89986 - Musicology, Philosophy, Aesthetics (LM)

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course the student: - knows at a general level the problems and challenges that music, in the course of its historical evolution and in the course of its encounters with other cultures, has set to western philosophical thought; - learns how to use some lexicon and some concepts specific to musicology, also through the reading of several relevant sources. On the basis of his readings, of the professor’s teaching and of common discussion, the student is able to recognize the historical (and therefore contingent and relative) nature of the acquired concepts and learns how to contextualize them.

Course contents

Methodology of musicological and ethnomusicologial research: histories, debates, current state.

The aim of the course is to make students aware of the contingency and historicity of research methodologies. A first part of the course will retrace the birth of musicology as an academic discipline and the birth of comparative musicology, following their transformation between the Nineteenth and the Twentieth century. We will mention the birth of particularly significant institutions (such as the International Musicological Society, the International Council for Traditions of Music and Dance, the International Association for the Study of Popular Music) and the creation of relevant research tools such as major encyclopaedias, and RISM and RILM. 

Some time will be devoted to relevant debates that took place between the Eighties and the Nineties around the notions of the 'work' and the 'canon' and the irruption of the idea of a global musicology.

The last part of the course will be devoted to current debates in both the musicological and ethnomusicological domain, such as: music and race, decolonization, repatriation, environment and climate change. Linked to this part of the course these is a section of the exam bibliography that can be chosen by the students on the basis of their interests.

 

Students with SLD or temporary or permanent disabilities. It is suggested that they get in touch as soon as possible with the relevant University office (https://site [https://site/] .unibo.it/tudent-con-disabilita-e-dsa/en) and with the lecturer in order to seek together the most effective strategies for following the lessons and/or preparing for the examination.

Readings/Bibliography

Compulsory readings

• 1. Roberto Leydi, L’altra musica, Milano, LIM, 2008, Cap. II “Il musicologo raddoppiato”, pp. 107-182 [1991].

• 2. Margaret Bent, Il mestiere del musicologo, in Enciclopedia della musica, diretta da Jean-Jacques Nattiez, vol. II, Torino, Einaudi, 2002, pp. 575-590.

• 3. Jean-Jacques Nattiez, Storia o storie della musica?, in Enciclopedia della musica, diretta da Jean-Jacques Nattiez, vol. IV, Torino, Einaudi, 2004, pp. xxiii-l.

• 4. Jean Molino, Il tempo, la musica, la storia?, in Enciclopedia della musica, diretta da Jean-Jacques Nattiez, vol. IV, Torino, Einaudi, 2004, pp. 22-37.

• 5. Jean-Jacques Nattiez e Jean Molino, Frammentazione o unità della musica?, in Enciclopedia della musica, diretta da Jean-Jacques Nattiez, vol. V, Torino, Einaudi, 2005, pp. xxiii-xliv.

• 6. Giovanni Giuriati, Alcune questioni centrali nel dibattito etnomusicologico contemporaneo: una prospettiva dall’Italia «Il Saggiatore musicale», 23/1, 2016, pp. 103-123.

  Choose only ONE of the following main themes:

• Historiography (read both chapters):

  1. Philippe Vendrix, Concezioni diverse della storia musicale, in Enciclopedia della musica, diretta da Jean-Jacques Nattiez, vol. II, Einaudi, 2002, pp. 591-610.

  2. Agostino Di Scipio, Storia della musica e storia nella musica. Alcune riflessioni sulle pratiche elettroacustiche, “Musica/Realtà”, 114, 2017, pp. 25-46.

• Music and music writing:

  1. Nicola Scaldaferri, Perché scrivere le musiche non scritte?, in Enciclopedia della musica, diretta da Jean-Jacques Nattiez, vol. V, Torino, Einaudi, 2005, pp. 499-536.

• Popular music:

  1. Richard Middleton, Lo studio della popular music, in Enciclopedia della musica, diretta da Jean-Jacques Nattiez, vol. II, Torino, Einaudi, 2002, pp. 718-737.

• Globalization/localisms:

  1. Jocelyne Guilbault, Globalizzazione e localismo, in Enciclopedia della musica, diretta da Jean-Jacques Nattiez, vol. V, Torino, Einaudi, 2005, pp. 138-156.

• Music and colonialism:

  1. Kofi Agawu, Effetti del colonialismo sulla musica africana, in Enciclopedia della musica, diretta da Jean-Jacques Nattiez, vol. V, Torino, Einaudi, 2005, pp. 5-31.

• Musicology, environment, ecology (read only ONE of these articles):
  1. Ana María Ochoa Gautier, Acoustic Multinaturalism, the Value of Nature, and the Nature of Music, in Ecomusicology, «Boundary 2», 43/1, 2016, pp. 107–41.
  2. Steven Feld, A Poetics of Place: Ecological and Aesthetic Co-evolution in a Papua New Guinea Rainforest Community, in R.F. Ellen e K. Fukui (a cura di), Redefining Nature: Ecology, Culture, and Domestication, London, Berg, 1996, pp. 61-87.

• Musicology and race (read only ONE of these articles):
  1. Philipp Ewell, Music Theory and the White Racial Frame, «Music Theory Online», 26/2, 2020, pp. 1-29.
  2. Nina Sun Eidsheim, Race and the Aesthetics of Vocal Timbre, in Rethinking Difference in Music Scholarship, a cura di O. Bloechl, M. Lowe, J. Kallberg, Cambridge University Press, 2015, pp. 338-365.

• Archives and colonialism:
  1. Alejandro Madrid, Listening through the Colonial Noise: Things, Sound Objects, and Legacy at the Berliner Phonogramm-Archiv’s Konrad T. Preuss Collection, «Journal of the American Musicological Society», 78/1, 2025, pp. 195-239.

• Decolonial musicology:
  1. Dylan Robinson, Hungry Listening: Resonant Theory for Indigenous Sound Studies, Minneapolis, University of Minnesota Press, 2020, pp. 1-25 (introduzione).

• Repatriation (read both chapters):

1. Robin R. R. Gray, Repatriation and Decolonization: Thoughts on Ownership, Access, and Control, in The Oxford Handbook of Musical Repatriation, a cura di F. Gunderson, R. C. Lancefield e B. Woods, New York, Oxford University Press, 2019, pp. 723-738.
2. Michael Iyanaga, Musical Repatriation as Method, in The Oxford Handbook of Musical Repatriation, a cura di F. Gunderson, R. C. Lancefield e B. Woods, New York, Oxford University Press, 2019, pp. 263-282

Teaching methods

Lecturing, discussion

Assessment methods

Written exam. Students will have to answer three open questions relating to the books and the materials of the bibliography in 2 hours time.

Students with SLD or temporary or permanent disabilities. It is necessary to contact the relevant University office (https://site.unibo.it/studenti-con-disabilita-e-dsa/en) with ample time in advance: the office will propose some adjustments, which must in any case be submitted 15 days in advance to the lecturer, who will assess the appropriateness of these in relation to the teaching objectives.

Assessment:

EXCELLENT: students achieving an organic vision of the course contents, the use of a proper specific language, a structural and historical-contextual understanding of the studied works, the originality of the reflection

AVERAGE: mechanical or mnemonic knowledge of the subject, not articulated synthesis and analysis capabilities, a correct but not always appropriate language,

BARELY SUFFICIENT: students with minor learning gaps, use of inappropriate language

INSUFFICIENT: major learning gaps, inappropriate language, incomplete reading of the compulsory books.

Teaching tools

Files shared on Virtuale

Office hours

See the website of Maria Semi