Junko Oba

Junko Oba, associate professor of music, holds a B.A. from International Christian University, Tokyo, Japan and an M.A. and a Ph.D. from Wesleyan University, where she trained as an ethnomusicologist and sound recording archivist.

She teaches ethnomusicology, popular music studies, music theory, and Asian studies courses. Her research interests include traditional and contemporary Japanese music cultures; performative identity politics in Asian diasporas, especially in Brazilian expatriate communities in Japan; national and nationalized identity performances in the trans- and post-national world; music and collective memory construction; and organology and music instruments building.

As a musician, she trained to perform piano, koto (Japanese long zither), and jiuta shamisen (Japanese long-necked lute). At Hampshire, she has been playing viola da gamba in an ensemble in the Five College Early Music Program.

Recent and Upcoming Courses

Listening to Japanese Sound Cultures
"Listening" occupies a special place in Japanese cultures. Indications abound in literature, folklore, and everyday practices that listening has been nurtured as multisensory experiences and that it encompasses a wide range of phenomena. Whether it be in the haiku poetry reading, religious ceremony, political protest, or mundane activity, listening enables people to transcend spatiotemporal boundaries, connect with the intangible and the invisible, and engage in the world and life in a deeper philosophical consciousness. This course explores Japanese sound cultures, with special attention to the underlying unique conceptions of "listening": how have people in Japan cultivated distinct sensibilities in listening, and how, in turn, such sensibilities have constituted Japanese sound cultures. No previous training in music is necessary to take this course. Keywords: Japanese cultures, sounds, listening, acoustic sensibilities
Musical Explorations: Theory, Analysis, and Composition
This course builds upon students' basic understanding of the mechanisms of diatonic harmony as a sonic world-building tool. Through analysis, performance, and composition, we will further develop a solid working understanding of the principles of melody, harmony, and form common in many musical traditions that we consume in our everyday lives. Assignments will include writing short melodies and accompaniments as well as more detailed compositional and improvisational projects. We will use our instruments and voices to bring musical examples to life in the classroom. There will be a diagnostic evaluation administered in the first class to ensure that students have an ability to read both treble and bass clefs, have a good grasp of intervals and triads, and that they are ready to apply them in analysis and composition. Email the instructor to take the diagnostic evaluation (joba@hampshire.edu). The instructor's permission will be given based on the result. Keywords: music, music theory, diatonic harmony
Encapsulating Sounds: Introduction to Critical Organology
Every culture bears unique sensibilities to sounds. People cultivate distinctive ways of hearing, understanding, and relating to them. These sensibilities are also re?ected in the processes of sound- and music-making. Different instruments are devised to encapsulate distinctive cultural values not only acoustically but also visually in their material forms. This course aims to explore diverse music cultures of the world through the lens of organology (the study of musical instruments). We examine a wide range of sound-making devices in their current sociocultural and historical contexts. Our investigation encompasses subjects such as social functions and signi?cations of the instruments, e.g., ritual objects, status symbols, and exotic commodities, myths and symbolism attributed to the instruments, technology and craftsmanship involved in the fabrication, and ecological and ethical concerns for the use of certain materials, e.g., exotic wood, tortoise shells, and ivory. (keywords: musical instruments, material culture, ethnomusicology, sounds, music)
Introduction to Ethnomusicology
Ethnomusicology is a field of music scholarship, which examines a wide range of music and music-related human activities with distinctive sociocultural perspectives and methodologies. This course offers an introductory experience of the field for students pursuing ethnomusicological projects in their Div. II and III and those interested in exploring this relatively unknown field. Students will be introduced to the historical development of the field since its emergence in the late 19th century and more recent critical discourses, subjects that many ethnomusicologists investigate, and how they approach them. Fieldwork being a central methodology, students will learn how to plan and execute their research, document, analyze, and interpret ethnographic research information, how to preserve and share their research findings, and ethical issues pertaining to the handling of individual and collective cultural properties. The course also includes a brief introduction to other methodologies such as archival, organological, and iconographical research. (keywords: music, ethnomusicology, field research methodology)