Music in Selected Cultures of Africa

It is a survey of the diverse music of the continental Africans. The course is a flexible exploration of music in Africa in terms of its cultural, social, political, and economic dimensions. It is geared towards understanding the ways in which music and identity are linked within social and cultural formations, particularly, in relation to gender, class, and ethnicity. Musical genres include, but not limited to folk, court, ritual, popular, neo-African art music, and narrative traditions of representative cultures in Africa. Students will familiarize with some of the major styles, musical instruments/ensembles, and recording artists of Africa, and develop a critical understanding of the ways that they have been represented in the literature.                                                                                                                                                                                                                   Objectives: 

• To broaden the students’ appreciation of the nature and diversity of musics of Africa and its Diaspora
• To develop listening skills and a vocabulary that will enable students to talk about and write about African music