Music 429 - Music, Film and Culture

This seminar will explore the relationship of music and film, with a focus on ethnographic film and ethnographic film-making. How does our understanding of music inform our experience of film? How, in turn, does our immersion in film and its conventions inform our understanding of different musics? How are such conventions localized and expanded in different cultural settings? How does ethnographic film both react against, and make use of, other stylistic conventions of film-making in achieving its ends? Practical exercises in ethnographic film-making (and their analysis) during the semester will lead towards ethnographic, historical, creative, or performance-based projects. Fulfills either the departmental seminar requirement or the comprehensive exam requirement for the major in music.

Limited to 15 students.  Spring semester. Valentine Visiting Professor Mendonca.