MUSA2303 · Music
Morrissey College of Arts & Sciences
This course will take students on a deep dive into the rich worlds of Afro-Brazilian music and culture. Unpacking quintessentially Brazilian forms, such as samba and bossa nova, we will discover a complex (and sometimes uncomfortable) combination of African- and European/American-derived elements. Next, we will home in on the music of Candomblé. In this Afro-Brazilian religious form, students will discover direct sonic and cultural connections to African practices and trace close links to other communities in the African diaspora. We will also focus on capoeira, a Brazilian art combining music, dance, and martial arts, and on the musics of carnival in Bahia--the source and center of Afro-Brazilian culture. Throughout the semester, we will consider music's roles in identity formation, in the making of national stories, and in social and cultural resistance to those narratives. Students will experience Afro-Brazilian music culture through listening, study, and embodied engagement (i.e., music making and moving to it). There are no academic or music-skills prerequisites for this course.
Course experience
Averages use the original five-point historical evaluation scale.
Organization
4.9 / 5
How well the course was organized
Challenge
4.4 / 5
How intellectually challenging students found it
Attendance
4.6 / 5
How necessary attendance was
Assignments
5.0 / 5
How helpful assignments were
Weekly effort
~5
hours per week
Estimated from the original workload response buckets. Individual sections may differ.
Instructor options
Ratings below reflect only recovered evaluations connected to this course.
Across time
Section-level results available in the recovered archive.
Spring 2024
1 sectionSpring 2022
1 sectionSpring 2020
1 section