Research Project Annotated Bibliography

1. The Meeting of Knowledges as a Contribution to Ethnomusicology and Music

Education (Carvalho, 2016)
 
APA Citation information: 

Carvalho, C. (2016). The Meeting of Knowledges as a Contribution to Ethnomusicology and

Music Education. World of Music, 5(1), 111–133. 

Purpose of the Study:

  To decolonize Brazilian music learning, and to help students engage with styles of music
that aren’t Western art music.
Methods and Participants:
  Students at various college programs throughout Brazil participated, via classes available
at their university.
Key Findings:
  The study drew students into the program by offering a large variety of courses focused
on learning about non-Western musical styles, such as engaging students with conga, including
having students extensively interact with performers in the style they learn about. There are also
courses offered which approach decolonization in a more lecture-based format, where students
are taught about various Brazilian traditions directly within class, having units based on the
intersection of music and culture, and all of these more lecture-based units involved musicians
well versed in Brazilian styles come in and talk about their experiences and the topics they have
expertise in. The article also discusses some of the problems Western art music musicians faced
in their learning through this program – namely, a lack of familiarity with styles outside of the
Classical standard. Students overwhelmingly felt that the methods used within courses using the
Meeting of Knowledges style of teaching thought that they would transfer well, and adjusted to
playing in the newly introduced styles fairly quickly (even those who had little to know
performance experience).
Discussion Points:
 How could some of these be mimicked in a primary/secondary school environment?
Your Comments/Questions:
I really liked how the article raised that a lot of students expect music to be performed in
certain ways, and how studying music of other cultures can deliberately push that – an example
offered by the article is Western art music’s meter sets students up for fairly large challenges
when they engage with traditions which are based in polyrhythm and meters which we would
consider “complex,” like many African and Indian musical styles.
 2. Teaching Ethnomusicology in Poland: Experiences and Prospects (Czekanowska,
1986)
 
APA Citation information: 

Czekanowska, A. (1986). The Teaching of Ethnomusicology in Poland: Experiences and

Prospects. Acta Musicologica, 58(1), 24–35. https://doi.org/10.2307/932937

Purpose of the Study:

  To study the affects of the centricity of common practice music in Poland, and how
ethnomusicology could be taught within Poland in order to improve the current system.
Methods and Participants:
  A survey of ethnomusicology classes in general within Poland, specifically at a
collegiate/academic level
Key Findings:
  Ethnomusicology in Poland has gone through a lot of “phases,” as it were, in how it has
progressed as a field of study. Like many of the other nations surveyed, Poland has gone through
periods of decline in it’s global music study programs, however, it (at the time of this article),
had become more robust, in terms of the amount of study that is being performed. Particularly,
ethnomusicological studies in Poland are often based in understanding the unique attributes of
Polish and other Eastern European musical styles and connections, as well as the history of said
styles. The article then discusses some of the things that need to be reckoned with for the future
of Polish ethnomusicology – namely by having further study be motivated by documentation and
keeping music being studied in the context of folklore.
Discussion Points:
 How can we use ethnomusicology in order to aid in studying histories of cultures and
how they are related?
o Is this an opportunity to allow departments to connect with each on deeper levels
with should be pursued? Why or why not?
Your Comments/Questions:
This article covers an interesting perspective, as it discusses the ongoing changes of a
certain location’s ethnomusicological studies, in an area where the majority of global music
study is based on the own country’s history and influences. I think that this serves to provide a
view of teaching global music with a country or area that has a strong tradition already in place,
which can add some unique challenges to teaching global music there – specifically, how exactly
would a teacher justify teaching about a very distant tradition that students are unlikely to
frequently engage with, and how would they go about teaching said distant tradition without
neglecting to mention local ones.

3. Ethnomusicology Scholarship and Teaching – Ethnomusicology and

Childhood (Emberly, 2014)
 
APA Citation information: 

Emberly, A. (2014). Ethnomusicology Scholarship and Teaching - Ethnomusicology and

Childhood: Studying Children’s Music in the Field. College Music Symposium, 54.

Purpose of the Study:

  The purpose of the study is to examine and discuss some of the ethnomusicological
practices relating to children’s music.
Methods and Participants:
  A survey of ethnomusicological studies that cover or focus on children’s music –
specifically, South African Venda music, the music of Western Australian refugees, and that of
Western Australian aboriginal people.
Key Findings:
  The article discusses and examines the relationship between children and research,
technology, and applied musical practice. The article discusses how, by encouraging children to
engage with and think about music in relation to research, they further engage with and think
about their relationships and conceptions that accompany said research. This also leads to the
students engaging with music in a more critical level. Technology’s involvement lead to a
plethora of information and data based on casual musical practices, as that was a child-initiated
activity – they were simply given access to a type of recording equipment. The children surveyed
appeared to often write and perform music as a way to express and speak about their various
experiences. The article also discusses that the research allows students to engage with their
communities in a unique way, specifically through musical engagement, while also posing the
problem of what these communities will do once research support goes away, and students can
no longer work and engage with their community in quite the way they are used to.
Discussion Points:
 Are the research practices and engagement with students something that can and/or
should be instituted within music classrooms?
 How would you reinforce and help students become active participants and thinkers
about their own lives and influences?
Your Comments/Questions:
 This article is intriguing, as it discusses how to go about including students in active
music study while also having them study their own musical culture in greater detail than they
have likely ever had to have done before, and probably more than they will do again unless they
pursue performance or research. I’m interested in examining how the results and discussion that
is undergone within the article and how to apply that better to music education and
ethnomusicology – would it be a positive idea to give students group-based research projects, in
order to mimic some of the positive results of this research? How would you even institute that
within a music classroom, in terms of providing students the resources and background
information they need?

4. The Ethnomusicology as Pedagogue: Disciplining Ethnomusicology in the United

Kingdom (Krüger, 2009)
 
APA Citation information: 

Krüger, S. (2009). The Ethnomusicologist as Pedagogue: Disciplining Ethnomusicology in the

United Kingdom. World of Music, 51(3), 139–170. 

Purpose of the Study:

  As the title of the article indicates, this study is about discussing the ways
ethnomusicology is taught in the United Kingdom, specifically within university settings.
Methods and Participants:
  Specifically, the article is discussing in detail Krüger’s own experiences teaching
ethnomusicology at a collegiate level, as well as discussing and surveying the state of
ethnomusicology programs on a wider scale across the United Kingdom.
Key Findings:
  Ethnomusicology courses and programs are growing in popularity within the United
Kingdom, in an effort to study a larger variety of cultures. However, the programs themselves
are in an interesting state – a wide variety of them are focused on the anthropological aspect of
ethnomusicology, even when they are included as a part of a music department (which not all
programs are). The goal of these programs is to create a specialization, more than a broad
understanding – this makes sense, given that ethnomusicology work outside of university
teaching is mostly centered on participating in studies and surveys, which are usually best if they
are lead by an expert on the topic being studied. As students continue their study, they are
offered opportunities to increase their level of specialization with various topics of study, like
focusing specifically on South Asian musical styles. On a broader level, ethnomusicology is
aligned with one of a handful of subjects – it is considered a branch of musicology,
anthropology, and as popular music studies. Ethnomusicological programs often strive to include
a performance aspect as well, as most approaches to studying ethnomusicology are in a study-by-
doing perspective.
Discussion Points:
 How do we as educators synthesize all of the unique aspects of ethnomusicology? i.e.,
how do we include and recognize its relation to musicology, anthropology, and popular
music within a classroom setting
 Is it beneficial to include groups which perform a specific style of world music in a non-
college/university setting?
o Is it feasible?
o How would you do so without crossing the line between appreciation and
appropriation?
 Is there a way to help get the full scope of cultural context of these traditions across to
students while they are learning about said traditions?
Your Comments/Questions:
This article covers a lot of information, and goes into a great degree of detail about the
programs it discusses. It also talks a lot about teaching ethnomusicology in advanced settings,
and how university programs go about working through the disparate identities of
ethnomusicological studies, and some of the problems this can raise. How does the United States
compare? Could any of these strategies be reasonably included outside of college/university
levels of learning?

