Hearing The Globe: Music as World History

Syllabus

 


How can the study of a society’s music help us better understand its past and present? Traveling from the shores of the Caribbean Sea to Morocco’s Atlas mountains, this course will delve deeply into three cultures and the music they produced. In uncovering the pasts of these societies, students will analyze musical forms and historical documents in order to underand the relationshop between music and history.


Course Objectives:

• Students will be able to analyze the formal elements of the particular styles of music addressed by the course
• Students will be able to analyze the musical styles addressed by the course in their larger historical and social contexts
• Student will be able to use music as a form of historical and anthropological evidence
• Students will be able to demonstrate a familiarity with the major events and shaping phenomena of three historical periods: (1) the Trujillo years in the Dominican Republic, (2) the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, 1441-1808, and (3) Medieval Spain and Morocco.
• Students will be able to employ textual evidence in support of an analytic argument
• Students will be able to craft college-level, thesis-driven essays in a clear and comprehensible style

Required readings: All readings for this course are on-line, either on blackboard or directly from our website. In short, you don’t have to buy any books for this course. YOU MUST, HOWEVER BRING A PRINT-OUT OF THE READINGS TO CLASS.

 

Required DVDs: you will be watching two films outside of class. Both films are available for free at the reserve desk of the John Jay library. You may want, however, to watch these materials at home as you will be doing homework with both films. The first film, Adangaaman, is available through Netflix instant download (it is NOT available through any local blockbuster, however). The second film, Cities of Light, is NOT available through Netflix. We will, however, make copies available to you for the cost of reproduction.


Course Drop Date: The last day that a student can withdraw from the course without academic penalty is Wednesday, April 7, 2010.

Contact information for ISP Admin and Writing Tutors:


Bertha Peralta-Rodriguez, Program Counselor & Coordinator (bperalta-rodriguez@jjay.cuny.edu)
Priscilia Acuna, Program Secretary (pacuna@jjay.cuny.edu)
Liz Balla, ISP Writing Tutor (isptutor@gmail.com)
Evan Friss, ISP Graduate Writing Fellow (ejfriss@gmail.com)


Deadlines: All assignments, unless otherwise noted, are due through Blackboard (details provided in class) at 11:30 pm on the Wednesday before class.


Extensions: We never want you to have to choose between doing well in this class and doing well in another course. So, if you give us a week’s notice, you will likely be able to receive an extension on a portion of an upcoming assignment. You will have to do some part of the assignment, however. Finally, you may receive only ONE such extension during the semester.

FOR MORE DETAILS ON POLICIES, INCLUDING ATTENDANCE, SEE HERE

 

ASSIGNMENTS ARE LISTED ON THE DAY ASSIGNED, NOT THE DAY DUE!




UNIT I: Merengue, Dominican Identity, and Racialized Violence against Haitians in the Dominican Republic


January 28th:

In class: introductions, class policies, signing of contracts. Review of Blackboard.

Assigned today, due next Wednesday 2/03 at 11:30 pm: (A) read on-line music style guide for Merengue Tipico/Orquesta (on blackboard) (B) Listen to accompanying tracks (on blackboard) , and (C) exercise on music style guide (click here).



 

February 4th:

In class: discussion of musical forms
, analysis of tracks in class; introduction to answering reading questions

Assigned today, due next Wednesday 2/10 at 11:30 pm through blackboard: read Julie Sellers, Merengue and Dominican Identity:Music as National Unifier, pp. 6-7, 27-40, 81-101 (on blackboard) and reading questions.

Optional Viewing: Race and Racism in the Dominican Republic




February 11th:

In-class: Discuss Sellers, History of Merengue; listen to representative tracks in class. Introduce claim/evidence/warrant.

Assigned today, due Wedneday 2/24 at 11:30 pm through blackboard:

a) 7-page reading reviewing class discussion of claim/evidence/warrant (on website here, or as pdf on blackboard)

B) 6 questions in quotation and claim/evidence/warrant exercise, Grove Encylopedia exercise, and musical analysis exercise

This assignment introduces a concept we will be using throughout the semester and so this homework is worth 12% of your semester grade.



February 18th:

No class



February 25th:

In-class: Introductory discussion on Nial Ferguson reading and Nationalism. Watch Nial Fergusson’s War of the World (available at the library if you miss class)

Assigned today, due Wednesday 3/03 at 11:30 pm through blackboard: read selected portions (totaling 15 pages) from the introduction to Nial Ferguson’s War of the World (blackboard) (B) reading questions on Fergusson

Prof. Umbach’s translations of Ferguson’s professor-speak (here) will make the reading easier.

excerpt from War of the World

 




March 4th:

NOTE DIFFERENT DEADLINES FOR THE TWO HOMEWORKS (A&B) THIS WEEK.

