2017/2018

2019/2020

DM270

L-ART/08 (ETHNOMUSICOLOGY)

DEPARTMENT OF MUSICOLOGY AND CULTURAL HERITAGE

MUSICOLOGY

PERCORSO COMUNE

3°

2nd semester (24/02/2020 - 09/06/2020)

6

36 lesson hours

Italian

ORAL TEST

BRATUS ALESSANDRO (titolare) - 6 ECTS

An overall awareness on the stylistic development of XXth and XXIst (especially Anglo-American and Italian) popular music would be desirable, in order to follow a course structured around a systematic, theoretical rather than historical, approach. Other basic prerequisites that would be useful during the classes are a good knowledge of the main conceptual tools of harmonic and formal analysis of music, and the widest experience of the technological instruments and environment in which popular music is produced and circulates today.

The course introduces the analytical methods related to popular song, understood as a complex communication form in which relevant connections between music, society and media can be unpacked. At the end of the classes the students will be able to identify the main formal and communicative features of a song and to formalize their description in oral and written assignments, using the proper terminology and conceptual tools.

The aim of the course is to present a broad array on the main themes and methods currently developed in the field of popular music studies, especially focusing on the analysis of the popular song from the point of view of form, content, sound and meaning. Starting from the overall formal features of the popular song, the course covers its organizational and communicative dimensions (lyrics, form, melody, vocal interpretation, modular organization, arrangement, harmony, production). In the multiple interactions between these dimensions, the role of the media and recording technology will be thoroughly acknowledged, as part of a production and consumption context in which mass distribution plays a crucial role.

Classes will be organized according to the different formal and communicative dimensions of the song (structural organization, musical style, lyrics, the effects of technological tools and mediatization). Individual hands-on, practical sessions on song analysis - using the Sonic Visualizer Software. Practical sessions will be focused on case studies chosen by the students. Classes are planned so to foster the students' participation and the discussion within both the peers and the teacher, using recorded songs to elucidate the main points touched on during the lectures and presenting the main theoretical questions in the field referring to the current literature on popular music studies.

C. Fairchild (2008), The Medium and Materials of Popular Music: 'Hound Dog', Turntablism and Muzak as Situated Musical Practices, «Popular Music» 27/1, pp. 99-116.
E. Bates (2013), Popular Music Studies and the Problems of Sound, Society and Method, «IASPM@Journal» 3/2, pp. 15-32.
S. Zagorski-Thomas (2014), The Musicology of Record Production, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press., pp. 20-31.
N. Auricchio (2017), Natural Highs: Timbre and Chills in Electronic Dance Music, in Popular Music Studies Today. Proceedings of the International Association for the Study of Popular Music, edited by J. Merrill, Springer, pp. 11-23.
A. Bratus (2014), Le forme della canzone come sistema. Piani, cicli, moduli, processi, in Le forme della canzone, a cura di E. Careri e G. Ruberti, LIM, pp. 45-67.
S. Hawkins (2003), Feel the Beat Come Down: House Music as Rhetoric, in Analyzing Popular Music, edited by A. F. Moore, Cambridge University Press, pp. 80-102.
D. Griffiths (2003), From Lyric to Anti-lyric: Analyzing the Words in Pop Song, in Analyzing Popular Music, edited by A. F. Moore, Cambridge University Press, pp. 39-59.
R. Attas (2011), Sarah Setting the Terms: Defining Phrase in Popular Music, «Music Theory Online», 17/3,
S. Lacasse (2015), Strategie narrative in “Stan” di Eminem. Il ruolo della voce e della tecnologia nell’articolazione della trama fonografica, in Le dimensioni della voce. Un'introduzione all’espressività dei prodotti vocali, Besa, pp. 201-233.
R. Gibson (2010), Carbon and Silicon, in VOICE. Vocal Aesthetics in Digital Arts and Media, ed. by N. Neumark, R. Gibson, and T. van Leeuwen, MIT Press, p. 211-224.
A. F. Moore (2012), Song Means: Analysing and Interpreting Recorded Popular Song, Ashgate, pp. 19-49.
N. Biamonte (2010), Triadic Modal and Pentatonic Patterns in Rock Music, «Music Theory Spectrum » 32, pp. 95-110.
G. Davidson Ford (2017), Adele's Hello: Harmonic Ambiguity & Modal Inflection in Contemporary Pop, in Popular Music Studies Today: Proceedings of the International Association for the Study of Popular Music 2017, Springer, pp. 111-118.
P. Théberge - K. Devine - T. Everrett (2015), Introduction: Living Stereo, in Living Stereo. Histories and Cultures of Multichannel Sound, ed. by P. Théberge - K. Devine - T. Everrett,Bloomsbury, pp. 1-28.

