Music 105
Graduate Seminar in Electro-Acoustic Music
Dartmouth College
Spring, 2008
Systems of Musical Thought:
The Origins of Music
Polansky
6/1/2008
class
mascot (thanks kristina)
Class
Description
This class will focus on reading, class
discussion, and writing. The main topic of the class will be "origins,"
the
evolution of "music" in humans. I hope that we will range far
afield in
our efforts to discuss that, and in fact, to even decide what this
topic is, what it might be. We will consider biomusicology,
evolutionary
theory, innate versus learned musical abilities, "old" musical
abilities (that is, pre human), the relationships of music to
language,
communication, "music" and communication in non-human species,
cognitive research (on humans and not), biological art and music, and
other fields. We will also
consider the relevance and impact of the material we read on us as
composers, musicians, and researchers in the field of elecro-acoustic
music. One interesting question we can keep in mind is: "Is something
innate or not, and if it is, what do we do with this knowledge?"
This is primarily a "reading class." My goal
is for us emerge from it with a more considered set of
opinions about the nature of fundamental questions regarding humans and
music. To this end, my aims are:
- to read widely, surveying literature in
various sub-disciplines
- for students to write regular, concise, well-reasoned responses
to the readings (raising questions, proposing arguments and further
areas
for consideration)
- to engage in active, respectful discussion about the readings,
and, as a group, to attempt to refine the manner in which that
discussion takes
place towards our mutual educational benefit
- to bring in a number of guests with a diversity of expertises
Each student will be assigned to lead a
short discussion on two papers (selected in collaboration with me),
focusing on the readings. In true seminar form, graduate students will
lead the class as an instructor, asking questions, posing problems,
moderating the discussion on their selected readings. I hope this
will give everyone some practical teaching experience in this context,
as well as to
get everyone involved in the subject matter as deeply as possible.
These will, in general, take place on Thursdays.
In addition to the readings, students will do a
"take home" test, which will be in the form of several very large
questions, hopefully offering people the opportunity to summarize, via
what they've read, their opinions and thoughts about various issues in
the field.
Class Schedule and Readings
March 25, 27
(Week 1) Introduction
Readings
- The Singing Neanderthals.
Mithen, Stephen. Chapters 1-2. (On reserve in Paddock Music Library)
- The Descent of Man,
Darwin, Charles
- Chapter
IV, "Comparison of the Mental Powers of Man and the Lower Animals"
- excerpt,
regarding the ear, from Chapter I, Section called "Rudiments," pp.
13-17 (from "So
few persons have the power of contracting..." to "... a
vestige of pointed ears — which occasionally appears in man.")
- Pinker, Steven. How the Mind
Works, Chapter 8 ("The
Meaning of Life," especially until p.
545) (On reserve in Paddock)
April 1, 3 (Week 2) The
"origins of music"
- Tuesday: Discussion of the readings
- Thursday: Graduate student led presentations (1)
Readings
- Selections:
The
Origins of Music, edited by Nils Wallin, Bjorrn Merker,
and Steven Brown. (Also on reserve in Paddock).
- Chapter 1: "An
Introduction to Evolutionary Musicology" (Brown, et al)
- 2: Prolegomena to a Biomusicology" (Arom)
- 3: "Origins of Music
and Speech: Insight from Animals" (Marler)
- 4: "Birdsong
Repertoires: Theirs Origins and Use" (Slater)
- 6: "The Sound and the
Fury: Primate Vocalizations as Reflections of Emotion and Thought"
(Hauser)
- 7: "Gibbon Songs and
Human Music from an Evolutionary Perspective" (Geissmann)
- 16: "The
'Musilanguage ' Model of Music Evolution'" (Brown)
Graduate student presenters: Courtney, Michael, Kristina
April 8, 10
(Week 3)
- Tuesday: Discussion of the readings
- Thursday: Graduate student led presentations (1)
Readings
- The Singing Neanderthals.
Mithen, Stephen. Chapters 5, 6, 12, 15. (On reserve in Paddock Music
Library)
- "The evolution of the
music faculty: a comparative perspective."Hauser, Marc, and
McDermott, Josh. Nature Neuroscience.
6/7:663-668. July,
2003.
- "The nature of music from a
biological perspective." Peretz, I. Cognition, 100/1:1-32, May 2006.
Graduate student presenters: Carmen, Beau, John
April
15,
17 (Week 4)
- Tuesday: Discussion of the readings
- Thursday: Guest, David Dunn
Readings
- "Varieties of
Musical Experience." Bharucha, Curtis and Paroo. Cognition. 100/1:131-172. May 2006.
- for Thursday, read/listen to David Dunn works (TBA)
- Selections:
The
Origins of Music, edited by Nils Wallin, Bjorrn Merker,
and Steven Brown. (Also on reserve in Paddock).
- 18: "Synchronous
Chorusing and Human Origins" (Merker)
- 19: "Evolution of
Human Music through Sexual Selection" (Miller)
- 23: "Human Processing
Predipositions and Musical Universals" (Trehub)
April 22 (no class,
Thursday,
April 24)
- Tuesday: Discussion of the readings
April 29, 30 (no class,
May 1)
(week of the New Music Festival)
(Week 5, no readings)
- Wednesday, April 30: Special guest, Amy
X.
Neuberg
May 6, 8 (Week 7)
Graduate student presentations (2)
- Tuesday, May 6th: Special guest, Will Guthrie
- Thursday, grad student presentations
Readings
(biological art)
Graduate student presenters: John, Michael, Beau
May 13, 15
(Week 7) Biological
art (Thursday)
- Tuesday, May 13: Special guest, Thalia Wheatley, PBS (in Moore)
- Thursday, May 15: Special guest, Douglas Repetto
Readings
(language and music, for next week's guest)
- Music, Language, and the Brain.
Aniruddh Patel. Oxford University Press. 2008. Chapters 2 and 3.
May 20, 22 (Week 9)
(Language and Music)
- Tuesday: special guest, Ioana Chitoran, Department of Lingustics
- Thursday: Graduate student led presentations (2)
- Take home final given
Graduate student presenters: Carmen, Courntey, Kristina
May 27 (Week 10)
Reading, discussing take-home finals
Assignments
Students are asked to do four things in this
seminar:
- Do all the readings
- Lead two 1/2 hour class discussion on
a paper selected by them on a topic of their choice (in collaboration
with me)
- Participate actively in the
discussions
- Once a week, write (and send to me, by
Monday morning) a discussion of the week's readings (I will print them
out for everyone to read, and we can post them somewhere if you like)
- Complete a "take-home" exam
Guidelines
for 1/2 hour grad. student-led discussions
- one should be on humans, one should be on another species
- read the paper, and distribute it to the class on the tuesday
prior to the discussion so we can all read it too
- prepare a short precis of the paper, summarizing its main points
(and
distribute this), questions it raises, your own critiques/questions,
further research or work needed
Take-home exam
The assignment was simple: write a detailed 10-week syllabus for an
undergraduate course in this field. These syllabi were handed in near
the end of the term, marked up, and returned.
Final
syllabi are here.
Miscellaneous