 

read pp. 44-51, 102-105 Why the Cocks Fight: Dominicans, Haitians, and the Struggle for Hispaniola (blackboard)


A. Due Monday 3/08 at 11:30 PM through blackboard: Evidence chart using Why the Cocks Fight: Dominicans, Haitians, and the Struggle for Hispaniola and Sellers, Merengue and Dominican Identity:
Music as National Unifier

This chart will both help organize your evidence for the paper (see below) and serve as an outline for that essay. (30% of your grade for this assignment)


B. Due Thursday 3/11 at 11:30 AM (yes, morning) through blackboard: Essay applying Ferguson’s explanation for violence in the 20th Century to the 1937 genocide of Haitians in the Dominican Republic. (70% of your grade for this assignment)



UNIT II : Brazilian Music and the Slave Trade

March 11th:


In-class: discuss essays

Assigned today, due next Wednesday 3/17 at 11:30 pm:
(A) Read on-line music style guide to Afro-Brazilian music and listen to examples (on blackboard) (B) Read: Carvalho, “Black Music of All Colors: The Construction of Black Ethnicity in Ritual and Popular Genres of Afro-Brazilian Music, ” pp. 187-205 (C) Questions on reading and style guide.

 



March 18th:

In Class: Introduction to slave trade. Exploring African musical elements.

Assigned today, due next Wednesday 3/25 at 11:30 pm:

A: (all readings on blackboard): Afro-Brazilian music style guide II; read Gilbert, Africa in World History, pp. 121 - 133; David Brion Davis, Challenging the Boundaries of Slavery, pp. 17 - 19; Thornton, The Birth of the Atlantic World, pp. 36-39, Tignor, Worlds Together, Worlds Apart, 131-136, Perrone, “Gilberto Gil,” excerpts (pgs. xix-top of xx, 91-94, 121-top125, bottom128) (On Blackboard)
(total pages minus maps: 30)

NOTE: GILBERT APPEARS IN TWO PARTS ON BLACKBOARD

 

B:Questions on readings and on Commodities Graph (see Blackboard)



March 25th:

In-class: discuss slave trade reading; discuss African music.

Assigned today, due next Wednesday 4/07 at 11:30 pm: (A) watch the film Adangaman outside of class(Netflix or Library) (B) outline for mock film review (details here) assessing the historical accuracy of Adangaman, identifying all of the evidence you plan to use in the essay and your various claims. Be sure that your provide the exact quotations you plan to use.

 


SPRING BREAK (wahoo!)

 

 

April 8th:


In-Class: Discuss Film Essay; in-class activity comparing/contrasting persistence of African elements in Merengue and Afro-Brazilian musics.

Assigned today, due Wednesday 4/14 at 11:30 pm: write two to three page mock film review (details here) assessing the historical accuracy of Adangaman

Note Regarding the Grading of This Paper: When you submit your paper, you will be asked to submit what grade you think the paper merits and a brief explanation of why, using the grading rubric we provided you as a guide. If the grade you’ve given yourself is within 6 percentage points of the grade we would have given the essay (for example, you thought the paper was an 88/100 and we thought it was an 82/100), then the grade you gave for your own paper will be the grade that stands. If, however, the grade you gave for the paper is more than 6 percentages points above the grade we would have given it, we will ask you to come to office hours to review our feedback on your essay. You will also be asked you to revise the paper before April 8th at 11:30 pm for a new grade.

Extra-Credit: Prof. Umbach’s audio tour of the African Art collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The tour and relevant maps of museum can be found here. To get the full 8% extra credit for your semester grade, you will need to take the quick artifacts quiz given in the last 15 minutes of the April 15th class.




UNIT III: Moroccan Ala/Baqqashot Music


April 15th:

(class will end 15 minutes early today to accommodate those taking the quiz on the African Art collection)


Assigned today, due next Wednesday April 21st at 11:30 pm:
watch Cities of Light documentary (JJ library reserve desk or purchase reproduction from us) on al-Andalus (running time: 2 hours) at home (B) questions on documentary (C) prepare for quiz from the video. (D) Read: Touma (1996) pp. 68-83 (on Blackboard) (E) Touma questions/activity (passed out in class)

 

excerpt from Cities of Light

 




April 22nd:


In Class: quiz from Cities of Light documentary (map questions and vocab terms here). Music and poetics of al-Andalus, Introduction to Ala music.

Assigned today, due next Wednesday 4/28 at 11:30 pm: (A) read Shiloah (1992) on "Baqqashot" (blackboard). (B) Listen to accompanying tracks, and (C) read excerpts from intro and chapter 1 of G.M. Fredrickson’s discussion of Jews and the birth of European racism in Medieval Spain from Racism: A Short History and (E) questions on Fredrickson and Shiloah reading



April 29th:

In class: graded, in-class activity examining changing anti-Jewish laws and identify evidence for optional extra-credit paper

Assigned today, due next Wednesday 5/05 at 11:30 pm:(A) identify two sources/pieces of evidence for your style guide B) Turn in two tracks for compiliation CD.


Extra-credit assigned today, due next Wednesday 5/12 at 11:30 pm: essay on Fredrickson, Jews, and the birth of Racism in Europe.

 

 



May 6th:

Assigned today, due next Wednesday 5/12 at 11:30 pm: (A) Construct music style guide. (C) Turino (2004), pp. 17-19 “Identity and Arts in Diaspora Communities.”


In class: discussion of final poster session on your own style guide





May 13:

In-class poster session of music style guides