AFR 235
African Rhythm, African Sensibility
Last Offered Fall 2008
Division I Exploring Diversity Initiative
Cross-listed MUS 235
This course is not offered in the current catalog

Class Details

This course has three goals. The first is to immerse students in African music, encouraging them to learn to play and understand this music from an insider’s perspective. The second goal is to deepen that understanding by introducing students to the work of scholars who have contributed to a theoretical understanding of African music. The final goal is to broaden that understanding by comparing and contrasting certain features of African music with comparable ones in European and African-American musical traditions.
The course will investigate these topics through class discussions, papers, and reading, listening, and viewing assignments. Students will be musically immersed in African music through their participation in labs/rehearsals with the Zambezi Marimba Band (Tuesdays and Thursdays 4-6:30 PM) where they will learn to perform Zimbabwean marimba and mbira music with Prof. Brown and with Cosmas Magaya and Beauler Dyoko, masters of the Zimbabwean mbira dza vadzimu (the mbira of the ancestor spirits). This material will be performed in a concert with Kusika and the Zambezi Marimba Band on a date to be announced. Other African, African-American, and European music will be discussed, analyzed, or performed informally in class.
This course fits the Educational Diversity Initiative in that it immerses students in another culture and gives them the tools with which to understand that culture from the inside. It also encourages students to reflect critically upon their insider’s perspective and to develop a more theoretical understanding of that perspective. Finally, this course fits EDI’s emphasis on the Comparative Study of Cultures and Societies by encouraging students to compare and contrast specific aspects of African and non-African music cultures.
The Class: Format: discussion/performance
Limit: 10
Expected: 10
Class#: 1463
Grading: yes pass/fail option, yes fifth course option
Requirements/Evaluation: evaluation will be based on performance 30%, participation in class 20%, and papers 50%
Prerequisites: an intermediate level of performance ability in music or dance
Enrollment Preferences: if overenrolled, admission will be based on audition and writing sample
Distributions: Division I Exploring Diversity Initiative
Notes: meets Division 1 requirement if registration is under MUS; meets Division 2 requirement if registration is under AFR
This course is cross-listed and the prefixes carry the following divisional credit:
MUS 235 Division I AFR 235 Division I
Attributes: EXPE Experiential Education Courses
INST African Studies Electives

Class Grid

Updated 5:16 am

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