Unit name | Music and Migration in the 20th Century |
---|---|
Unit code | MUSI30111 |
Credit points | 20 |
Level of study | H/6 |
Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 1 (weeks 1 - 12) |
Unit director | Dr. Scheding |
Open unit status | Not open |
Pre-requisites |
None |
Co-requisites |
None |
School/department | Department of Music |
Faculty | Faculty of Arts |
What do Stravinsky and Schoenberg have in common with Miles Davis and Asian Dub Foundation? Their music is informed by engagements with diaspora, by experiences of exile, and by characteristics of displacement. Migration as a phenomenon, whether physical or virtual, has underpinned and informed a wide variety of musics in the 20th century.
In the twentieth century, displacement and migration reached a scale unprecedented in human history. Where people travel, so does music. We will explore how migration has impacted on musical genres ranging from western art music to pop and jazz in a multitude of different ways. Topics will include the wave of migration triggered by the Russian revolution; the migrations of musicians who fled the rise of fascism before and during WWII; the role of music in the formation of diasporic identities ranging from the Jewish diaspora to jazz in the African American community; and diasporic musics in postcolonial metropolises.
The aims of this unit are to:
At the end of the unit, you should be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:
and (5.) be able to deliver a coherent argument in verbal form.
Students at level H should in addition be able to:
6. Incorporate a consistently strong grasp of detail with respect to content
7. Argue effectively and at length (including an ability to cope with complexities and to describe and deploy these effectively)
Weekly 2-hour seminar for the whole cohort.
750-word blog entries for each of any five weeks of the unit, summarising the key points of the material encountered in pre-class reading and responding to it critically. Students must submit 5 posts in order to gain credit for the unit. Towards the end of the unit, students choose 3 entries to submit without revision as their workfile for a summative mark.
All assessments will demonstrate ILOs 1 - 4, with the presentation also addressing ILO 5. The essay in particular provides an opportunity to demonstrate ILOs 6 and 7.