Course finder

Semester 2

Traditional Music (SCET10034)

Subject

Scottish Ethnology

College

CAHSS

Credits

20

Normal Year Taken

3

Delivery Session Year

2023/2024

Pre-requisites

Visiting students MUST have a background within the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences. Please note that this course may incur additional costs for materials and/or field trips.

Course Summary

Through a series of thematic case studies, this course explores traditional music in Scotland from early times to current day. One piece of required reading and listening will accompany each seminar and a study trip will usually take place as part of the course. Field recordings from the School of Scottish Studies Archives will be complemented by commercial recordings from contemporary musicians. There will be opportunities to play and experience examples of traditional music repertoire and participants are expected to participate and encourage each other as part of this process.

Course Description

Traditional Music provides a platform to understand traditional music repertoire and practice more fully, to contextualise traditional music through listening and/or playing, analysis, critical evaluation of leading scholarship and discussion. The discipline of ethnomusicology, which seeks to understand music in its social and cultural contexts and from the perspectives of those who make it, will be emphasised throughout the course. This is supported by the introduction and development of key skills of fieldwork and descriptive analysis.In this course, Traditional Music is viewed through a Scottish lens and international examples and connections feature throughout. Seminar topics, themes and case studies will respond to the interests of course participants and can include: Scotland's 'National' Instruments, 'Broken' Tradition: Scottish harp, Niel Gow and Eighteenth-century Dance Music, Composers and Collections, Twentieth Century Revival: Search for authenticity, Tradition and Community, Electronic Tradition, Advances in Harmony, Contemporary Practice: Seeking genre parity. In addition to essay and presentation, class tasks provide the opportunity to engage with archive materials, historically-informed performance, creative/contemporary performance and a range of traditional music notation. Weekly reading and listening will be provided to complement seminar topics. Study visits to museums, libraries, or performances of traditional music may be arranged as appropriate (in some cases there can be a ticket cost of approximately £10-15). Music notation skills (reading or writing) are not required, but music notation will be introduced and explored in seminars.

Assessment Information

Written Exam 0%, Coursework 100%, Practical Exam 0%

view the timetable and further details for this course