Music

This course examines musical genres worldwide within their respective social and cultural contexts. It explores some of the most important ideas that have informed the thinking of researchers working in this field - such as the connections between music and gender, social structures, forms of capital, politics, identity, health and the environment. The course also interrogates notions of the nature and experience of music, why musical genres differ and why music has such important but diverse significance worldwide. 

This course examines Indigenous Australian peoples and their music making; diverse forms of Indigenous performance; and how Indigenous Australian performers simultaneously resist and use colonialist constructions of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander performance to create new and exciting forms.

Lab choir performs a variety of music from throughout history and around the world. Students demonstrate fundamentals of vocal technique and musicianship skills, expressive and communicative performance skills, ensemble listening skills and perform music from throughout history and around the world with appropriate differences in musical style and vocal timbre.

(1) Take conducting as a platform to immerse the body into music learning, which is particularly important for students who have never learned instrumental music!

(2) Cultivate the ability of multi-part cooperation in music.

(3) Train the stage sense of music performance, and establish their own method of learning music in the future.

This course is a combination of conducting and chorus teaching content, divided into online and offline two parts. Part of the teaching time requires students to study online at home. Offline classroom teaching is mainly based on demonstration teaching techniques, supplemented by practical training. In addition, some exercises with teaching and practical value need to be completed by students after class.

This course offers singers and non-singers alike the opportunity to share in the rich experience of singing as a community activity, whilst developing a deeper insight into how pop music is performed and what makes it powerful in our society. It looks at socio-political and historical overviews of significant pop artists from 1950s to present day, offering a cultural perspective on their unique musical and vocal characteristics. Through practice-based tutorials, students will apply the concepts explored in lectures and along with an introduction to basic music theory and will learn to sing well-known pop songs in a group setting. 

This course aims to give a broad outline of several Japanese musical genres, along with an understanding of the way in which the musical styles exist within Japanese culture. Emphasis will also be placed on the cultural and geographical position of Japan within the larger context of East Asia. The course takes a practical approach, with frequent demonstrations, providing an opportunity to try out several Japanese instruments. No musical or linguistic skills are needed to take the course.

Learning goals:  

1) To obtain an overview of musical traditions in Japan; 
2) To develop ways of describing these musical traditions and understanding them in their cultural context, and
3) To relate these traditions to Western European and other Asian musical traditions.

This course is a survey of the history and aesthetics of film music from the late 1890s to the present day. It covers the dramatic function of music as an element of cinematic narrative, the codification of musical iconography in cinematic genres, the symbolic use of pre-existing music, and the evolving musical styles of film composers.