Associate Professor, Music
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Marcus Associate Professor, Music |
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When Scott Marcus teaches about world music, he brings various instruments to class and sits on the floor—if that is how tradition demands the instrument be played. When demonstrating the sitar, a stringed device, he teaches that people in India do not step over musical instruments, they walk around them. “We treat instruments with the respect due them, just like in their own cultures,” says Marcus, an associate professor in ethnomusicology and skilled performer of the sitar and a number of Middle Eastern instruments. “Music is culture-specific: It reflects a culture, but it also generates it.” Learning about music produces an appreciation for the people and cultures from which the music arises, he believes. Marcus welcomes “absolute beginners” to his world music classes and encourages them to try out instruments, even if for a single lesson. He hopes they will come back for more, no matter if it is their first quarter or last. |