July 8, 2004
Think locally, teach globally: New books help expand musical repertoire in the classroom
Music Professor Patricia Campbell just wanted to build a bridge between the two worlds she occupies.
On one side are the ethnomusicologists, who do field work in a particular culture in order to learn about its music and then publish the results in monographs read only by other academics. On the other side are music educators, who are trying to teach the next generation of musicians and would like to explore more global music.
Why not, Campbell thought, have the ethnomusicologists write about the musical cultures they know in short books written in laymen’s language — books that could be used by music educators in their classes, or for that matter by members of the general public just interested in music and culture?
The result is the Global Music Series, published by Oxford University Press. Campbell collaborated with Bonnie Wade from the University of California at Berkeley to edit the series — so far including two introductory volumes and seven books on musical cultures, with eight more contracted. Wade wrote the introductory book, Thinking Musically, while Campbell wrote a book specifically for teachers, Teaching Music Globally. They also recruited ethnomusicologists to write the books on culture.
And this summer, the UW is offering short courses using the books. In three weeks’ time, participants can get the introduction plus courses on the music of Trinidad, North India and East Africa.
This isn’t the first time the UW has offered courses on global music. In fact, Campbell said, “This is the headquarters for people in music who want to diversify their curriculum in response to multicultural mandates.” Workshops and institutes in world music have been offered on campus since at least 1989.
The books bring together materials in a convenient format and include a CD with examples of the music being discussed. There’s also a Web site (http://www.oup.com/us/globalmusic) that has an instructor’s manual for each book. The manual includes sample quizzes, suggestions for classroom activities and information about how to connect the music to other aspects of the culture.
Each book is only about 100 pages long. “We told our authors, ‘Three themes, give us three themes,’” Campbell said. “We wanted these to be accessible and readable for people without a lot of music background.”
Cultures covered so far, in addition to those being taught this summer, are Bulgaria, South India, West Africa and Ireland. Books on Bali, Mariachi and Japan are due out in the fall.
One of the books already published, the one on Trinidad, was written by Shannon Dudley, assistant professor of ethnomusicology in the UW School of Music. Dudley also leads a steeldrum ensemble — a Trinidad tradition — on campus.
Participants in the summer courses will have a chance to do more than talk about the music. Campbell said they’ll be playing instruments, singing and/or dancing, depending on what the music calls for. They’ll also hear local artists from the traditions they’re studying.
Campbell said she expects most who sign up for the classes will be music teachers, elementary school teachers or social studies teachers. But there are usually a few curious undergraduates looking to fulfill a distribution requirement and sometimes professors from other universities looking for ideas for their classes too, she said.
“These classes give you an opportunity to talk about music in a different way,” Campbell said. “This is music as an entry point or window to culture and cultural sensitivity.”