5. Applied Ethnomusicology: Bridging Research and Action. Music and Arts in Action
(Pettan, 2010)
 
APA Citation information: 

Pettan, S. (2010). Applied Ethnomusicology: Bridging Research and Action. Music and Arts in
Action, 2(2), 90–93.

Purpose of the Study:

  A discussion of how ethnomusicology can be used to help bring communities together,
driven by a couple of studies on the topic.
Methods and Participants:
  A synthesis of a small handful of studies in order to summarize and condense the
conclusions drawn
Key Findings:
 By having cultures, both musical and otherwise, that are quite different interact with
each other closely – as in the case of the group, Azra – awareness of different musical culture
and the interactions between the communities can often improve. The other example the article
discusses includes talking about the Romani people, and how they act as a kind of cultural
mediator via the study and performance of foreign music cultures. This also served to help
students get a better view and understanding on the effects of Roma people in the musical culture
of Kosovo, which is predominantly positive.
Discussion Points:
 How are some ways, within a school environment, that we as educators can help to
bridge connections between different groups?
Your Comments/Questions:
This article covers a really great reason to study ethnomusicology – namely, enhancing
understanding of other cultures. The question with this, as with a couple other articles discussed,
is the issue of cultural appropriation – how can we go about avoiding this problem within a
musical class context? Especially as there may not be a great opportunity of true cultural
exchange.

6. Ethnomusicology of Music Learning and Teaching (Rice, 2003)

 
APA Citation information: 

Rice, T. (2003). The Ethnomusicology of Music Learning and Teaching. College Music

Symposium, 43, 65-85. Retrieved September 8, 2020, from
http://www.jstor.org/stable/40374471  

Purpose of the Study:

  To survey and examine the methods of learning and teaching ethnomusicology,
specifically in how classes discussing ethnomusicology engage with giving material to students
Methods and Participants:
  General survey/observation of other ethnomusicologists and their experiences in learning
a variety of genres and styles
Key Findings:
  Throughout, the article discusses differences in access and experiences with music based
on various factors, such as gender, class status, and “talent,” while also discussing societal
factors that are less socially enforced and more influenced based that affects people and their
experiences with music and a society’s understanding of it. All of this effects the way music in
various cultures is taught, which can also affect ethnomusicologists and their access to various
traditions. The article also discusses formal and informal and learning styles, on top of the things
that restrict learning and interaction with music based on various influences like poverty. The
article also discusses language sequences in various styles, but is, again, quite general overall in
what it discusses, as the article covers music styles from extremely wide parts of the world.
Discussion Points:
 How can we institute various methods of learning and teaching discussed – such as
informal methods and “foreign” formal methods – in order to help teach music in
general?
 How can these methods be used to help students engage with learning global styles of
music?
Your Comments/Questions:
This article is also great as a starting point for learning broad similarities in teaching
styles within various musical traditions, especially because it covers so many topics. It can also
serve as a great starting point for teaching students about said cultures it already talks about,
namely in terms of it’s discussion of how various traditions go about teaching. Mimicking the
styles of teaching in style while under the limited constraints of a music classroom could be a
great way to get students to engage with the style very early on, and can help them understand
the practice a little better. This would, however, be hard to impossible to do if there are no
practitioners of the style that are both able and willing to teach or help supplement the learning
of young students, which would limit this kind of learning to only styles which have been
learned or are in the process of being learned by the teacher.

7. Teaching Introductory Ethnomusicology Classes (Sakata, 1983)

 
APA Citation information: 

Sakata, H. (1983). Teaching Introductory Ethnomusicology Classes. Music Educator

Journal, 69(9), 42-43. doi:10.2307/3396268  

Purpose of the Study:

  The purpose of this short academic writing is to discuss methods of teaching
ethnomusicology/global music study within the classroom, specifically by pointing out the three
most common methods to teach students about music from traditions outside of Western art
music tradition.
Methods and Participants:
  General survey of ethnomusicology/global music texts
Key Findings:
  Texts and teaching on the topic are most often organized in one of three ways – either
they are a very broad survey based on geography (grouping study of other music to the broad
categories of being from Asia, Africa, South America, etc., and covering large overarching
similarities within each grouping), they are a more specific studying based on geography
(studying music from, for example, Africa, but dividing Africa into North, East, West, South,
and Central regions, and going into slightly more depth on the broad trends from each region), or
by studying a handful of styles very closely and comparing similarities and differences (for
example, studying Han Chinese folk music, studying Japanese hōgaku, and studying Indonesian
gamelan, and then comparing them based on any similarities they may happen to share). Despite
these drastically different approaches with varying levels of detail and specificity, most if not all
ethnomusicology/global music courses have the shared goal of introducing students to traditional
music styles outside of the Western art music framework.
Discussion Points:
 Benefits and drawbacks of the three methods
 Lesson/unit structure and progression
 How to tie ethnomusicological studies in a classroom to performance curriculum
Your Comments/Questions:
Serves as a really nice entry point into discussion and thinking about teaching
ethnomusicology classes within school, specifically by bringing up and lightly touching on some
of the key issues with teaching ethnomusicology within a classroom. What are some of the less
common teaching methods for global music classrooms? Are there any programs with a different
stated goal to their program?

8. Toward a Framework for a Pedagogically-Informed Ethnomusicology: Perspectives

from a German Musikhochschule (Sweers, 2009)
 
APA Citation information: 

Sweers, B. (2009). Toward a Framework for a Pedagogically-Informed Ethnomusicology:

Perspectives from a German Musikhochschule. World of Music, 51(3), 65–92.

Purpose of the Study:

  To discuss the intersection of ethnomusicology and pedagogy specifically within German
music conservatories and how the results of this can be applied to teaching ethnomusicology in
general.
Methods and Participants:
  Study/comparison of the attitudes and beliefs of music students at a German conservatory
and at a German University who studied music.
Key Findings:
  Ethnomusicology, within German conservatories, is understated as a program within
itself, and is “second fiddle” to traditional Western music, however, in classrooms that do study
ethnomusicology, there is an interesting use of musical pedagogical research. German education
has, of late, been shifting away from being as lecture, teacher-as-expert based learning, and is
instead more student centered in how it teaches, and is transitioning to a more interactive style of
schooling. This manifests are German music classrooms shifting away from being focused on
Western art music to an extent. Having said this, however, German pedagogues are critical of
ethnomusicology’s often research and reading based approach to learning, and how it ignores the
needs and interests of it’s students can cause problems in actually, practically, teaching the
subject on a wider scale. The article then gets into discussing the difference in perception and
reception towards global music courses that were held by university and conservatory students –
primarily, that the conservatory students, who were focused on performance practice, felt it was
irrelevant, while university students took courses out of interest more often. Sweers spends the
remainder of the article discussing the approaches taken within the conservatory to increase
engagement with ethnomusicology.
Discussion Points:
 How can we avoid problems with student motivation in relation to teaching global
music? Either as an isolated course or within an ensemble context?
 Are any of the methods of student inclusion Sweers mentions applicable or even doable
within a context outside of college/conservatory?
Your Comments/Questions:
Some of the suggestions at the end are really interesting, and seem like a great way to
have some degree of community outreach/involvement within the music program at school. I
liked reading about all of the methods that were taken in order to engage students in music, and I
think that many of them could be applied to schools for younger students (within certain limits,
of course).

9. Revitalising language through music: a case study of music and culturally grounded
pedgogy in two Kanien’ke;ha (Mohawk) language immersion programmes (Vallejo,
2019)
 
APA Citation information: 

Vallejo, J. (2019). Revitalising language through music: a case study of music and culturally
grounded pedagogy in two Kanien’ke:ha (Mohawk) language immersion programmes.
Ethnomusicology Forum, 28(1), 89–117. https://doi.org/10.1080/17411912.2019.1641124

Purpose of the Study:

