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Roles and Functions

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Seminar List • Abstract • Preparation • Main Text

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Abstract

In this seminar we will be considering the role and function of music in general. Bear in mind this need not be 'western classical music', nor even western music at all. Consider some of the following questions:

• What is music for?
• What is the role of the composer in all this?
• Why is it written?
• How does music relate to the culture in which it is commonly heard?
• Are there differences between the cultures present in Western music?
• What is it about music that one 'likes'?
• Is music only for 'enjoyment'?
• Go over the different functions for music and investigate their 'criteria'.
• Is any function of music superior to any other? If yes - which and why, if no - what criteria do we use for judging different forms of music? This equates to forms of government.

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Preparation

Consider

Prepare four or five different 'reasons' for the existence of music.

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Bibliography

Blacking, J.	1995	Music, Culture and Experience.		London: University of Chicago Press.
Hargreaves & North	1997	The Social Psychology of Music.		OUP
Berger, John	1972	Ways of Seeing		BBC

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Main Text

Main text (now available!)