MUS 235 | Introduction to Ethnomusicology and Historical Musicology

MUS 235 is an introduction to the methods of ethnomusicology and historical musicology as they are practiced today. Both fields explore a wide variety of music through a variety of approaches. Ethnomusicology typically uses methods including interviewing, transcription, and participant-observation to understand music-making today; historical musicology usually explores music of the past, often through archival research, analysis of notated musical scores, and synthesis of secondary literature. The goal of this course is for you to learn to contextualize music historically, to critically engage with music-related inquiries, and to approach future conversations about music with knowledge and enthusiasm. This course seeks not only to familiarize you with what ethnomusicology and historical musicology are, but to empower you to participate in conversations about what they might become.