Head of the UW Ethnomusicology Archives John Vallier will be leading a new School of Music study abroad course in Summer 2023 A term, housed at the UW Rome Center.
This class will provide students with a deep understanding of traditional, experimental, and popular musics of Italy. Students will learn about a wide range of musical styles and genres including, but not limited to, the Neapolitan tarantella, Sardinidan polyphony, soundtracks of Ennio Morricone, Italian sludge/doom and goth metal, patchanka's mix of reggae/punk/folk, and Tunisian-Italian hip hop. Participants will listen to and analyze these and other traditions from an ethnomusicologist's perspective, considering overarching cultural contexts, exploring parallel forms of expression (e.g., dance), and interrogating the ways in which these practices impact notions of aesthetics, identity, gender, race, industry, and politics. Lectures and discussions will be punctuated by visiting musicians. The class will spend a large amount of time outside the Center, exploring the music of Italy and Rome through its venues, archives, museums, and rich busking tradition. The class will draw on historical recordings and other resources from the UW Ethnomusicology Archives and related collections. Students will also create a music collection and interactive Roman Music Map. In short, small groups of students will carry out fieldwork in Rome, documenting music venues, musicians, and related "musicking" sites throughout the city. In collaboration with the Rome Center Library, students' findings will be mapped using a GIS program. These sites will be linked to photos and audio/video samples collected by students. The students' full-length audio and video recordings will be archived, along with the participant permission forms, in the UW Ethnomusicology Archives.
For more information, see the Study Abroad Program page.