Diploma Seminar 3106-SEMDYPAGZ

The seminar is devoted to the anthropology of music in the broadest sense. The topics and issues addressed in the course of teamwork at the seminar meetings concern different historical moments of music, traditions and cultural contexts (from the Palaeolithic to the present day):
1. Traditional concepts and notions of sound (e.g. naming and classifying phenomena, onomatopoeic toponymy).
2. Sound space in anthropological terms, including - sound horizon and examples of boundary crossing (e.g. human audiogram and audiograms of other animals, shamanic ‘flight’, ‘Orpheusian’ explorations, acoustic expansions, phenomenon of the strangeness of the acoustic signal).
3. The organisation of sound space (including - intentional limitations, e.g. sacred space, zones or periods of silence, the physical and psychological role of headphones).
4. Recent developments in archaeomusicology (e.g. use of measurement tools, reconstructions, mathematical modelling).
5. Iconography of sound (e.g. analysis of scenes showing musical performance, composition and sound of ensembles, but also depicting landscapes, social life, noise, silence, sound of nature).

Term 2024Z:

The seminar is devoted to the anthropology of music in the broadest sense. In the winter semester 2024-2025, the general theme of the seminar is planned to be: "Iconography of Sound". During the seminar meetings, we will analyse the content of paintings by the most famous European artists in terms of their 'sound'.
The history of European art provides many examples of works whose content is referred to in numerous studies in the field of musical iconography, and special publications are devoted to this field of research (e.g. the series "Imago musicae", which already has more than 30 volumes). To a lesser extent, such analyses concern non-European art or archaeological material, and even more rarely are the issues of the generally understood sound space signalled by the content of these works considered.
The subject of consideration will be scenes showing musical performance (composition and sound of ensembles), but also landscapes, social life (soundscape, noise, silence, sound of nature).

Term 2025Z:

The Seminar is devoted to the anthropology of music in the broadest sense. During the winter semester 2025-2026, it is planned to discuss the topics indicated in the general programme of the Seminar.

Type of course

Master's seminars
Ph. D. seminars
B.Sc. seminars

Mode

Blended learning

Course coordinators

Ewa Gruszczyńska-Ziółkowska

Bibliography

Literature is selected according to the participants' composition in the seminar and the declared interests and research work undertaken.

Additional information

Additional information (registration calendar, class conductors, localization and schedules of classes), might be available in the USOSweb system:

Description of 3106-SEMDYPAGZ in USOSweb