R. Brøvig-Hanssen- A. Danielsen (2016), Digital Signatures. The Impact of Digitization on Popular Music Sound, MIT Press, pp. 117-132.
D. Blake (2012), Timbre as Differentiation in Indie Music, «Music Theory Online», 18/2, http://www.mtosmt.org/issues/mto.12.18.2/mto.12.18.2.blake.html.
N. Cook (1998), Analysing Musical Multimedia, Oxford Univ. Press, cap. 2.
W. Everett (2009), The Foundations of Rock. From Blue Suede Shoes to Suite: Judy Blue Eyes, Oxford University Press, pp. 134-156.
S. Frith (1996), Performing Rites: On the Value of Popular Music, Harvard University Press, 1996, cap. 9.
R. Middleton (1994), Studiare la popular music, Feltrinelli, pp. 335-392.
P. Tagg (2011), La tonalità di tutti i giorni, Il Saggiatore, pp. 146-170.
C. Vernallis (2004), Experiencing Music Video: Aesthetics and Cultural Context, Columbia University Press,cap. 7.
A. Behr - K. Negus - J. Street (2017), The sampling continuum: musical aesthetics and ethics in the age of digital production, Journal for Cultural Research, 21/3, pp. 223-240. - A. MOORE, Song Means: Analysing and Interpreting Recorded Popular Song, Ashgate, Farnham, 2012, pp. 51-89.
- S. LACASSE, Strategie narrative in “Stan” di Eminem. Il ruolo della voce e della tecnologia nell’articolazione della trama fonografica, in Le dimensioni della voce. Una introduzione all’espressività dei prodotti vocali, a cura di F. Gervasi, Salento Books, Nardò, 2016, pp. 201-233.
- S. ZAGORSKI-THOMAS, The Musicology of Record Production, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2014, pp. 70-91.

- W. EVERETT, The Foundations of Rock. From Blue Suede Shoes to Suite: Judy Blue Eyes, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2009, pp. 134-156.
- P. TAGG, La tonalità di tutti i giorni, Il Saggiatore, Milano, 2011, pp. 146-170.
- R. MIDDLETON, Introduction: Locating the Popular Music Text, in Reading Pop: Approaches to Textual Analysis in Popular Music, ed. by R. Middleton, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2000, pp. 1-19.
- J. SMITH, The Sound of Commerce. Marketing Popular Film Music, Columbia University Press, New York, 1998, pp. 154-185.

- A. MOORE, Interpretation: So What?, in The Ashgate Research Companion to Popular Musicology, ed. by Derek B. Scott, Ashgate, Farnham, 2009, pp. 411-427.
- R. MIDDLETON, Studiare la popular music, Feltrinelli, Milano, 1994, pp. 335-392.
- D. GRIFFITHS, From Lyric to Anti-Lyric: Analyzing the Words in Popular Song, in Analyzing Popular Music, ed. by A. Moore, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2003, pp. 39-59.
- A. DANIELSEN – R. BRØVIG-HANSSEN, Digital Signatures. The Impact of Digitization in Popular Music Sound, MIT Press, Cambridge, 2016, pp. 117-132.

The evaluation of the competencies acquired during the course will take account of different factors, such as the individual participation to activities and collective discussion during classes, the quality of the written assignments, the capacity to sum up and to present the main bibliographic references, as well as the capacity to quote and comment the audio and audiovisual example discussed in classes. For the student frequenting the major part of the classes, the final discussion will be focused on a list of bibliographic references that will be give at the end of te course and on the two latter point, while non frequenting students should agree upon a specific bibliography with the instructor.