Excursions in World Music (3rd Edition) - Softcover

Nettl, Bruno; Capwell, Charles; Wong, Isabel K. F.; Turino, Thomas

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0130316482 ISBN 13: 9780130316486

Publisher: Taylor & Francis, 2000

Synopsis

This dynamic book takes readers on a vivid exploration into the major musical cultures of the world by first presenting a lively vignette of a musical occasion, and then placing that occasion in the context of a general description of the society and musical culture. Each chapter features a specific area of the world, written by a scholar who is a specialist in that particular geographical area. Featuring the musical cultures of such fascinating lands as India, the Middle East, Indonesia, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Latin America, it covers older rural and classical musical traditions—as well as newer urban-popular forms within a given society. For anyone who appreciates music—and is listening for a good understanding of each culture's ideas of what music is, what its powers are, how it relates to other aspects of life, and how it reflects important things about its people and their view of the world.

About this title

About the Author

BRUNO NETTL studied at Indiana University, has taught at the University of Illinois since 1964 and has done field work in Iran (where he studied the Persian setar), among the Blackfoot people of Montana, and in South India, and is the author of The Study of Ethnomusicology, Blackfoot Musical Thought: Comparative Perspectives, and Heartland Excursions: Ethnomusicological Reflections on Schools of Music.

CHARLES CAPWELL, a Harvard Ph.D., did field research among the Bauls of Bengal, India, and in Calcutta (where he also studied sarod), and he has studied Muslim popular music in Indonesia. He is the author of Musci of the Bauls of Bengal and of numerous articles on aspects of south Asian musical culture, and has been on the faculty of the University of Illinois since 1976, where he also supervises the gamelan program.

ISABEL WONG studied at Brown University and teaches Chinese and other East Asian music at the University of Illinois. She has done research on a large variety of music of her native China, including music drama, urban popular music, politics and music, and the history of musical scholarship in Chinese culture. More recently she has devoted herself also to the study of Chinese-American musical culture.

THOMAS TURINO studied at the University of Texas and has taught at the University of Illinois since 1987. After extensive field research in Peru, he published Moving Away from Silence, about the musical culture of the Aymara in a variety of contexts. In 1992-93 he lived for a year in Zimbabwe, where he did research on village music and musical nationalism. He is an expert performer on the African Mbira and founder of the Peruvian panpipe ensemble at Illinois.

PHILIP BOHLMAN studied at the University of Illinois and has been, since 1987, at the University of Chicago. He has done fieldwork in ethnic communities in Wisconsin, Chicago, and Pittsburgh, as well as Israel, Germany, and Austria. He is the author of The Land Where Two Streams Flow and The Study of Folk Music in the Modern World. Among his recent interests is the study of music in the pilgrimages of various religions.

From the Back Cover

This introductory text offers readers a glimpse into the major musical traditions of the world by first presenting a lively vignette of a musical performance, followed by a general description of the society and its music. Each chapter features a specific area of the world, and is written in friendly non-technical language by a scholar who is a specialist in that region.

Excursions in World Music, 3/e gives students a concrete grasp of the rich diversity of the world's music by highlighting the most important social and musical aspects for each culture. The opening chapter provides an introduction to ethnomusicology and the study of world music by Bruno Nettl, one of the leading scholars in the field.

TOPICS INCLUDE:

• Musical instruments
• The most important musical occasions
• A survey of styles for each region
• The social development of music
• The meaning and value music holds for each society
• Recent changes in musical traditions
• Discussion of the musical selections on the accompanying CDs integrated into the chapters to make the book more effective for learning

New features to this edition include enlarged chapter-opening maps, which will help students focus on the regions discussed as well as major revision to Chapter 1, Introduction, Chapter 3, Music of the Middle East, Chapter 4, The Music of China, and Chapter 10, Native American Music. More depth and coverage is provided in these chapters than in previous editions, giving students a broader perspective on these musical traditions.

From the Inside Flap

Preface The authors are pleased to present this third revised edition of Excursions in World Music to its expanding audience with the hope that the changes made will further increase its informativeness and utility. After the major revisions of the second edition, we have not felt the need for a fundamental overhaul, but several of the book's chapters have been rewritten to bring them up to date and to provide a greater variety of information. In particular, the chapters on music in China (4), in the Middle East (3), and among Native Americans (10) have been extensively altered and expanded with more attention given to popular music and contemporary developments, while the introductory essay on "Studying the World's Musical Cultures" now incorporates a broader discussion of the field of ethnomusicology.

Essentially, however, the book has remained, in its orientation, structure, and basic content, what it was originally intended to be—a set of chapters, by scholars writing with conviction and a sense of devotion, about cultures in which they have had substantial field experience, providing information and interesting syntheses of the musical cultures of the world. We have done this in order to stimulate understanding and engender respect. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We are grateful to Melinda Russell (Carleton College) for editorial help with the second edition and to Margaret Sarkissian (Smith College) for preparing the teacher's guide. We also wish to express our gratitude for the numerous helpful suggestions provided by anonymous readers and loyal users of the book alike.

Bruno Nettl, Charles Capwell, Isabel K. F. Wong,
Thomas Turino, Philip V Bohlman

Edition details

• Publisher: Taylor & Francis
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0130316482
• ISBN 13: 9780130316486
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 368
• Editor: Capwell Charles, Wong Isabel K. F., Turino Thomas, Bohlman Philip V., Nettl Bruno