A Sea Of Red

New degree program offered in ethnomusicology
April 30, 2009 : Carmen P. Fleischauer


Liberty University is launching a new Master of Arts in Ethnomusicology, the study of music in the context of culture, with a mission of preparing musicians, pastors and missionaries for multi- and cross-cultural ministry.

http://www.liberty.edu/index.cfm?PID=18495&MID=7544

Part of me is a little annoyed that we are creating more majors like this and not stuff that more people would be interested in, like audio production, an undergrad apologetics degree, stuff like that, that people are interested in and are a little bit more worth the while[/quote]

Curious, are other universities offer this type of degrees? Or is LU only one of a handfuls offering it?

sounds about as useful as a degree in liberal arts

"the study of music in the context of culture"

really?!

what MORON dreamed this one up? this just has touchy-feely/every answer is right written all over it.

id expect this out of say, Cal or San Fran University, but i'd like to think LU has a bit more academic integrity than this.

matshark wrote:"the study of music in the context of culture"

really?!

what MORON dreamed this one up? this just has touchy-feely/every answer is right written all over it.

id expect this out of say, Cal or San Fran University, but i'd like to think LU has a bit more academic integrity than this.

You know, Cal does have fairly good standards if admission numbers are any indication, only a 22% acceptance rate, middle 50% of SAT scores are 580-710(reading)/630-760(math)/600-720(writing). those standards are only a little below Washington & Lee standards...

matshark wrote:"the study of music in the context of culture"

really?!

what MORON dreamed this one up? this just has touchy-feely/every answer is right written all over it.

id expect this out of say, Cal or San Fran University, but i'd like to think LU has a bit more academic integrity than this.

Why is this so bogus? I think it should be a focus of a music major and not a major on it's own, but for research purposes and working in the music industry, this degree could actually be pretty useful.

But TTL, the reasons you stated behind it arent for why they have it.

Plus, it seems like some stuff you should learn on your own. Like you should learn from personal experience how a culture is shaped by its music, not by being taught this culture likes this music and this other cultures likes this style of music.

Plus, how many people have their degree in this field that there are enough to have professors to reteach it, with a significant amount of people with this degree still practicing it.

Its late, so that may have come out wrong and hard to understand, what I mean is this. Say theres been 100 people in the country get their degree in it, and now 4 schools offer degrees in this. Lets say each program needs at least 5 professors to be able to teach this, so out of the 100 people with this degree, 20 are now teaching it with 80% actually using it. Not saying these are the numbers, just saying this degree seems like a worthless idea

Absolutely no inside knowledge here, but this doesn't sound like the type of major you decide you want to offer and then look for people who can teach it. They probably have people either already on campus or in the pipeline who have the specific qualifications and interest, and that is what is driving it.

Guys, this is not a major, it's a Master's degree program. Typically, getting a Master's should be more focused and specialized, and does not expect as large an enrollment as an undergrad major. If the resources and interest are there, I can only see this as a good thing.

my issue with this is that it doesn't deal with any concrete facts.

this degree can be summed up as: this is some of the music this culture listens to, and i FEEL it plays this role in the culture because...

its gonna be wide open for BS-ing. that's like a major in art appreciation, or music appreciation, etc... i appreciate art and music with the best of em, but that doesn't mean you can/should claim an EDUCATION in it.

my referring to Cal doesn't have anything to do with their acceptance rates, or their SAT scores or anything else. simply that california schools (among others obviously) are notorious for having classes and majors with little to no academic importance.

whats next? a masters program that focuses on the role that sports plays in cultures? if it were me, id vote for one that focuses on the role Snickers bars play in culture. "Ethnosnickerology"

matshark wrote:my issue with this is that it doesn't deal with any concrete facts.

By that definition, any field outside of mathematics or engineering is a waste of time. If that's your viewpoint then why in the world did you attend a liberal arts college?

RagingTireFire wrote:

matshark wrote:my issue with this is that it doesn't deal with any concrete facts.

By that definition, any field outside of mathematics or engineering is a waste of time. If that's your viewpoint then why in the world did you attend a liberal arts college?

because it was free.
however, its not limited to simply mathematics or engineering. for example, journalism has concrete rules and facts that must be followed. business does as well. likewise, health promotions and english. radio does also. television. advertising, public relations, etc...

music also has concrete facts and rules that must be adhered to. there are specific scales, beats, etc... that are not negotiable.

my point is that i dont believe "Ethnomusicology" is a legitimate field of study. (A. there's really nothing to "study" - discuss perhaps - but not "study", B. The field sounds like it was made up at a Bush press conference, C. presenting that as a Master's degree is a good way to get laughed out of a building - i know i would laugh hysterically at any one with that "degree")

the last time i checked, feelings don't = a legitimate course of academic study. if that were the case, I'd argue for a degree on how feeling a math problem is correct (as opposed to actually solving it) is worth a grad "degree" also.

