This course explores how and why people—including you!—music around the world and here in Seattle.  I riff on the scholar Christopher Small’s notion of “musicking,” a way of thinking about music as a verb to include all of the ways people engage and participate in the making and use of music. 
 
Through case studies drawn from around the world, including the U.S., India, Indonesia, Japan, the Middle East, and the Caribbean, we will examine performance practices and cultural factors that contribute to “musickers’” creative decisions, roles in their societies, and social impacts.  We will explore a variety of topics, including identity politics, trauma, pleasure, and technology (including music in film/television and video games).  We’ll think about ways people use music in their lives as music makers, supporters, and consumers, and various reasons that motivate people to music—including to innovate, protest, deal with trauma, uncover hidden pasts, reaffirm tradition, achieve a spiritual experience, have fun, experience alternate realities, and more. 

We will explore these topics through readings, films, written assignments (including creative), discussion, hands-on musical workshops—including on instruments from Indonesia—and field trips.  Previous study of music is not necessary to succeed in this course. 
 

Learn more about the instructor of this course: https://music.washington.edu/people/christina-sunardi