Lewis & Clark Moodle

Examines folk, popular, and art musical traditions from around the world with a special focus on the Andes, Ireland, Ghana, Zimbabwe, and Cuba. Drawing on historical and visual sources, recordings, and contemporary ethnography, the course develops interpretive skill sets for analyzing the sound and social life of music in contexts ranging from rituals, festivals, politics, and schools, to recording studios, television, the internet, and global stages. In addition to learning about key topics in the field of ethnomusicology, we engage with traditions firsthand through an ethnographic assignment in Portland and a weekly workshop with performance faculty on campus. Organized into three small-group sessions on Monday evenings, the workshop component introduces music from Ghana, Zimbabwe, and Cuba through rotating sections devoted to each area. Finally, we will also confront how differences of gender, sexual orientation, age, class, race, ethnicity, faith, and nationality influence our understanding of musical life.

This course examines folk, popular, and art musical traditions from around the world with a special focus on the Andes, India, Cuba, Ireland, Turtle Island, Korea, and Mexico. Drawing on historical and visual sources, recordings, and contemporary ethnography, the course develops interpretive skill sets for analyzing the sound and social life of music in contexts ranging from rituals, festivals, politics, and schools, to recording studios, television, the internet, and global stages. In addition to learning about key topics in the field of ethnomusicology, we engage with traditions firsthand through ethnography and a weekly workshop with performance faculty on campus. Organized into three small-group sessions on Monday evenings, the workshop component introduces music from India, the United States, and Cuba through rotating sections devoted to each area. Finally, we will also confront how differences of gender, sexual orientation, age, class, race, ethnicity, faith, disability, and nationality influence our understanding of musical life.

This course will explore the intersection of music and social justice. Drawing on historical and contemporary examples of performers engaged in struggles for social change, we will examine how and why creative actors participate in political life. In addition to surveying the role of the performing arts in social movements, including women’s rights, LGBTQ+ equality, civil rights, national liberation, labor reform, environmental activism, and Indigenous self-determination, we will discuss music-centered case studies, each one foregrounding specific aesthetic practices, repertories, and media, as well as artistic alliances and frictions. The course will also give participants an opportunity to do ethnographic research on soundscapes of past and/or contemporary social movements in Portland, as well as gain practical musical training in workshops on songwriting and Ghanaian drumming.

Four-voice chromatic, modulating chorale writing, in all major and minor keys. Harmonization of, chromatic melodies. Analysis of binary and ternary, forms, basic phrase structures. Ear training,, sight singing, keyboard work, and rhythm reading,, including simple chromatic chord progressions,, rhythmic dictation with syncopation at faster, tempi in simple and compound meters, and chromatic, melodic dictation exercises.