ABSTRACT
The idealization of European music results from a storied music tradition that emerged in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries through the canonization of musical works with closely circumscribed narratives. We challenge this tradition by showing that European music was messy, fraught, and complex in its social interactions and meanings. We discuss concrete applications of these approaches developed within our experiential teaching practice, drawing on existing decolonial and historiographical theoretical frameworks, and informed by influential pedagogical approaches. By considering encounters between the Qiyan and troubadours in the twelfth century, and military skirmishes between the Ottomans and Austrian Habsburgs in the late sixteenth century, we reconfigure the implicit framework of European dominance, exposing Europe's frailty and accounting for its intercultural exchanges. We aim to build student awareness of musical historiography by vividly reframing European music's movement and complexity, challenging its traditional boundaries, and revealing it as one of the ethnic musics of our world.
