You may have to Search all our reviewed books and magazines, click the sign up button below to create a free account.
Musical Rhythm in the Age of Digital Reproduction presents new insights into the study of musical rhythm through investigations of the micro-rhythmic design of groove-based music. The main purpose of the book is to investigate how technological mediation - in the age of digital music production tools - has influenced the design of rhythm at the micro level. Through close readings of technology-driven popular music genres, such as contemporary R&B, hip-hop, trip-hop, electro-pop, electronica, house and techno, as well as played folk music styles, the book sheds light on how investigations of the musical-temporal relationships of groove-based musics might be fruitfully pursued, in particular with regard to their micro-rhythmic features. This book is based on contributions to the project Rhythm in the Age of Digital Reproduction (RADR), a five-year research project running from 2004 to 2009 that was funded by the Norwegian Research Council.
Challenging myths that mountain isolation and ancient folk customs defined the music culture of the Polish Tatras, Timothy J. Cooley shows that intensive contact with tourists and their more academic kin, ethnographers, since the late 19th century helped shape both the ethnic group known as Górale (highlanders) and the music that they perform. Making Music in the Polish Tatras reveals how the historically related practices of tourism and ethnography actually created the very objects of tourist and ethnographic interest in what has become the popular resort region of Zakopane. This lively book introduces readers to Górale musicians, their present-day lives and music making, and how they nav...
This dissertation presents the history of space in the musical thought of the 20th century (from Kurth to Clifton, from Varese to Xenakis) and outlines the development of spatialization in the theory and practice of contemporary music (after 1950). The text emphasizes perceptual and temporal aspects of musical spatiality, thus reflecting the close connection of space and time in human experience. A new definition of spatialization draws from Ingarden's notion of the musical work; a typology of spatial designs embraces music for different acoustic environments, movements of performers and audiences, various positions of musicians in space, etc. The study of spatialization includes a survey of the composers's writings (lves, Boulez, Stockhausen, Cage, etc.) and an examination of their works. The final part presents three unique approaches to spatialization: Brant's simultaneity of sound layers, Xenakis's movement of sound, and Schafer's music of ritual and soundscape.
This is the first annotated bibliography, in German or English, to gather the rich sources for German-language folk-music scholarship. It presents a comprehensive view of both historical and contemporary trends in a field embracing folkloristics and ethnomusicology, as well as philological and cultural studies. Beginning with early theories of folk song-formulated by Herder, Goethe, the Brothers Grimm, and others-the book examines the most important collections of the 19th-century folk-song movement, and surveys the 20th-century institutions and publications that have made folk-music scholarship essential to an understanding of German-speaking Europe. The book represents the enormous diversi...
Non-Aboriginal; based on papers presented at Ideas, Concepts and Personalities in the History of Ethnomusicology conference, Urbana, Illinois, April 1988.
Ethnomusicology: A Contemporary Reader is designed to supplement a textbook for an introductory course in ethnomusicology. It offers a cross section of the best new writing in the field from the last 15-20 years. Many instructors supplement textbook readings and listening assignments with scholarly articles that provide more in-depth information on geographic regions and topics and introduce issues that can facilitate class or small group discussion. These sources serve other purposes as well: they exemplify research technique and format and serve as models for the use of academic language, and collectively they can also illustrate the range of ethnographic method and analytical style in the discipline of ethnomusicology. Ethnomusicology: A Contemporary Reader serves as a basic introduction to the best writing in the field for students, professors, and music professionals. It is perfect for both introductory and upper level courses in world music.
Richard Wagner has arguably the greatest and most long-term influence on wider European culture of all nineteenth-century composers. And yet, among the copious English-language literature examining Wagner's works, influence, and character, research into the composer’s impact and role in Russia and Eastern European countries, and perceptions of him from within those countries, is noticeably sparse. Wagner in Russia, Poland and the Czech Lands aims to redress imbalance and stimulate further research in this rich area. The eight essays are divided in three parts - one each on Russia, the Czech lands and Poland - and cover a wide historical span, from the composer’s first contacts with and appearances in these regions, through to his later reception in the Communist era. The contributing authors examine his influences in a wide range of areas such as music, literary and epistolary heritage, politics, and the cultural histories of Russia, the Czech lands, and Poland, in an attempt to establish Wagner’s place in a part of Europe not commonly addressed in studies of the composer.
In the age of digital music it seems striking that so many of us still want to produce music concretely with our bodies, through the movement of our limbs, lungs and fingers, in contact with those materials and objects which are capable of producing sounds. The huge sales figures of musical instruments in the global market, and the amount of time and effort people of all ages invest in mastering the tools of music, make it clear that playing musical instruments is an important phenomenon in human life. By combining the findings made in music psychology and performative ethnomusicology, Marko Aho shows how playing a musical instrument, and the pleasure musicians get from it, emerges from an intimate dialogue between the personally felt body and the sounding instrument. An introduction to the general aspects of the tactile resources of musical instruments, musical style and the musician is followed by an analysis of the learning process of the regional kantele style of the Perho river valley in Finnish Central Ostrobothnia.
Translated from the Polish, Anna G. PiotrowskaÕs Gypsy Music in European Culture details the profound impact that Gypsy music has had on European culture from a broadly historical perspective. The author explores the stimulating influence that Gypsy music had on a variety of European musical forms, including opera, vaudeville, ballet, and vocal and instrumental compositions. The author analyzes the use of Gypsy themes and idioms in the music of recognized giants such as Bizet, Strauss, and Paderewski, detailing the composersÕ use of scale, form, motivic presentations, and rhythmic tendencies, and also discusses the impact of Gypsy music on emerging national musical forms.
Ukrainian dance is remarkably enduring in its popularity and still performed in numerous cultural contexts. This text unpacks the complex world of this ethnic dance, with special attention to the differences between vival dance (which requires being fully engaged in the present moment) and reflective dance (dance connected explicitly to the past). Most Ukrainian vival dances have been performed by peasants in traditional village settings, for recreational and ritual purposes. Reflective Ukrainian dances are performed more self-consciously as part of a living heritage. Further sub-groups are examined, including national dances, recreational/educational dances, and spectacular dances on stage.