Promoting Diversity in the Undergraduate Classroom: Incorporating Asian Contemporary Composers’ Music in a Form and Analysis Course

Abstract

Despite the greater demand for inclusivity, the literature used in the Music Theory classroom is still limited; the materials for examples and analysis are mostly music drawn from the Western classical musical canon. In my effort to expand the range of analytical materials in undergraduate music theory courses, to demonstrate the continuing quest of diversifying our discipline, and to broaden music students’ experiences by exposing them to unfamiliar music, I incorporate contemporary East Asian composers’ music in my Form and Analysis course. In the first part of the essay, I discuss further the motivations and background of my decision to incorporate East Asian composers’ music in the course. In the second part of the essay, I discuss several compositions by Asian composers as implementation of these motivations. By being exposed to this unfamiliar music, I hope students will further explore and seek music that is new to them.