Musical Traditions of East Asia

Musical Traditions of East Asia provides a overview of selected musical genres and styles of East Asia. The stronger emphasis on musicological approaches implies that this module will cater primarily for music students. There will be a strong practical element to the module with the emphasis on listening and, where possible, actively participating in workshops and performance.

Objectives and learning outcomes of the module

At the end of the module, a student should be able to demonstrate knowledge of the major instruments and musical genres of China, Japan and Korea, and their key musical characteristics (mode, rhythm, structure, timbre, aesthetics, etc.) They should be aware of the various types of notation and understand their relationship to performance, and they should be able to place genres in their performance contexts. They should be aware of approaches to the analysis of East Asian genres, and be able to identify and comment on genres and instruments from audio recordings.

Workload

• Lectures: 2 hours per week

Method of assessment

• 2,500-word essay (worth 40% of marks)
• 3,000-word essay (60%)

Suggested reading

• S.Sadie et al., eds (2001) New Grove dictionary of music and musicians, 2nd ed. (Available also on-line via SOAS Library from SOAS computers.) - Individual country entries are crucial.
• R. Provine et al., eds (2002) Garland Encyclopedia of World Music, vol. 7: East Asia.
• Helen Myers, ed, 1993, Ethnomusicology: Historical and Regional Studies. The New Grove Handbooks in Music. Entries on China, Japan, and Korea.

Disclaimer

Important notice regarding changes to programmes and modules