Course Info: HACU-0154

Every culture bears unique sensibilities to sounds. People cultivate distinctive ways of hearing, understanding, and relating to them. These sensibilities are also reflected in the processes of sound- and music-making. Different instruments are devised to encapsulate distinctive cultural values not only acoustically but also visually in their material forms. This course aims to explore diverse music cultures of the world through the lens of organology (the study of musical instruments). We examine a wide range of sound-making devices broadly defined as "musical instruments" in their sociocultural and historical contexts. Our investigation encompasses topics such as social functions and significations of the instruments, e.g., ritual objects, status symbols, and exotic commodities; myths and symbolism attributed to the instruments; technology and craftsmanship involved in the fabrication, and ecological and ethical concerns for the use of certain materials, e.g., exotic wood, tortoise shells, and ivory.

In Encapsulating Sounds, students were required to complete several different types of writing assignments throughout the course: critical reading and unpacking of the reading for the day, short responses to the listening (and one documentary film) assignments, a descriptive essay explaining the imaginative instrument they conceptualized/designed, and a final research paper. The final paper is an individual contribution to the collaborative research project conducted by a team of two or three. A joint presentation is also a requirement.