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In this seminar, students will survey an emerging body of writing about the music of the Western classical tradition not as a series of musical works and composer biographies, but as a practice of people making music. One might think of it as an anthropology of art music. Readings will examine conservatory cultures and specific cultural moments of different European, transnational, and global cultures of Western Art Music. Though ethnomusicology typically confines itself to “non-western” or “world” music, the West’s classical music tradition is arguably the very first world music. We will also listen to and think about the implications of the work of the transnational community of young practitioners who are making this a global practice in the 21st century.