This course explores selected music cultures from around the world, using the theme-based approach of Kay Kaufman Shelemay’s "Soundscapes: Exploring Music in a Changing World" (New York, 2006, 2nd edition). It examines musical practices as an essential element of lived human experience, and hence will consider topics such as music and ritual, music and politics, and music and identity. Because of the blurring of cultural boundaries in today’s globalized world, the course will investigate these issues with a particular focus on Taipei, whose dynamism and diversity mirror the broader character of contemporary life.