Surveys the music and music making of different world cultures outside the United States, with a focus on current issues in the arts, culture, and society. Such issues can include the impact of government polices on the arts, transnational circulation, intellectual property rights, as well as the current movements in the arts ranging from popular styles to cutting-edge contemporary experimentation. The particular culture to be studied will vary.

This course is organized around themes relevant to contemporary and historical musical practices of the Muslim world. Geographically vast and musically varied, the Muslim world has a particular relationship to musical sound: it is both contested on religious grounds and highly valued from a cultural perspective. A central theme of the course is the relationship of listening within Muslim cultures to dimensions of sound, text, and meaning. We will study the theory and practice of the classical musical traditions of the Muslim world and discuss folk and popular music case studies from a range of Islamicate sites. The central unit of the course is an in-depth contemplation of the mystical dimension of Islam — Sufism — often considered the “soul of Islam.” We will examine the myriad musical styles practiced globally by Sufi tariqas (orders) alongside doctrines of Sufi philosophy, paying special attention to the work that spiritual listening does to create ecstatic states in the listener.

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Requirements class fulfills