Module Catalogue 2025/26

Pre Requisite Comment

N/A

Co Requisite Comment

N/A

Aims

- To introduce students to the ethnographic study of music
- To introduce core methods and ideas from ethnomusicology
- To support students to undertake their own first experiences of ethnography in musical cultures
- To provoke analytical thinking about both familiar and unfamiliar styles of music and their cultural and social values
- To promote an ethical understanding of people making music
- To equip students with a fundamental set of skills to enable them to undertake ethnography in music
- To provide the intellectual framework for further development of ethnomusicological investigation at more advanced stages of the undergraduate curricula in music.

Outline Of Syllabus

The syllabus introduces the core methods and ideas in the ethnographic study of people making music. The module does this in two key ways: 1) through lectures and seminar discussions on core methodological and case study examples from ethnomusicology, and; 2) through supporting students to undertake their own first ethnographic project in music during the year. The syllabus therefore examines the following core topics drawing on the professional research of ethnomusicological staff in music: Ethnography; music and fieldwork; generalizability; Self and Other(s) in music cultures; Thick Description; emic-etic knowledge; digital ethnomusicology; encountering difference through music; musical performance as a fieldwork technique; ethics in ethnomusicology; models of fieldwork from immersion to multi-site ethnographies; applied ethnomusicology, and social change; and; small-scale surveys and survey design in musical communities.

During the first semester, we will challenge preconceptions of what music and ethnography are by examining concepts and functions of ethnomusicology, music-making practices across different cultures and ways to study those practices. We ask what is ethnomusicology? What is ethnography? What is ‘the field’? In answering those questions, we explore some of the strategies for analysing Self and Other in music cultures.

Students will be asked to undertake a small self-designated ethnographic project in second semester, and will be supported on such possible topics as writing fieldnotes, conducting original research in the community, participant observation, preparing for and conducting interviews and creating research questions. The goal of second semester is for students to put their ethnomusicological field methods to use; to show the effectiveness of a research design; to analyse original data; and to present findings within a final essay.

Intended Knowledge Outcomes

On completion of this module, students will:
- Have a basic understanding of the core methods of ethnomusicology
- Have been supported to complete their first ethnographic project on music
- Understand what sort of research questions are answerable through ethnographic research (and what are not)
- Gain knowledge about some core ideas and methodological challenges in ethnomusicological research on music.

Intended Skill Outcomes

On completion of this module, students will:
- Have developed basic practical skills in fieldwork with musical communities (whether in person or digital)
- Developed the ability to research sub-fields of music studies online and using library resources
- Developed improved analytical skills in qualitative data
- Improved ability to synthesise theory and method in a real world case study of musical culture

Teaching Rationale And Relationship

Encourages students to engage with the materials individually as well as part of a group, within a variety of learning contexts.

The combination of teaching activities allows students to receive a thorough grounding in core concepts via lectures which are then unpacked in greater detail in small group seminars, which additionally work to support the incorporation of these ideas into their individual projects. The weighting of the seminars in semester 2 allows students to take the core materials and concepts from semester 1 and develop them on an individual basis in their own projects through independent research.

Assessment Rationale And Relationship

Essay 1 (1,200-1,500 words, Semester 1) - Each class period you will be asked to come to class prepared to discuss a particular set of questions based on assigned readings or videos (listed in the Handbook, and also available on Canvas). For this essay, you are asked to expand upon one of the discussion questions for lectures and/or seminars.

Essay 2 (Field research project, 2,500 words) - You are asked to conduct a final, onsite research project on a musical community in Newcastle. Your approach to analysing your musical community should be similar to how case studies discussed in Semester 1 are approached (i.e., frame your analysis with ethno-theory). This assignment will be discussed at length throughout Semester 2: writing seminars, class discussions and strategies for onsite research will be provided.

General Notes

N/A