News and Events

Spring 2012

The Music 100 Exemption Exam will be given on Wednesday, January 25 and Friday, January 27  at 4 pm in Rm. 109 Pratt.

Grant-in-Aid Deadline.Students who receive financial aid from the College are eligible to apply for a Grant-in-Aid to help pay for music lessons. The deadline for application is Friday, January 27, 4 pm. Applications are available in the Music Office. Continuing students must submit an application every semester--there are no automatic renewals.

Auditions for Individual and Ensemble Performance study will take place on Wednesday, January 25, 1-4 pm in Pratt.  Students should sign up for an audition time on the bulletin board located across the hall from the Music Office in Pratt.  Students who have not previously taken music lessons at Mount Holyoke must go thru the audition process in order to receive permission to register on ISIS.

World Music Courses

Music 229 - African Popular Music
4 cr; Bode Omojola
This course focuses on 20th century African popular music; it examines musical genres from different parts of the continent, investigating their relationships to the historical, political and social dynamics of their respective national and regional origins.  Regional examples like highlife, soukous, chimurenga and Fela Anikulapo-Kui's afro-beat will provide the basis for assessing the significance of popular music as a creative response to the colonial and postcolonial environment in Africa.  The course also discusses the growth of hip-hop music in selected African countries by exploring how indigenous cultural tropes and the social dynamics of postcolonial Africa have provided the basis for its local appropriation.  Themes explored in this course include: the use of music in the construction of identity; popular music, politics and resistance; the interaction of local and global elements; and the political significance of musical nostalgia.

West African Music Ensemble
The West African Music Ensemble, a Five College ensemble in residence at Mount Holyoke since the spring semester ’05, performs traditional music, including dance and song, of the peoples of southern Ghana, Togo and Benin, including sections of Adjogbo and Agbekor.