Locate additional audio or video examples of women drummers in African or Afro-Caribbean music (other than those on the listening list) that we can look at as a group. Post these examples in the “Drummers” thread on Blackboard before class so that I can access them. Then, be prepared to say a bit about your example in class.
Due:
You will learn from today’s reading that in some African and Afro-Carribean cultures, women are restricted from playing certain drums, particularly in religious contexts, and that the drums themselves are thought of as gendered. The packet of readings for today includes four brief excerpts from articles about this topic by ethnomusicologists. Two are writing about their native cultures, and two are not.
Write out brief answers to the following questions, and be prepared to discuss your responses in class:
(1) What methods do these scholars use to investigate the relationship between gender and drumming, and do these methods ever depend on being a cultural insider or outsider?
(2) How does knowing the gender and nationality of each author shape your response to their arguments?
Due:
Write out answers to the following questions, and be prepared to discuss your responses in class:
According to Sherrie Tucker, what is the “dominant swing discourse”? In other words, why are women swing musicians so often left out of jazz history?
What challenges does Tucker face in revising jazz history to include all-girl bands, and what strategies does she plan to use to overcome them?
Due:
Listen to the pieces/excerpts on today’s listening list, and—without thinking too much about it—make a list ordering them from most to least “feminine.” After you have done this, write a one-page paper considering what features of the music may have caused you to attribute gendered qualities to it.
Due:
Listening workshop: Can music have a gender?
Reading: Aaron Copland, Excerpt of “Sonata Form” from What to Listen for in Music (pp. 179–89)
Highlight/underline any gendered terms as you read.
Listening: Beethoven, Symphony No. 5, first movement [sonata form example]
Mozart, Quartet in D Major, KV 285, Adagio
Ella Fitzgerald, “Someone to Watch Over Me”
Mötley Crüe, “Shout at the Devil”
Make a list ordering these selections from most to least “feminine.”
Tasks:
Cross-Cultural Perspectives – Can a woman beat the drums?
Reading:
Excerpts packet on Blackboard
[Taken from: Ovaborhene I. Idamoyibo, “Let a Woman Beat the Drums: Gender Concepts in African Musical Practice,” African Musicology Online 2, no. 1 (2008), pp. 19–24; Amanda Villepastour, “Amelia Pedroso: The Voice of a Cuban Priestess Leading from the Inside” in Women Singers in Global Context, ed. Hellier, pp. 58-59; Sylvia A. Nannyonga-Tamusuza, Baakisimba: Gender in the Music and Dance of the Baganda People of Uganda, pp. 1 & 33–36; Elizabeth Sayre, “Cuban Batá Drumming and Women Musicians: An Open Question,” Center for Black Music Research Digest 13, no. 1 (2000).]
Listening/viewing:
Emilio Barreto and Amelia Pedroso, “”Yemayá Reso”
(http://www.music.ucsb.edu/projects/womensingers/chapter2_Pedroso.shtml)
Ara, “Yanke”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfG0P0Uh8oE
Tasks:
Historiography: Why aren’t women musicians better represented in the history books?
Reading: Excerpt from Sherrie Tucker, “It Don’t Mean a Thing if it Ain’t in the History Books,” from Swing Shift: All-Girl Bands of the 1940s (pp. 1-7 & 27-29)
Listening: International Sweethearts of Rhythm, “Swing Shift”
Ada Leonard’s All-American Girls, ca. 1943
Tasks:
Introduction: What can we learn from listening to women’s musical history?
Reading: Please read through the syllabus, schedule, and course website carefully.
Tasks: