音樂社會學
The
Sociology of Music
Instructor：Jen-yen Chen
Semester：Spring 2007
Credit：3
Spring 2007, Thursdays 2:20-5:20pm, R105
Office Hours: Mondays 1-3pm or by appointment, R109
Course description
This course explores music and its interactions with
human society. We shall consider the
ways in which music not only reflects social structures, identities, and
ideologies, but actively helps to construct them. A basic premise of the course is the intimate
dialectical relationship between musical sound and social meaning, and we face
the challenge not only of formulating this relationship in theoretical terms
but also of demonstrating it through empirical evidence. Our discussions of the various aspects of the
music-society link therefore will not neglect the analysis of the style of
actual musical examples! Because of your
professor’s particular research specialization, many of these examples will
come from the tradition of 18th-century European art music (“art
music” is a formal way of referring to what more commonly is called “classical
music”). However, the basic principles
of the sociology of music with which we will become familiar this semester can
be applied to a broad range of musical repertoires, and you should keep this in
mind as you select the topics for your semester research projects.
Prerequisites
As mentioned above, the consideration of musical
style is an important element of this course, and therefore it is highly
recommended that you have both an ability to read Western music notation as
well as some knowledge of basic musical-theoretical concepts, such as mode,
scale, dominant, tonic, and tonality.
Also, you should feel fairly comfortable listening to and speaking,
reading, and writing in English.
(Because of the prominence of German scholarship in the field of
sociology, many of our readings are of texts written originally in German. For anyone who is interested, I would like to
offer an informal course in German reading in which we will study some of these
original texts. Also, I am currently
involved in a music-sociological project involving the examination of documents
in German, and would be happy to hire one of you as an assistant if you have
moderate ability in the language.)
Requirements
The
course requirements are as follows:
Class
participation 50%
Semester
research project 50%
In
addition, for each week’s class meeting you will need to do an assigned reading
and prepare a short written essay related to this reading. Please see the accompanying document, “Class
Policies,” for further important information.
Schedule of Class Meetings
1 Mar Introduction
◎Weeks 2-5: Principles and Methodologies
8 Mar Overview
of the Sociology of Music
Reading: John Shepherd, “Sociology of Music,” Grove Music Online
database
(available through the databases link of NTU Library’s website)
15 Mar Music
and Empirical Sociology
Reading: Tia Denora, “Formulating questions – the
‘music and society’
nexus,”
from Music in Everyday Life
Listening: Georges Bizet, “Habañera” from Carmen; Aaron Copland,
“Fanfare
for the Common Man”; Franz Schubert, Impromptu in G-flat
major;
Oasis, “Cigarettes and Alcohol”
22 Mar Music
Sociology and “The Production of Culture”
Reading: selections from Howard Becker, Art Worlds
Listening: to be announced
Project
abstract due (approximately 250 words)
29 Mar Music
as Material for Social Meaning
Reading: Richard Middleton, Studying Popular Music, introduction
Listening: to be announced
◎Weeks 6-9: Music and Social Class
5 Apr No
class (Tomb Sweeping Day)
Or
possible makeup class:
Music
and the Ancien Régime
Reading: selections from Norbert Elias, The Court Society
Listening: Jean-Baptiste Lully, Atys, Overture and Prologue
12 Apr Music,
the Enlightenment, and the Rise of the Bourgeois Public
Reading: selections from Jürgen Habermas, The Structural
Transformation of the Public Sphere;
Mary Hunter, “Haydn’s London
Piano
Trios and His Salomon String Quartets: Private vs. Public?” from
Elaine
Sisman, editor, Haydn and His World
Listening: Joseph Haydn, String Quartet, op. 71, no. 3;
Haydn, Piano
Trio,
Hob. 23
19 Apr Music
and Aristocratic-Bourgeois Conflict in Early 19th-Century Europe
Reading: Tia Denora, “Beethoven and Social Identity”
and “The
Beethoven-Wölffl
Piano Duel: Aesthetic Debates and Social
Boundaries,”
from Beethoven and the Construction of
Genius: Musical
Politics in Vienna, 1792-1805
Listening: selections by Ludwig van Beethoven and Joseph
Wölffl
Short
paper on semester research project due (approximately 4-6 pages)
26 Apr Music
and the Middle Class in 19th-Century Europe
Reading: selections from William Weber, Music and the Middle Class
Listening: to be announced
3 May No
class (I’m in Vienna)
Makeup
day: 28 April, 2:20-5:20
◎Weeks 11-13: Popular Music and Contemporary Society
10 May Popular
Music as Social Force
Reading: selections from Paul Willis, Profane Culture
Listening: to be announced
17 May Musical
Value and Popular Music
Reading: selections from Simon Frith, Performing Rites: On the Value of Popular Music
Listening: to be announced
Final paper on semester research
project due (approximately 10-12 pages)
24 May The Sociology of Popular Music as
Critique of Modern Industrial Society
Reading: Theodor W. Adorno, “Popular Music,” from Introduction to the Sociology of Music
Listening: to be announced
◎Weeks 14-16: Grand Finale!
31 May Final
presentations
7 Jun Final
presentations
14 Jun Final
presentations