Hear My Banjo Tell: The Many Lives of "America's Instrument"
MUSC 140
Spring 2027
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01
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This course guides students through the history of the banjo and its many lives. While the five-string banjo today commonly functions as a marker of rural, white, blue-collar America, it has other stories to tell -- its origins in the transatlantic slave trade, its role in the birth of the popular music industry, and its dissemination to the United Kingdom and beyond. Along the way, students will learn about the surprising scope of music played on the banjo and develop a critical approach toward musical instruments as objects embedded with diverse and sometimes contradictory meanings. |
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| Credit: 1 |
Gen Ed Area Dept:
HA MUSC |
| Course Format: Lecture / Discussion | Grading Mode: Student Option |
| Level: UGRD |
Prerequisites: None |
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Fulfills a Requirement for: (Music) |
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Past Enrollment Probability: Not Available |
| SECTION 01 |
Major Readings: Wesleyan RJ Julia Bookstore
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Selected chapters from America¿s Instrument: The Banjo in the Nineteenth Century (Philip Gura and James Bollman), Well of Souls: Uncovering the Banjo¿s Hidden History (Kristina R. Gaddy), That Half-Barbaric Twang: The Banjo in American Popular Music (Karen Linn), The Banjo: America¿s African Instrument (Laurent Dubois), Banjo Roots and Branches (ed. Robert B. Winans), and The Birth of the Banjo: Joel Walker Sweeney and Early Minstrelsy (Bob Carlin), in addition to various articles/excerpts.
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Examinations and Assignments:
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Weekly reading responses, an in-class midterm, and a final project |
Additional Requirements and/or Comments:
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Instructor(s): STAFF
Times: .M.W... 10:50AM-12:10PM; Location: TBA |
| Total Enrollment Limit: 18 | | SR major: 2 | JR major: 2 | | |
| Seats Available: 18 | GRAD: X | SR non-major: 2 | JR non-major: 4 | SO: 4 | FR: 4 |
| Drop/Add Enrollment Requests | | | | | |
| Total Submitted Requests: 0 | 1st Ranked: 0 | 2nd Ranked: 0 | 3rd Ranked: 0 | 4th Ranked: 0 | Unranked: 0 |
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