Drawing by Giulia Forsythe.
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Articles
Reframing Musical Exoticism: Ideas for Teaching Puccini’s “Madama Butterfly” by Kunio Hara
In traditional accounts of Western music history, Puccini’s interest in the Japanese subject matter in Madama Butterfly is frequently discussed as a manifestation of exoticism, Europe’s long-held fascination with cultures and peoples originating from beyond its imaginary boundaries. Unfortunately, this interpretive approach minimized or ignored the work that 19th-century Japanese people undertook in order to create the conditions that enabled Puccini to become aware of Japanese songs in the first place.
Teaching Notation Multiculturally by Eric Hung
The development of notation in the monasteries and cathedrals of northwestern Europe is one of the key narratives in the Western music history survey. This standard narrative exaggerates the uniqueness of European developments, and downplays how global the world has been for two millennia. This essay presents an alternative way of introducing the idea of music notation that explores the development of notation in four different musical traditions, and asks students to think about what notation is and is not, the different reasons why musicians started approximating the sounds they produced in writing, and the impact of this technology in each tradition.
Film Music in the Curriculum by Jacqueline Avila
Classes on film music have traditionally revolved around the musical practices of the Hollywood industry exclusively. There is no question that Hollywood film music practice is an important part of the field; it is, however, not the only narrative that we need to tell and share to students. My music and media course at the University of Tennessee is entitled “Global Soundtracks,” and it presents students with examples of film music OUTSIDE of the Hollywood paradigm and how cinema and its music are significant components to many cultures.
Liminal Citizenship: A Framework for Teaching Asian American Music and Experiences
Amidst the rise in anti-Asian violence over the past year, I heard from many colleagues and organizations that wanted to add units and programs on Asian American music and experiences. In this essay, I present the “liminal citizenship” framework and four musical works that can help your audiences grasp the foundations of Asian American history and experiences.
“Notes on November Steps” by Tōru Takemitsu
In the survey of Western music history courses I teach at the University of South Carolina, I assign a series of primary source readings from several well-known anthologies including Music in the Western World: A History in Document by Piero Weiss and Richard Taruskin, Source Readings in Music History by W. Oliver Strunk and revised by Leo Treitler, and Opera: A History in Document by Piero Weiss. In MUSC 455: Music History III, 1860 to the present, I also assign the essay “Notes on November Steps” by the twentieth-century Japanese composer Tōru Takemitsu (1930–1997). The essay is included in Confronting Silence: Selected Writings (1971), a collection of Takemitsu’s essays translated into English by Yoshiko Kakudo and Glenn Glasow. In this essay, Takemitsu recounts his compositional process and the performance of his November Steps (1967), a concerto for shakuhachi, biwa, and the orchestra commissioned by Leonard Bernstein for the New York Philharmonic to commemorate the organization’s 125th anniversary.
Beyond Tokenism 