A specialized course in musical criticism. The topic will change each time the course is offered.

This seminar explores music in China during the 4th to 8th centuries, a period of turmoil, migrations, and acculturations that fundamentally remade “China” and its relation with the world. We will examine music’s roles in some of the major developments in Chinese societies and cultures of the time, such as the spread of Buddhism, Daoism, and Manichaeism; the prosperity of the “Silk Road” communities; changing intellectual cultures among the lettered elites; the development of metered poetry and the associated scholarships in language and phonology; and the formation of cosmopolitan imperial courts as reflected in their institutions of musics and dances. Besides these topical concerns, an emphasis will also be placed on method, specifically, how to critically engage with visual, material, archaeological, and site-specific evidence (e.g., instruments, burials, grave goods, grottos) in addition to textual and literary ones; for these methodological questions, we will peruse scholarship from beyond the specific temporal and geographic confines of early medieval China. Readings will be provided in English; those proficient in reading Classical and/or Modern Chinese or other relevant primary and/or research languages may be given alternative reading assignments as appropriate.

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