Music 180-A

Music and Cultures of Asia

Dard Neuman,
Office:
Office hours,

Department of Music
287 Music, dneuman@ucsc.edu
Monday, 4:00PM-6:00PM

Introduction: This course will introduce the student to the music, culture and history of India, Japan, China,
Indonesia and Europe. More specifically we will examine topical themes that move through these regions:

The relationships between hierarchical systems and music found within Hinduism and Confucianism;
premodern egalitarian responses found within Islam (Sufism), Buddhism and Bhakti traditions;
modern egalitarian responses from modernizing and revolutionary movements (Meiji restoration, French
revolution, Chinese Revolution, Indian Revolution, Indonesian revolution)

We will examine the role of music making and consumption in traditions that have undergone major
transformations, be they from court to concert stage, from the world of old world traditions to engagements with
modernity, from feudal to capitalism/socialist/communist, from and colonialism to nationalism. We will examine
how traditions, born in very different historical era, have adapted to become a part of the global music scene in
the 20 and now 21st century.
Grades: grades will be based on the following four factors, each worth 25% of your final grade

in-class attendance and class discussion (worth 20% of your final grade)
weekly response papers
assigned short essays and participation
Music engagement.

You will sign an attendance sheet each day. You are allowed to miss 3 classes before the absences impact the
attendance portion of your grade. Thereafter each missed day will bring you down 2% points of your attendance
grade.

There will be pop up short essay assignments attached to the readings. I will announce when they are dur.
Grade breakdowns will be as followsA+ (97-100), A (93-96), A- (90-92), B+ (87-89), B (83-86), B- (80-82),
C+ (77-79), C (70-76), D (60-69), F (<60).

Required Readings: All readings will be posted on eCommons in the resources folder

SCHEDULE
Week 1: Hierarchy and Harmony pt. 1
Class 1: Mon, Mar.28

Introduction

Class 2: Wed, Mar. 30 Thematic overview, no reading

Class 3: Fri, April 1

Frederick Lau, Music and Ideology in Music in China, pp. 117-131

Week 2: Hierarchy and Harmony pt. II

Social Structure, Hierarchical Gestures and Musical Communities
Class 4: Mon, Apr. 4

Ranajit Guha, Elementary Aspects of Peasant Insurgency in Colonial India, pp.

36-76
Response paper on empirical observations of a class room

Class 5: Wed, Apr. 6

Daniel Neuman, The Life of Music, pp. 85-144

Class 6: Fri, Apr. 8

Music
Response paper comparing and contrasting the hierarchical systems of
hierarchy and harmony in Confucianism and Hinduism as encountered thus far
Week 3: Hierarchy and Harmony pt. III
Dharma and Karma

Class 7: Mon, Apr. 11

Guy L Beck, Hinduism and Music, in Sacred Sounds: Experiencing Music in

World Religions, pp. 113-139
William K Archer, The Mahabharata: Krishna the Hero, pp. 17-25

Class 8: Wed, Apr. 13

Amaryta Sen, The Argumentative Indian: Writings on Indian History, Culture and
Identity, pp. ix-xvii, 3-12

Class 9: Fri, Apr. 15

The Bhagavad-Gita: Krishnas Counsel in the Time of War, selections

No paper

Week 4: Hierarchy and Harmony

Class 10: Mon, Apr. 18

Pankaj Mishra, Introduction to R.K. Narayans The Ramayana, pp. vii-xvi

Mandakranta Base, Introduction, in The Ramayana Revisited, pp. 3-18

Class 11: Wed, Apr. 20

Robert Goldman, Resisting Rama: Dharmic Debates on Gender and Hierarchy

and the Work of Valmiki Ramayana in The Ramayana Revisited, pp. 19-46

Class 12: Fri, Apr. 22

Benjamin Brinner, Shadows and Tales in Music in Central Java, pp. 97-116
Response Paper Due
Week 5: Pre-Modern Egalitarian Responses (Bhakti Traditions)

Class 13: Mon, Apr. 25

John Hawley, Songs of the Saints of India, selections

Class 14: Wed, Apr.27

Parita Mukta, Upholding the Common Life: The Community of Mirabai, pp. 3745, 90-114

Class 15: Fri, Apr.29

Jayadeva, Love Song of the Dark Lord (Gita Govinda), translated by Barbara
Stoler Miller
Response Paper Due

Saturday, April 30

Shujaat Khan Concert (7:30, Music Recital Hall)

Week 6: Pre-Modern Egalitarian Responses (Buddhism, Islam, Sufi, ghazal and Qawwali Traditions)
Class 16: Mon, May, 2

Romila Thapar, A History of India: Volume One, pp. 62-69

Sean Williams, Buddhism and Music, in Sacred Sounds: Experiencing Music in
World Religions, pp. 169-189

Class 17: Wed, May. 4

Varun Soni, Subcontinental Sufism in Natural Mystics: The Prophetic Lives of

Bob Marley and Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, pp. 76-95
Michael Walzer, Exodus and Revolution, pp. 71-98

Class 18: Fri, May. 6

Music
Response Paper Due
Week 7: Modernity

Class 19: Mon, May. 9

Karl Marx, On Imperialism in India

Class 20: Wed, May. 11

Marshal Berman, Goethes Faust: The Tragedy of Development in All that is

Solid Melts into Air, pp. 37-71

Class 21: Fri, May. 13

Music
Response Paper Due
Week 8: Modern Responses (Court Traditions in Transition I)

Class 22: Mon, May 16

Mladen Dolar, If Music Be The Food of Love in Operas Second Death, pp. 1-50

Class 23: Wed, May. 18

Nicholas Dirks, The Sovereignty of History, pp. 148-164

Class 24: Fri, May 20

View Jalshaghar
Response Paper Due

Week 9: Modern Responses ((Cultural) Revolution and New Orders)

Class 25: Mon, May. 23

Frederick Lau, Music in China, pp. 22-27, pp. 131-140

Class 26: Wed, May. 25

Bob Hodge and Kam Louie, Breaking the Square: Film and representations of
China, Politics of Chinese Language and Culture: The Art of Reading Dragons,
pp. 143-157

Class 27: Fri, May. 27

View Farewell My Concubine

Response Paper Due
Week 10: Modern Responses ((Cultural) Revolution and New Orders)

Class 28:

Bonnie Wade, Music in Japan, pp. 77-130

Class 29:

Screening of Akira Kurosawa, Men Who Step on The Tigers Tail (Tora no o fumu
otokotachi)

Class 30:

John Pemberton, Musical Politics in Central Java (Or How Not To Listen to
Javanese Gamelan pp. 17-29
James Siegel, The I of Lingua Franca in Fetish, Recognition, Revolution, pp. 310, 13-37
James Siegel, Pramodya Ananta Toers Flunky + Maid, or Conservative
Indonesian, Revolutionary Indonesia, and the Lack of Indonesian Literature, in
Recognition, Revolution, pp. 231-254
Response Paper Due