Undergraduate Course: Music 1B: Instruments, Culture and Technology (MUSI08068)
Course Outline
| School | Edinburgh College of Art |
College | College of Humanities and Social Science |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 8 (Year 1 Undergraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | Music, and ideas about music, are shaped by technology. Long before the invention of the electric guitar or the iPod, instrument-makers created new opportunities for composers and performers, and enterprising publishers popularised the first song books. Surveying the interaction between musical culture, instruments, and technologies from early times until the present day, you will learn how such influences affect the conventions and creative possibilities available to musicians and society. You will study instrument design and acoustics, and the social histories of music printing and sound recording, among other topics. You do not need to be able to read or write music notation to take this course. |
| Course description |
This course explores the concept of music technology from acoustic, historical, material and cultural perspectives. It addresses a range of questions, asking first and foremost: what is a technology, when it comes to music? What, for that matter, is a musical instrument? How do the meanings of music technologies and instruments change in different historical and cultural contexts? What material and social relations do music technologies bring into play?
All of these considerations have an impact on what music is, how it is made, and how it is experienced. This course therefore provides a survey of the interaction between music, instruments, and technologies from early times until the present day.
The course is taught through two weekly lectures, and is supported by six small-group tutorial sessions. The first half of the course introduces you to the disciplines of acoustics and organology, considering in turn the case of stringed, wind and percussion instruments, and musical performance spaces. The second half of the course examines other practical and intellectual innovations which have influenced conceptions and realities of music-making in recent centuries, leading to a final session on cutting-edge, digital audio research.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | None |
| High Demand Course? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
| Not being delivered |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Demonstrate knowledge of technologies associated with musical instruments and performances spaces.
- Demonstrate awareness and understanding of the principal features of organology and acoustics research.
- Critically evaluate ideas and information relevant to the cultural study of music and technologies.
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Reading List
Arnold Pacey. Meaning in Technology. The MIT Press. 1999.
Martin Clayton, Trevor Herbert & Richard Middleton, Eds. (2003). The Cultural Study of Music: A Critical Introduction. London & New York: Routledge
Roederer, Juan. The Physics and Psychophysics of Music: An Introduction. 4th ed. New York: Springer, 2008.
http://resourcelists.ed.ac.uk/lists/3D678C7F-79C3-741B-5579-39B37E664291.html |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
1. Independent and critical thinking.
2. Effective communication in group learning and visual presentation of ideas and information.
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| Keywords | music,instruments,technology,society,acoustics |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Nikki Moran
Tel: (0131 6)50 2423
Email: n.moran@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Miss Rhona MacMichael
Tel: (0131 6)50 2422
Email: rhona.macmichael@ed.ac.uk |
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