Module MUSI3771: Music and Empire

Department: Music

MUSI3771: Music and Empire

Prerequisites

• MUSI1261 Historical Studies 1

Corequisites

• None.

Excluded Combination of Modules

• None.

Aims

• This module introduces students to the cultural parameters of music and empire, broadly defined. With topics covering the impact of imperialism – as a political and cultural concept – on global musical practice from a variety of perspectives (cultural, analytical, religious), spanning 1600-the present, students will familiarise themselves with the core debates surrounding the study of empire from an interdisciplinary perspective. The assessment will enable students to create their own case studies through independent research, as a means of contextualising the role that imperial thought has played and continues to play in constructions of musical meaning.

Content

• ‘Music and Empire’ is structured around how competing ideologies of imperialism intersect with the historiography of musical practice and aesthetic thought. Areas of discussion will include ‘Empire and Exploration’, ‘Empire and Mission’, ‘Mapping Imperial Space and Knowledge’, ‘Empires of Tonality’, and ‘Empires of Cultural Authority’. Individual case studies for lectures will include ‘sounding out’ the use of musical space within the political context of postcolonial urban geography, the place of music within the British Empire (contextualising the ‘British Musical Renaissance’), the hymnody and choral traditions associated with Victorian missionary movements, the music hall songs of blackface minstrelsy, the (ongoing) ‘empires’ of jazz and world music, postcolonial musical analysis, imperial systems of musical perception, and finally, the aesthetic empire of Western classical music itself. Lectures will introduce key readings and historiographical issues, illustrated by a diverse range of musical examples from imperial and postcolonial contexts. Building on the lectures and independent reading, tutorials will provide a forum for in-depth debates and formative presentations.

Learning Outcomes

• By the end of the module students will have gained a familiarity with the core academic literature on music and empire, and will be able to identify historical and contemporary contexts within which cultures of imperialism have affected both Western and non-Western musical practice. Through both formative and summative assessment, students will acquire the ability to critically apply these concepts to their own musical experiences.

• This module further develops students’ ability to draw connections between music and society, particularly with regard to structures of cultural imperialism that lie behind musical practice. Thus, while the focus of this module is music and empire, the critical thinking and writing skills gained in this course will deeply familiarise students with many of the concepts of aesthetic authority that are central to the historical and analytical study of music at large.

• Students will develop their critical thinking and writing skills, particularly through the study of both primary and secondary sources and the consolidation of structured arguments within the summative essay. Students will also develop their public speaking and presentational skills through individual formative presentations in group tutorials.

Modes of Teaching, Learning and Assessment and how these contribute to the learning outcomes of the module

• Whole group lecture/seminars structured around directed reading.
• Whole group tutorials, including class discussion of core readings and case studies.
• Individual tutorials on individual research essay topics, developing skills on structuring research questions, and on situating their own ideas within the framework of the academic field of musicology.
• Formative assessment of individual oral presentations within tutorials, developing public speaking and communication skills.
• Summative assessment in the form of an independent research essay on topics of music and imperialism, broadly defined, of the students’ choice, encouraging originality of thought and the further development of academic research and writing skills.

Teaching Methods and Learning Hours

Summative Assessment

Formative Assessment:

Students will each deliver a verbal presentation in tutorial time, on the topic of research which they plan to develop for their summative assessment. The feedback on these presentations will be helpful in further exploring their research topic, as well as in developing their public presentation skills.

■ Attendance at all activities marked with this symbol will be monitored. Students who fail to attend these activities, or to complete the summative or formative assessment specified above, will be subject to the procedures defined in the University's General Regulation V, and may be required to leave the University