This book takes a unique approach to the study of folk music in Central Europe. Through an analysis of this cultural tradition, and of how words and ideas that were first introduced in Latin Antiquity became increasingly cultivated, refined, and established in the centuries that followed, the volume also questions present-day studies of sound and its organization into the field of so-called 'folk music'. In so doing, it breaks down boundaries that separate historical studies from ethnomusicology, and sheds light on what music continues to mean in daily life. While the focus is primarily on Central European folk music, and in particular on material found in the Hungarian archives, the approach taken here also points to a fruitful comparative methodology that could be employed on a larger scale, enabling scholars to consider broader chronological and geographical contexts.

The aim of this study is to increase understanding of folk music within an historical, European framework, and to show the genre as a dynamic and changing art form. The book addresses a plethora of questions through its detailed examination of a wide range of music from vastly different national and cultural identities. It attempts to elucidate the connections between, and the varying development of, the music of peoples throughout Europe, firstly by examining the ways in which scholars of different ideological and artistic ambitions have collected, studied and performed folk music, then by investigating the relationship between folk and popular music. Jan Ling is Professor of Musicology at Göteborg University, Sweden.

In American music, the notion of "roots" has been a powerful refrain, but just what constitutes our true musical traditions has often been a matter of debate. As Benjamin Filene reveals, a number of competing visions of America's musical past have vied fo

The study of the movement of ?things? - the exchange of objects as gifts or through trade, the itineraries that they followed when on the move, and their changing importance from location to location - can offer unique insights into our understanding of past societies; and archaeology plays a vital role in allowing such movements to be traced. Nonetheless, the circulation of objects across time, and between peoples and places, has long been neglected as a field of research in its own right. This volume aims to address this gap in scholarship by drawing on recent archaeological research to provide a detailed study of the moment of objects across Europe in the late medieval and early modern period. The contributions gathered here trace the interactions between peoples, ideas, and objects in order to explore the impact of movement both on the material things themselves, and on the people who manufactured, exchanged, or used such goods. The volume draws on a wide range of archaeological evidence to explore subjects as varied as production and transport, modes of trade, the connections between trade and religion, and the emotional connections between things and people. Together, they offer a pioneering approach to our understanding of objects and their movement in the past.

The complex relationship between myths and music is here investigated.

The critical importance of past for the present--of music histories in local and global forms--asserts itself. The history of world music, as each chapter makes clear, is one of critical moments and paradigm shifts.

This classic reference work, the best one-volume music dictionary available, has been brought completely up to date in this new edition. Combining authoritative scholarship and lucid, lively prose, the Fourth Edition of The Harvard Dictionary of Music is the essential guide for musicians, students, and everyone who appreciates music. The Harvard Dictionary of Music has long been admired for its wide range as well as its reliability. This treasure trove includes entries on all the styles and forms in Western music; comprehensive articles on the music of Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Near East; descriptions of instruments enriched by historical background; and articles that reflect today’s beat, including popular music, jazz, and rock. Throughout this Fourth Edition, existing articles have been fine-tuned and new entries added so that the dictionary fully reflects current music scholarship and recent developments in musical culture. Encyclopedia-length articles by notable experts alternate with short entries for quick reference, including definitions and identifications of works and instruments. More than 220 drawings and 250 musical examples enhance the text. This is an invaluable book that no music lover can afford to be without.

"[This book] is a contribution of considerable substance because it takes a holistic view of the field of folk music and the scholarship that has dealt with it." -- Bruno Nettl "... a praiseworthy combination of solid scholarship, penetrating discussion, and global relevance." -- Asian Folklore Studies "... successfully ties the history and development of folk music scholarship with contemporary concepts, issues, and shifts, and which treats varied folk musics of the world cultures within the rubric of folklore and ethnomusicology with subtle generalizations making sense to serious minds... " -- Folklore Forum "... [this book] challenges many carefully-nurtured sacred cows. Bohlman has executed an intellectual challenge of major significance by successfully organizing a welter of unruly data and ideas into a single, appropriately complex but coherent, system." -- Folk Music Journal Bohlman examines folk music as a genre of folklore from a broadly cross-cultural perspective and espouses a more expansive view of folk music, stressing its vitality in non-Western cultures as well as Western, in the present as well as the past.

Material Cultures of Music Notation brings together a collection of essays that explore a fundamental question in the current landscape of musicology: how can writing and reading music be understood as concrete, material practices in a wider cultural context? Drawing on interdisciplinary approaches from musicology, media studies, performance studies, and more, the chapters in this volume offer a wide array of new perspectives that foreground the materiality of music notation. From digital scores to the transmission of manuscripts in the Middle Ages, the volume deliberately disrupts boundaries of discipline, historical period, genre, and tradition, by approaching notation's materiality through four key interrelated themes: knowledge, the body, social relations, and technology. Together, the chapters capture vital new work in an essential emerging area of scholarship.