Ethnomusicology is a small subset of cultural anthropology, which is a small subset of anthropology. It's a strictly academic study (like anthropology, sociology, etc.), and it's very much a social science as opposed to a "hard science" like biology or chemistry. There's more discussion and debate about method than you'd find in a math class. I can see people actually using this on the mission field when trying to create worship music for indigenous people (which is a good thing, unless you want everyone singing "Just As I Am"). Music is a cultural language, and it's important for us to be able to understand it and use it effectively.

It's as much about "I feel it does this because" as sociology or psychology are (and for that matter, a lot of linguistics), so I guess we can't have a masters program about either of those subjects .....

matshark wrote:

RagingTireFire wrote: If that's your viewpoint then why in the world did you attend a liberal arts college?

because it was free.

Then what makes you think you have the right to complain about it? That's like somebody giving you a free car and you gladly accept it but then, three years later, complain to the manufacturer when the newest models have heated rear-view mirrors or some other feature that you wouldn't want to pay for -- except that you never paid for any of it anyway.

For future reference, were you child of faculty or were you on an LCA schollie?

RagingTireFire wrote:

matshark wrote:

RagingTireFire wrote: If that's your viewpoint then why in the world did you attend a liberal arts college?

because it was free.

Then what makes you think you have the right to complain about it?

There's something called the Constitution that gives people the freedom of speech. Complaining is a form of speech, therefore, he has a right to complain.

I came to Liberty b/c it was free...and that was the ONLY reason.

rueful wrote:

New degree program offered in ethnomusicology
April 30, 2009 : Carmen P. Fleischauer


Liberty University is launching a new Master of Arts in Ethnomusicology, the study of music in the context of culture, with a mission of preparing musicians, pastors and missionaries for multi- and cross-cultural ministry.

http://www.liberty.edu/index.cfm?PID=18495&MID=7544

Part of me is a little annoyed that we are creating more majors like this and not stuff that more people would be interested in, like audio production, an undergrad apologetics degree, stuff like that, that people are interested in and are a little bit more worth the while

Man. I did not even know that was even a degree.

RagingTireFire wrote:

matshark wrote:

RagingTireFire wrote: If that's your viewpoint then why in the world did you attend a liberal arts college?

because it was free.

Then what makes you think you have the right to complain about it? That's like somebody giving you a free car and you gladly accept it but then, three years later, complain to the manufacturer when the newest models have heated rear-view mirrors or some other feature that you wouldn't want to pay for -- except that you never paid for any of it anyway.

For future reference, were you child of faculty or were you on an LCA schollie?

Faculty (although I did go to LCA)

And my issue is not that my education was free. The course of "study" in question wasn't even around when I was here. Nor is the issue that it's a feature I wouldn't want to pay for (i.e. a car). Rather, the issue is that the very course of "study" is IMO a joke, and I think tarnishes the image of the academic legitimacy of the university as a whole.

Regardless of whether somebody paid for their education or not, a lot of hard work still went into finishing it. To add a "program" like this i think cheapens the appearance of the effort of anyone from that school. Although, while they're at it, perhaps they can add an Ethnosubaquaticstoragedeviceweavingology class. That would be the of Underwater Basket Weaving from a Cultural Perspective for those that don't translate academic double speak.

matshark wrote:Rather, the issue is that the very course of "study" is IMO a joke, and I think tarnishes the image of the academic legitimacy of the university as a whole.

Are you suggesting, for instance, that someone who graduates from the law school is likely to be denied a position at a firm because LU also offers a Master's Degree in Ethnomusicology?

I'm suggesting that Liberty has enough trouble being recognized nationwide as a quality institution of higher learning that we don't need things like Ethnomusicology to drag us down.

These schools offer programs in Ethnomusicology.

• Bowling Green
  Brown
  Columbia
  Florida St.
  Indiana
  NYU
  Ohio St.
  Oberlin
  Texas Tech
  Cal
  Cal-Davis
  UCLA
  U. of Chicago
  Colorado
  Florida
  Hawai'i
  Illinois
  Maryland
  Minnesota
  Michigan
  New Mexico
  Penn
  Pitt
  Texas
  Washington
  Wisconsin
  Wesleyan

That's not an exhaustive list but that is just the US.

Canada

• U. of Alberta
  U. of British Columbia
  U. of Montreal
  U. of Toronto
  York University

United Kingdom

• U. of Leeds
  Newcastle
  Oxford
  Cambridge
  York
  City U. of London
  Manchester
  Sheffield
  Cardiff
  Queen's University, Belfast

There's also the Sorbonne in France, one of the oldest and most significant universities in the world.

None of these schools seem to have suffered a hit on their academic prestige by offering a degree in Ethnomusicology.

And once again matshark has been proven to have taken an extreme opinion that turns out to be, in fact, dumb.

Ok then if Brown, Columbia, Chicago, Penn, Oxford, and Cambridge offer it, then I have to think it's a pretty legitimate degree despite how stupid it may sound.

Hmmm. Dare I suggest that being on such a list might actually add to our academic reputation?

I guess I just did.