Music

This course provides readings on Musicological fieldwork theory and practice, considering different approaches to writing musical ethnographies. During the second half of the term, students are expected to participate in several fieldwork trips in Tokyo, later writing up the results as a group project. Students are expected to have taken several music and/or anthropology courses at ICU.   

This course examines the history of music-making in Japan from the 20th century onward. By considering genres such as Western classical music, jazz, and pop genres, as well as new innovations based on Japanese traditions, it considers how modernity and Westernization have influenced Japan’s musical culture. 

The course includes topics such as: School songs; Japanese composers in Western music idioms; Japanese pop music, etc. It also considers the intersections of music with questions of gender, politics and other societal issues. 
 

This course examines the role and purpose of music for individuals and communities, and the ways people engage with music to regulate their mood and emotions in ways that reinforce their overall wellbeing.

What is the Chinese poetry? Why is it called “shige (literally, song-word)”? How does it imagine a lyrical way to express the individual feelings or the collective narrations about the body, life, nature and the universe of the Chinese people? Through a cross-cultural perspective, this course is intended to help foreign students understand, appreciate and experience the beauty of classical Chinese poetry, especially its unique tradition of musicality. This is a taught course over 16 weeks through the spring term. Class time will consist of lectures, poetry readings, seminars, discussions, with a workshop and a poetry recital where appropriate. Students are asked to join all the activities.

The course will lead you to explore Shijing (The Book of Songs) & The Lyrics of Chuci (The Lyrics of Chu) in pre-Qin peroid, Yuefu (Music Bureau Poems) in the Han Dynasty, “Nineteen Old Poems”, Shi Poetry in the Tang Dynasty, Ci Poetry in the Song Dynasty, and Qu Poetry in the Yuan Dynasty.

The course creatively combines poetic criticism with poetry performance by integrating the theoretical methods of Chinese poetics, musicology and vocal performance. The course aims to help students enjoyably and engagingly overcome language and cultural barriers, to experience the charm and the profundity of the Chinese language and culture by reciting and chanting the classical Chinese poems.

This course is a general arts course for all students. The course is based on the achievements of historical documents, audio and video, creation and other fields in the music art discipline, combined with the weekly explanation and performance of excellent music works at home and abroad, highlighting the stage teaching practice activities with on-site effects, expanding the resonance of elegant music in the campus, and improving the musical literacy of students of all majors. At the same time, the participation of the network and film and television media inside and outside the university is organized to carry forward the achievements of excellent campus culture in a timely manner, and actively expand the social influence of campus music culture of Tongji University. Its teaching purpose is to make students understand the basic history of the development of music art and explore related issues in the field of aesthetics through undergraduate teaching, so as to reveal the aesthetic principles and basic rules contained in music creation and performance, learn to appreciate excellent works in music art, and understand the relationship between art development and social history and culture. Students are required to understand the basic historical facts in the development process of music history, as well as the basic laws of music creation, performance and appreciation, appreciate a certain number of excellent music works, and cultivate students' analytical ability.

This course examines music-making in the European art music tradition during the twentieth and twenty-first centuries in its social, cultural and historical contexts. By examining musical works, historical documents, and modern scholarship, students explore both the development of new musical styles as well as the reimagination of older styles. It examines how post-WWI institutions, discourses and technologies have reshaped the lives of musicians and listeners, with a particular focus on the overlapping political-economic contexts of capitalism, liberalism and globalization.  

Students will develop the knowledge, competencies and skills necessary for music performance. Areas to be covered include advanced study of instrumental or vocal technique, and specialization in all related aspects of music performance. Formative feedback in individual and group settings will be provided across the semester. The course involves participation in individual lessons, instrument/voice classes, performance class and/or assigned ensemble activities. 

This course examines the ways in which music contributes to well being and health. Students will learn about connections between music, well being and health through exploration of a range of practices across different cultural contexts and considering individual through to population perspectives. The well being and health affordances of music will be examined through integrated theory and research from interdisciplinary music and psychology perspectives. 

The course examines music's various roles in society and the effects of the various ways in which societies are organized on the ways in which music itself is made, heard, and understood. It introduces students to the sociology and psychology of music and encourages them to think conceptually about their own musical activities. The course covers a wide range of musical practices - Western and non-Western, classical and popular, past and present - though it focuses on musical and social developments since the Industrial Revolution.

This course introduces the variety of music in Southeast Asia, from traditional to pop, and contributes to students' understanding of the region. Lectures with audiovisual illustrations, which emphasize cultural and contextual approaches, are complemented by practical instruction in playing Javanese gamelan music. The course explores the different musical aesthetics, changing cultural and social contexts and functions (from village and palace rituals to arts academies, the cassette industry, and concerts), musical and cultural interaction, and the changing musical landscape of Southeast Asia.