Objectives
Deepening the knowledge of black American music. Reading a number of important jazz texts.
Contents
A large amount of publications appeared over the past decades that deal with the music of black Americans. Not only histories of early American music, jazz, soul, blues, religious music, and classical music, but also (auto)biographies of musicians, criticism, and texts on the cultural, economic and sociological meanings of black music. Furthermore, a number of authors wrote books, novels and poetry that strongly refer to black music, most notably jazz and blues.
In this reading-class, each student will read an individual list of articles and (chapters from) books (5 or 10 credits, see above).
Recommended prior knowledge
Excellent reading, listening and speaking skills in English.
Registration at
By e-mail: W.vandeLeur@uva.nl.
Format
Seminar.
Time
The group will meet by appointment on Wednesdays to present and discuss the works read.
Min/max participants
There is limited capacity. Therefore:
- if you do not register separately by e-mail you are not admissible;
- if you do not show up at the first lesson, you are no further admissible either;
- students must follow all classes.
Assessment
Students will read articles and capita selecta from jazz literature. They will present their findings to the group, based on short written summaries. MA-students write an essay es well.
Remarks
This course follows the vacations and course-free periods of the Conservatory, which are nog synchronous with those of the University.
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