  To identify the effectiveness of learning dying languages through studying music which
engages with said language
Methods and Participants:
  Schools, festivals, and other cultural events in Northwestern New York and Southeastern
Canada – specifically, those with programs which aim to help students learn with Kanien’ke:ha
(the Mohawk language), specifically those programs and events lead by a family of language
teachers in that area.
Key Findings:
  The article begins by laying out the problems with language preservation – even with
CBE (culturally-based education) programs putting an emphasis on teaching language, there are
consistent problems in the face of the fact that traditional American secondary language learning
practices don’t work at a level that is fast enough to truly help preserve quickly dying languages.
Given this problem which faces many indigenous people in the United States, its important to
remember that music – which often contains lyrics in native languages – is vital preservation tool
for languages. The article proceeds to argue that music is one of the most important tools that can
be used in order to preserve languages. The article then begins to discuss how music helps to
create a culture, and how music can tie together many important aspects of a culture together
(namely, history, language, storytelling, etc.), and how music gained a prominent role in
Kanien’ka:ha teaching classrooms due to how it encouraged individual engagement outside of
school.
Discussion Points:
 How do the findings of this article affect how you would plan to teach global musical
styles?
 Would including language and history teachers in global music teaching efforts be
beneficial?
o How would you go about doing this, if you think it is something that should be
done?
Your Comments/Questions:
This article has a very interesting perspective on teaching music, language, and culture all
in relation together. I think that this goes to show that performing music within a style can help
students gain a very good cultural reference, or an improved understanding. However, I think
that doing so also requires students to have their performance “scaffolded” by enough cultural
information so that they can perform the pieces accurately, and with respect (in an effort to avoid
some of the attributes of cultural appropriation). The question here is, how well would teaching
musical styles that don’t hold a personal connection/basis to students actually serve to teach them
about other cultures and styles – what if the students disregard the information they are learning?

10. Multicultural and popular content in an American music teacher education

program (Wang & Humphreys, 2009)
 
APA Citation information: 

Wang, J., & Humphreys, J. (2009). Multicultural and popular music content in an American
music teacher education program. International Journal of Music Education, 27(1), 19–36.
https://doi.org/10.1177/0255761408099062 

Purpose of the Study:

  To discuss the way music educators themselves are taught (or not taught) how to teach
and engage with global musical styles and popular music.
Methods and Participants:
  Survey of a large music school in the Southern United States, with professors marking
down how frequently certain styles of music were performed within the school to guess at a
percentage of time students interact with what kinds of musical styles.
Key Findings:
  Music educators, as a whole, aren’t taught how to teach or interact with musical styles
outside of Western classical, with few exceptions. Most of these seem to be driven by the
expectation that music education students all have the primary and solitary goal of become
directors of a band/orchestra program, or pursuing further education. The article points out that
there is an interesting dichotomy with this – namely, that music books which students learn out
of often contain brief, abbreviated versions of folks songs from around the world (usually those
that are well known, of course). The article also points out that part of the assessment of music
educators having discomfort dealing with and teaching music outside of Western art music
tradition is self-identified. This is explained a fair bit – in the end, music educators are given
very little in the vein of learning about how to engage with material outside of their own
educational standard. The results of the study show that students perform Western music within
the Western art tradition an overwhelming percent of the time, with the percentage being around
93% of the time, and a miniscule length of time spent on music which was, by the study,
considered entirely non-Western (Asian, African, and Native American musical traditions).
Following the study, the university changes the music program somewhat to represent more
global music courses and styles within the classroom, but neglected to do the same for popular
music. The article then discusses some of the methods that have been suggested to try to fix the
large whole within the education of music educators.
Discussion Points:
 How does our own university reflect this mindset, and what are some of the steps that
can be taken to mitigate this problem?
o Should we try to diversity the learning opportunities of music education students
into global and popular music teaching to a greater extent?
o Why or why not?

 What are some ways you can attempt to engage students in playing and/or learning styles
that fall outside of common practice within the school you may teach at one day?
Your Comments/Questions:
I think that this article really hits part of the reason all of this research is necessary on the
head – it is important to engage students with what they are interested, while it’s also important
for them to have a broader understanding of the world. I also like how the article made sure to
mention that popular music is an important style for students to interact with as well, due to its
prevalence within culture. I also like how the article discussed that not all learning about global
and popular music can be student-driven, as that puts a lot of onus on the student to prepare
when their program should be deliberately putting some level of focus on the issue.