This shorter version of the best-selling WORLDS OF MUSIC is based on the 4th edition and provides much of the authoritative coverage of the comprehensive version in a format that's accessible to students without any background or training in music. 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 students a true sense of both the music and culture that created it. General editor, Jeff Todd Titon, has written the text's opening chapter, that introduces students to ethnomusicology and relates each chapter's music heard on the accompanying CDs to the fundamentals of music in a worldwide context. The text concludes with a chapter that invites students to participate by undertaking a fieldwork research project that increases a student's understanding of music in daily life. Two CDs accompany every copy of the book on the inside back cover. The selected recordings cover a wide range of music-cultures and include authentic recordings from the authors' fieldwork. Leading off is the long-standing jewel in the Worlds of Music crown - James Koetting's magnificent 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 the student hear contrasting music-cultures. Packaged with the text, the CDs make this book the best value available for the course.
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 4.5 / 5.0
Good, but for the price, and for being a college text, should be better. For one, some very important regions (Middle East, for example) are missing from this "World Music" text book. It also seems to be a bit choppy in the efforts to highlight the most relevant areas of regional music. Rather than taking an overview perspective of each region, the author delves fairly in-depth into certain divisions of the specific examples he seems to find most interesting. Since the book is intended to be an overview, I would have like to have had a systematic approach to each region,... more info
Good Book!!!! The book is interesting and the CDs that accompany the book are perfect with the reading!
Good book for your Music Class I have enjoyed this book a lot. It really goes into the world's music cultures in detail. The CD that comes with the book has some very interesting listens on it. Overall, an interesting book if you have to get it for your World Music class, as I did.
Expensive, yet very useful 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... more info
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