Shadows in the Field: New Perspectives for Fieldwork in Ethnomusicology. New York: Oxford University Press.

2.         Feld, Steven. 1990. Sound and Sentiment: Birds, Weeping, Poetics, and Song in Kaluli Expression.  2d ed. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.  

3.         Friedson, Steven. 1996. Dancing Prophets: Musical Experience in Tumbuka Healing. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 

4.         To be announced.