Student Handbook

Guidelines for Second Examination in Ethnomusicology

On both the written and the oral portions of the examination, emphasis will be placed on the following areas, selected by the student with the approval of the Committee on Curriculum and Examinations. At least one of the areas must be from Group A. (The Committee will not approve a choice of two areas that seem "too close," in terms of the pertinent scholarly literature and resources.) From time to time, other areas of emphasis may be added to this list.

Group A

Amerindian music
Black music of the Americas (reading knowledge of German essential for students with a major interest in jazz)
Euro-American folk music (U.S. and Canada)
Latin American music (reading knowledge of Spanish required)
African music south of the Sahara (reading knowledge of German required)
European folk music (reading knowledge of German required)
Music of the Mediterranean
West Asian/Middle Eastern music
South Asian music
East Asian music (reading knowledge of German required)
Southeast Asian music

Group B

Anthropology of music, music ethnography
Music analysis
Music archaeology (reading knowledge of German required)
Organology (reading knowledge of German required)
Semiotics of music
Sociology of music (reading knowledge of German required)
Theories and practices of improvisation (reading knowledge of German required)
Urban popular music

Day 1 of the exam includes two essays which are judged both on content, and on bibliographic and discographic control, including materials in languages other than English. there is also a series of terms and names to be identified.

Day 2 involves listening to a cassette and writing about the examples.  The accompanying cassette will contain six examples. For each example, you should identify the music as best you can (with respect to, as pertinent, instruments; region; composer-performers, sources, historical significance, social meanings of this recording or this idiom; etc.).

Most importantly, your answer should show an ability to describe significant features of style, including (but not limited to) melodic behavior, texture, formal structure, time line and/or rhythmic cycle, harmonic progressions, melodic bass lines, number of syllables in each line of sung poetry, etc. You should illustrate your answers with transcriptions of such features as short melodic figures that are repeated throughout a piece, harmonic schemes or bass lines notated so as to indicate the duration of each harmony, repetition of sections, etc. 

You may also wish to compare some of these recordings with others that are familiar to you. The comparisons should be focused on specific stylistic similarities and differences. It is sometimes helpful to compare two or more items on the cassette with one another.

Remember the obvious point that the six examples are different. Your answers do not need to follow a single format; ideally, you would find six different ways of saying something about these six different ways of making music.