Course Info: HACU-0265
| Course | HACU-0265 Encapsulating Sounds |
| Long Title | Encapsulating Sounds: Introduction to Critical Organology |
| Term | 2025F |
| Note(s) |
Textbook information |
| Meeting Info | Music and Dance Building 110 on T,TH from 2:30-3:50 |
| Faculty | Junko Oba |
| Capacity | 25 |
| Available | 0 |
| Waitlist | 1 |
| Distribution(s) |
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| Cumulative Skill(s) | |
| Additional Info | Students should expect to spend 6-8 hours weekly on work and preparation outside of class time |
| Description | Every culture bears unique sensibilities to sounds. People
cultivate distinctive ways of hearing, understanding, and
relating to them. Different instruments are devised to
encapsulate distinctive cultural values, not only acoustically
but also visually in their material forms. This course explores
diverse music cultures of the world through the lens of critical
organology (the critical study of musical instruments). Our
investigation encompasses subjects 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, animal body parts, toxic
chemicals, among others. By cross-culturally and
cross-historically examining different ways in which humans have
interacted with sound making objects, mechanisms, and ideas, we
will critically examine, question, and reconsider what entails
musical instruments Keywords:Musical instrument, material culture, environment, ethnomusicology, sounds |