Comparative Musicology and Anthropology of Music

Comparative Musicology and Anthropology of Music
Author: Bruno Nettl
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 397
Release: 1991-03-26
Genre: Music
ISBN: 0226574091

Non-Aboriginal; based on papers presented at Ideas, Concepts and Personalities in the History of Ethnomusicology conference, Urbana, Illinois, April 1988.

The Anthropology of Music

The Anthropology of Music
Author: Alan P. Merriam
Publisher: Northwestern University Press
Total Pages: 380
Release: 1964-12-01
Genre: Music
ISBN: 9780810106079

In this highly praised and seminal work, Alan Merriam demonstrates that music is a social behavior—one worthy and available to study through the methods of anthropology. In it, he convincingly argues that ethnomusicology, by definition, cannot separate the sound-analysis of music from its cultural context of people thinking, acting, and creating. The study begins with a review of the various approaches in ethnomusicology. He then suggests a useful and simple research model: ideas about music lead to behavior related to music and this behavior results in musical sound. He explains many aspects and outcomes of this model, and the methods and techniques he suggests are useful to anyone doing field work. Further chapters provide a cross-cultural round-up of concepts about music, physical and verbal behavior related to music, the role of the musician, and the learning and composing of music. The Anthropology of Music illuminates much of interest to musicologists but to social scientists in general as well.

Ethnomusicology: A Very Short Introduction

Ethnomusicology: A Very Short Introduction
Author: Timothy Rice
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 168
Release: 2014
Genre: Music
ISBN: 0199794375

Explaining that musicality is an essential touchstone of the human experience, a concise introduction to the study of the nature of music, its community and its cultural values explains the diverse work of today's ethnomusicologists and how researchers apply anthropological and other social disciplines to studies of human and cultural behaviors. Original.

The Anthropology of Music

The Anthropology of Music
Author: Alan P. Merriam
Publisher: Evanston, Ill.: Northwestern University Press
Total Pages: 382
Release: 1964
Genre: Music
ISBN:

This book was written in the belief that while music is a system of sounds, an assumption that provides the point of departure for most studies of music in culture, it is also a complex of behavior which resonates throughout the whole cultural organism--social organization, esthetic activity, economics, religion. This book is to be distinguished from other studies by its model of music as human action, making this work of interest not only to the ethnomusicologist and anthropologist, but also to those concerned with the nature of music, the nature of man, and the nature of music in human culture. Specifically, this model for the study of ethnomusicology is equally applicable to the study of visual arts, dance, folklore, and literature. --Adapted from dust jacket.

The Art of Mbira

The Art of Mbira
Author: Paul F. Berliner
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 620
Release: 2020-01-31
Genre: Music
ISBN: 022662871X

Growing out of the collaborative research of an American ethnomusicologist and Zimbabwean musician, Paul F. Berliner’s The Art of Mbira documents the repertory for a keyboard instrument known generally as mbira. At the heart of this work lies the analysis of the improvisatory processes that propel mbira music’s magnificent creativity. In this book, Berliner provides insight into the communities of study, performance, and worship that surround mbira. He chronicles how master player Cosmas Magaya and his associates have developed their repertory and practices over more than four decades, shaped by musical interaction, social and political dynamics in Zimbabwe, and the global economy of the music industry. At once a detailed exposition of the music’s forms and practices, it is also an indispensable historical and cultural guide to mbira in a changing world. Together with Berliner and Magaya's compendium of mbira compositions, Mbira’s Restless Dance, The Art of Mbira breaks new ground in the depth and specificity of its exploration of an African musical tradition, and in the entwining of the authors’ collaborative voices. It is a testament to the powerful relationship between music and social life—and the rewards of lifelong musical study, performance, and friendship.

Mbira's Restless Dance

Mbira's Restless Dance
Author: Paul F. Berliner
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 907
Release: 2020-11-13
Genre: Music
ISBN: 022662630X

Growing out of the collaborative research of an American ethnomusicologist and Zimbabwean musician, Paul F. Berliner and Cosmas Magaya’s Mbira’s Restless Dance documents the repertory for a keyboard instrument known generally as mbira. At the heart of this work lies the analysis of the improvisatory processes that propel mbira music’s magnificent creativity. Mbira’s Restless Dance is written to be played. This two-volume, spiral-bound set features musical transcriptions of thirty-nine compositions and variations, annotated with the master player’s advice on technique and performance, his notes and observations, and commentary by Berliner. Enhanced with extensive website audiovisuals, Mbira’s Restless Dance is in effect a series of masterclasses with Magaya, suitable for experienced mbira players and those learning the fundamentals. Together with Berliner's The Art of Mbira, in which he provides an indispensable historical and cultural guide to mbira in a changing world, Mbira's Restless Dance breaks new ground in the depth and specificity of its exploration of an African musical tradition, and in the entwining of the authors’ collaborative voices. It is a testament to the powerful relationship between music and social life—and the rewards of lifelong musical study, performance, and friendship.

Perspectives on a 21st Century Comparative Musicology

Perspectives on a 21st Century Comparative Musicology
Author: Francesco Giannattasio
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2017
Genre: Music
ISBN: 9788861631502

"Perspectives on a 21st Century Comparative Musicology : Ethnomusicology or Transcultural Musicology? stems from the 'International Seminars in Ethnomusicology' that F. Giannattasio conceived within the activities of the Intercultural Institute for Comparative Music Studies of the Fondazione Giorgio Cini, devoted to a wide reflection on aims, methods and objects of study of ethnomusicology in the light of the profound changes occurring in this field at the beginning of the 21st Century. It concerns a radical rethinking - at a theoretical and epistemological level - of the history of the discipline, due to the contemporary profound transformation of the object of study. The volume has the ambition of offering new views on what a comparative musicology could do in its enquiry into contemporary music making processes. Scholars coming from different parts of the world, and from different fields of study such as W. Welsch, L.-Ch. Koch, T. Rice, S. Feld, J. Guilbault, J-L. Amselle, contributed to the volume presenting theoretical approaches as an implicit or explicit reaction to the theoretical issues presented by Giannattasio. Together with them, some Italian scholars (G. Giuriati, C. Rizzoni, G. Vacca, R. Di Mauro, M. Agamennone, F. Gervasi) present their thoughts drawn from research in two contexts identified as case studies : the area of Naples and its surroundings, and the Salento."--Page 4 de la couverture.

The Cultural Study of Music

The Cultural Study of Music
Author: Martin Clayton
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 371
Release: 2013-01-11
Genre: Music
ISBN: 1136754326

First Published in 2003. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Nettl's Elephant

Nettl's Elephant
Author: Bruno Nettl
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
Total Pages: 290
Release: 2010-10-01
Genre: Music
ISBN: 0252090233

From one of the most lauded scholars in ethnomusicology comes this enlightening and highly personal narrative on the evolution and current state of the field of ethnomusicology. Surveying the field he helped establish, Bruno Nettl investigates how concepts such as evolution, geography, and history serve as catalysts for advancing ethnomusicological methods and perspectives. This entertaining collection covers Nettl's scholarly interests ranging from Native American to Mediterranean to Middle Eastern contexts while laying out the pivotal moments of the field and conversations with the giants of its past. Nettl moves from reflections on the history of ethnomusicology to evaluations of the principal organizations in the field, interspersing those broader discussions with shorter essays focusing on neglected literature and personal experiences.