Introduction to Music in World Cultures

In this course we will survey traditional and popular musics of Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, and Latin America with the goal of understanding non-Western music as sound and as culture. Since this is an introductory course, we will review fundamentals of music theory and use them as a framework for analyzing world music and exploring its cultural importance. We will discuss assigned readings, listen to and analyze musical works, view and study video recordings, and participate in necessary hands-on activities. Through these activities, students will acquire knowledge of non-Western music and develop an understanding how to relate it to universal sociocultural issues.