This course will introduce students to the broad cognitive and theoretical foundations for studying music at tertiary level. Students will look at music from cultural, cross-cultural and historical perspectives, and become familiar with the skills needed to research, critique and communicate about music.

The course introduces students to music as a universal, socio-cultural form of human communication.  A simple semiotic framework forms a common point of reference from which to investigate a wide variety of music and music making.  Western, non-Western and intercultural traditions are considered from common starting-points: music as structured sound; music as a psychoacoustic phenomenon; music and the body; music and identity, music and other arts, music and spirituality. The course develops the student’s ability to formulate ideas informed by contemporary cultural concepts, to research, discuss and critically reflect on musical practice, and to present ideas in a variety of formats and media.

By the end of the course, you should be able to:

1. Interpret musical practice as a communicative act within a variety of contexts
2. Describe some of the fundamental concepts of music that can be found in music from around the world
3. Articulate the various types of significance of music in society
4. Demonstrate an understanding of the ways in which socio-cultural contexts are reflected in music
5. Research and document musical topics using a wide range of sources
6. Reflect, analyse, and critically evaluate musical issues
7. Communicate about music using written, visual, oral and multimedia forms

1. Five online tutorial exercises c. 200 words each (wiki entry, wiki edit, two forum posts, online tutorial participation (30%) [learning outcomes 1-5],
2. 1500-word essay or presentation (30%) [learning outcomes 1, 4-7]]
3. Group research project including assessment on group work process (40%) [learning outcomes 1-7]

130 hours of total student learning time made up from:

a)39 hours of contact:

1. 26 hours of lectures (typically one per week)
2. 13 hours of tutorials or online equivalent

b) 91 hours of independent student research, reading and writing

Nil

None

Kramer, Lawence (2002) Musical Meaning: Towards a Critical History (University of California Press)

Monelle, Raymond (2002) The Sense of Music: Semiotic Essays (Princeton UP)

Monelle, Raymond (1992). Linguistics and Semiotics in Music. Harwood Academic Publishers

Treitler, Leo (2011) Reflections on Musical Meaning and Its Representations (Indiana UP)