Greening the Curriculum: Beyond a Short Music History in Ecomusicology
Abstract
Most of the ecomusicology literature deals either with music of and, especially, after the nineteenth century or with music/sound of non-Western cultures. What about the historical music of the Western tradition before the nineteenth century? This essay provides a few tentative possibilities. After providing a conspectus of ecomusicology and a brief conspectus of work in this field, I emphasize the problem of this "short music history" in ecomusicology. After presenting a syllabus and overview of my own music and environment class, which represents that problem, I critique that class and propose ideas for revising it and for incorporating ecomusicology topics into a typical Western music history survey course. I conclude by reflecting on the place of ecomusicology in the general greening of the liberal arts curriculum.
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