Ethnomusicology and Popular Music Studies
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As I prepare for my summer class, it occurred to me that I could radically re-organize the classroom experience for the students. But at what cost? In the last few years I have worked inexorably towards an educational environment that moved steadily away from rote learning, and towards collaborative education. The most vivid example of […]
One of the ethnomusicologists I follow closely is David G. Hebert, currently a faculty member at Bergen University of College in Norway, but in fact, born and raised in Seattle. His specialty is the study of concert bands in Japanese high schools which on the surface, would be as far as you could possibly get […]
One of the intense pleasures of attending a music school in a large university is the opportunity to actually play music from other cultures, thanks to a department of ethnomusicology. The most common ensembles are gamelan from Indonesia, drum circles from sub-Sahara Africa, and various chamber music ensembles from East Asia and elsewhere. If the […]
UBC is blessed with some first rate ethnic music ensembles that perform music from Sub-Saharan Africa, Korea, Bali and China, all directed by stellar music directors that are at the top of their game. These ensembles allow Western Art Music students (and non-music students) to see how “the other musical half live” (more properly, the […]
Online versus conventional lectures; that is the question (not asked by Hamlet). The recent issue of UBC Reports (January 2, 2013) has several senior administrators musing about the future of university education. What looms large is the assumption that online instruction may become the equal, if not the superior, mode of delivery. My course material […]
Why study ethnomusicology and popular music? As music students approach their third year of undergraduate studies, they glance at the subject offerings and spot two courses devoted to music of the world and popular culture. In the massive universities in the States, even non-music students are tempted by the same courses and enrol in the […]
Introduction The beginning of every semester brings to my mind, yet again, the dilemma of teaching at a university in the 21st century. Along with all my notes, readings, and online preparations, I find myself revisiting this troubling question like some sort of ghost of Christmas past, present, and future. The End of Traditional Education […]