Worlds of Music: An Introduction to the Music of the World's Peoples, Shorter Version (with CD-ROM)

Features

• Cover Type: Paperback with 368 pages
• Published by: Schirmer
• Edition: 2nd Edition July 27, 2004
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 0534627579
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-0534627577
• Book Dimensions: 10 x 8 x 0.6 inches
• Weighs: 1.7 pounds

Book Description
No background or training in music? No problem. This shorter version of WORLDS OF MUSIC: AN INTRODUCTION TO THE MUSIC OF THE WORLD'S PEOPLES is written to make music accessible. Using the case-study approach, the text presents in-depth explorations of music of several cultures from around the world. The authors all ethnomusicologists working in their fields of expertise base their discussions of music-cultures on their own fieldwork and give you a true sense of both the music and culture that created it. Two CDs accompany every copy of the book and cover a wide range of music-cultures, including authentic recordings from the authors' fieldwork. Leading off is the long-standing jewel in the Worlds of Music crown - James Koetting's awesome recording of postal workers canceling stamps at the University of Ghana post office. A Western-sounding hymn tune performed against African rhythms, this piece, more that any other, lets you hear contrasting music-cultures.

About The Author
Jeff Todd Titon received his Ph.D. in American Studies from the University of Minnesota, where he studied ethnomusicology with Alan Kagan and musicology with Johannes Riedel. He has completed fieldwork in North America on religious folk music, blues music and old-time fiddling with support from the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities. For two years he was the guitarist in the Lazy Bill Lucas Blues Band, a group that appeared in the 1970 Ann Arbor Blues Festival. The author or editor of seven books, including EARLY DOWNHOME BLUES (which won the ASCAP–Deems Taylor Award) and the five-volume AMERICAN MUSICAL TRADITIONS (named by Library Journal as one of the outstanding reference works of 2003), Titon is also a documentary photographer and filmmaker. In 1991, he wrote a hypertext multimedia computer program about old-time fiddler Clyde Davenport that is regarded as a model for interactive representations of people making music. He founded the ethnomusicology program at Tufts University, where he taught from 1971 to 1986. From 1990 to 1995, he served as the editor of ETHNOMUSICOLOGY, the journal of the Society for Ethnomusicology. A Fellow of the American Folklore Society since 1986, he has been Professor of Music and the director of the Ph.D. program in ethnomusicology at Brown University. Linda Fujie received the Ph.D. in ethnomusicology from Columbia University, where she was a student of Dieter Christensen and Adelaida Schramm. She conducted field research in Japan, mainly concerning urban festival and popular music, under grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, Columbia University, and Colby College. Her interest in overseas Japanese culture also resulted in research on Japanese-American and Japanese-Brazilian communities, the latter funded by the German Music Council. Her research has been published in the Yearbook for Traditional Music, in publications on popular music, and in Japanese journals. She taught at Colby College as Assistant Professor, at the East Asian Institute of the Free University of Berlin and lectured on ethnomusicology at the University of Bamberg. David Locke received the Ph.D. in ethnomusicology from Wesleyan University in 1978, where he studied with David McAllester, Mark Slobin, and Gen'ichi Tsuge. At Wesleyan his teachers of traditional African music included Abraham Adzinyah and Freeman Donkor. In Ghana his teachers and research associates included Godwin Agbeli, Midawo Gideon Foli Alorwoyie, and Abubakari Lunna. He has published numerous books and articles on African music and regularly performs the repertories of music and dance about which he writes. He teaches at Tufts University, where he currently serves as the director of the master's degree program in ethnomusicology and as a faculty advisor in the Tufts-in-Ghana Foreign Study Program. He is active in the Society for Ethnomusicology and has served as the president of its Northeast Chapter. David P. McAllester received the Ph.D. in anthropology from Columbia University, where he studied with George Herzog. A student of American Indian music since 1938, he has undertaken fieldwork among the Comanches, Hopis, Apaches, Navajos, Penobscots, and Passamaquoddies. He is the author of such classic works in ethnomusicology as Peyote Music, Enemy Way Music, Myth of the Great Star Chant, and Navajo Blessingway Singer (with coauthor Charlotte Frisbie). He is one of the founders of the Society for Ethnomusicology, and he has served as its president and the editor of its journal, Ethnomusicology. He is professor emeritus of anthropology and music at Wesleyan University. David B. Reck received the Ph.D. in ethnomusicology from Wesleyan University, where he studied under Mark Slobin and David P. McAllester. Since 1968 has traveled and worked in India under awards from the American Institute of Indian Studies, the Rockefeller and John Simon Guggenheim Memorial foundations, and the JDR IIIrd Fund. A senior disciple of the legendary Ranganayaki Rajagopalan, he is an accomplished musician on the Saraswati veena and has performed extensively in the United States, Canada, Europe, and India. His four concerts at the 2002 Madras Festival of Music and Dance were the first by a non-Indian veena player. As a composer, his works have been performed at Tanglewood, Town Hall, Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, and at various universities and international music festivals. The author of Music of the Whole Earth and a mystery novel, The Cobra's Song, his scholarly publications include articles on Indian music, the Beatles, and cross-influences between the West and the Orient. Currently he is Professor of Asian Languages and Civilizations, and of Music, at Amherst College.

Reader Reviews
I don't mean to take the same words of the reviewer Nicholas H. Canale, but he's right. Worlds of Music is an excellent book containing two CDs to introduce you to the music of the world and its relation to the culture the music is found in. The book contains an introduction which explains musical terms to non-musical people. From there, you're on your own to understand the how these terms apply to odd music cultures. Hopefully you will have a great professor or musically-inclined friend to help you out. Nevertheless, the authors all have Ph.D's in ethnomusicology (or a similar subject) and are very good at presenting information. The book does indeed cost a pretty penny, but its well worth it. Then again, worth doesn't mean much if you're taking a 'World Music' class at college and don't have a choice. Even still, the situation isn't bleak - the audio examples are great, and you're bound to enjoy at least one foreign music you never considered worth your time before reading Worlds of Music. Comment | Permalink | (Report this)