“Offer Less Variety and Teach Longer Focused Units”

Lessons Learned in Teaching Global Music History

  • Bonnie Gordon
  • Olivia Bloechl

Abstract

In this conversation between Olivia Bloechl and Bonnie Gordon, Bloechl addresses her “Introduction to Global Music History” undergraduate course, while Gordon speaks of global moments and frameworks that inform how she teaches the early music courses that she offers at her institution. They discuss the usefulness of a global frame in challenging assumptions of local or national history and the Eurocentric narratives that have long shaped music history survey courses while noting that the term “global” itself might be intimidating for some students. They also offer pragmatic advice on selecting the teaching documents and delimiting the scope of the course based on their experience of what has and what has not worked in the past.

Author Biographies

Bonnie Gordon

Bonnie Gordon is Associate Professor at the University of Virginia, and is a music historian who works across disciplines and creative practices. Her second book, Voice Machines: The Castrato, the Cat Piano, and Other Strange Sounds, was published by University of Chicago in 2023. She is a founding faculty member of the Equity Center at UVa and the new Sound Justice lab. In addition to her scholarly writing, she has published in the New York Times, Washington Post, Slate, and the C-ville Weekly. She plays jazz, rock, and classical viola.

Olivia Bloechl

Olivia Bloechl is Professor of Music at the University of Pittsburgh. She is the author of Native American Song at the Frontiers of Early Modern Music (2008) and Opera and the Political Imaginary in Old Regime France (2017) and co-editor of Rethinking Difference in Music Scholarship (2015).

Published
2023-11-02
Issue
Vol 13 No 1 (2023): Special Issue: Teaching Global Music History: Practices and Challenges
Section
Special Issue: Teaching Global Music History: Practices and Challenges

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