Field audio and video documentation will serve as the resource to
investigate a range of issues in folkloristics and ethnomusicology.
Students will be introduced to a number of capabilities available on
this equipment through a series of demonstrations by experts, and
students and instructor alike will explore a range of research
possibilities in sound and motion on this sophisticated equipment in
the Sound and Video Analysis & Instruction Laboratory (SAVAIL).
Serving as a possible model, the instructor will describe his
research into the relationship(s) between the meter (scansion) of
Somali oral poetry and the music which often accompanies it as well
as various alternative ways in which these relationship(s) can be
analyzed. After extensive research, I have come to realize that
research into Somali poetry specifically and African poetry in
general, which ignores its musical setting is a grave error. In
Somali dual rhythmic verbal art, linguistic meter may be considered
only one of the several meters which contribute to the overall
performance of any given genre. In some genres there is a
clear relationship between sections of the music and the poetic
meter.  Music theorists and ethnomusicologists who study African
poetry and who ignore its linguistic and prosodic components make the
same error as the literary scholar, but in reverse. In Somalia and in
much of Africa (perhaps in broader areas of the world as well) poetry
and music are not separate art forms but are regarded by their
indigenous composers and audiences as one and the same act of
creativity. Various theoretical issues
will be addressed, such as the definition of performance genre and
style, the interplay between performers and audiences, the fusion of
music and poetry in song, and the transcription of speech and music.
Other issues may emerge as students explore a range of research
topics they can choose through study of the possibilities unleashed
by such highly sophisticated equipment. The class will be divided
into three units, the first of which will deal with learning the
equipment in the field laboratory, the ins and outs of the hard and
software and discussing the range of research possibilities opened up
by this technology. Guest lectures will be given by specialists in
the lab equipment. Students are encouraged to explore this equipment
outside of class, and the instructor will work closely with the
students and help them define research topics which may be explored
on the equipment. The second unit will consist of lectures by the
instructor on the problems of meter and music described above, which
first led him to the computer lab. Students will be introduced to a
problem of poetics solved by the sound analysis laboratory as a model
for possible research projects within the capacity of the laboratory.
A final unit will involve oral class presentations from students on
their lab projects. The student’s final grade will be based on these
oral reports and on a final paper summarizing their work in the lab.