Worlds of Music: An Introduction to the Music of the World’s Peoples, Shorter Version

This shorter version of the best-selling WORLDS OF MUSIC 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 a 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. The supplementary three-CD set works hand in hand with the authors’ prose, providing students with access to 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. –