ETHNOMUSICOLOGY

Given the different backgrounds of the students, the course will begin with a survey on terms, concepts and tools of the ethnomusicological and anthropological research intended for those who are not familiar with such a research and who didn't attended to the course "Fundamentals in Ethnomusicology". Then, the 2019/2020 course is dedicated to the emerging concept of Trans-Cultural Musicology, a discipline that goes beyond the typical approach of Historical Musicology and Ethnomusicology.
In this perspective, as a case study, the monographic course of 2019/2020 is dedicated to the musical traditions that developed on the network of caravan routes called by Ferdinand Von Richtofen, in 1877, 'Silk Roads' (Seidenstraßen), along which circulated songs, poems, dances, treatises, theories, rhythmic cycles, myths, ideas that will be addressed with a transcultural approach.
In this vast area, attention will focus mainly on Central Asia and it should be noted that the musical and cultural definition of the area goes far beyond geopolitics and current national boundaries: musically, it includes the five former republics Soviets (Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan), western China, northeastern India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Azerbaijan and Turkey. The awareness of a common musical koinè, from the distant past, was interrupted with the birth of the modern nation-states, between the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth century, when, suddenly, every single cultural (and musical) contribution became exclusive national heritage.
During the course, individual topics will be selected and analyzed, from their remote past to the present globalized.

According to the framework for the European Higher Education, the so called Dublin descriptors, the expected results are:
1. Knowledge and Understanding
a) To know the basic terms and concepts of the discipline and to understand the texts that use such terms and concepts.
b) To understand the peculiarities of Transcultural Musicology.

2. Ability to apply knowledge and understanding
a) Being capable of a simple analysis of some given musical examples, being aware of the singles musical languages and cultures.
b) Ability to connect a musical tune with its cultural framework.

3. Judgement's ability
a) Being capable to formulate and to argument simples hypothesis.

4. Communications Skills
a) Being able to communicate the peculiarities of the Transcultural Musicology approach to music, using an appropriate terminology.

5. Learning Ability
● Being able to take notes and to share them in a collaborative form.
● Being able to consult to consult the texts critically and the Bibliography immanent.

No particular prerequisites are required, except curiosity and attention.

The Silk Roads musical traditions heritage case study in a Transcultural Musicology approach.

1) AA.VV. The Music of Central Asia, edited by Theodore Levin, Saida Daukeyeva, and Elmira Köchümkulova, Bloomington and Indianapolis, Indiana University Press, 2016.

2) Giovanni De Zorzi, maqām: percorsi tra le musiche d'arte in area mediorientale e centroasiatica, Roma, Squilibri, 2019.

Non attending students will add: Theodore Levin, The Hundred Thousand Fools of God. Musical Travels in Central Asia (and Queens, New York), Bloomington, Indiana University Press, 1996; OR Jean During, Musiques d’Asie Centrale. L’esprit d’une tradition, Paris, Cité de la Musique/Actes Sud, 1998..

Oral exam. Welcome personal deepening on specific genres or authors arranged in advance with the professor.

Lessons with musical listenings, visual examples and musical scores.

Italian

oral

This subject deals with topics related to the macro-area "Poverty and inequalities" and contributes to the achievement of one or more goals of U. N. Agenda for Sustainable Development