An overview of nine
"Survey of World Music" books

Reviewed by Paul Neeley

As interest in ethnomusicology continues to grow, an increasing number
of schools are offering courses called "Survey of World Music." This article
 will provide a brief guide to the resources available, giving the high points
of each one.

1. Musics of Many Cultures by Elizabeth May, 1980, UCLA Press;
and Musics of Many Cultures: Study guide and work-book,
by Dale Olsen, 1993, Dendall/ Hunt Publishing Co..

May's compilation of twenty essays was one of the first comprehensive
survey books published.  The articles average about twenty pages each,
 each article written by a recognized expert of music in that area of the world.
 Each essay contains a glossary, bibliography, musical transcriptions,
information on instruments, and much more.  Some essays also provide a
discography and filmography.  Sixteen musical selections referred to in
the book can be heard on the accompanying sound recordings.  Having
 some previous exposure to music notation will aid the student in making use
 of the extensive transcriptions and in connecting them with the recordings.
Olsen's accompanying study guide is an invaluable help to the student,
and can be used either in a class-room situation or in individual study.  For
each sub-section of each essay, Olsen provides explanatory material and
testing questions which cover terms and reading comprehension.  Listening
exercises (and detailed forms to fill out) are also provided.  The listening
exercises make extensive use of recordings which must be purchased
elsewhere separately.  Multiple choice questions are also provided for each
essay (answers as well).  For a person going to do an introductory survey of
world music course as an independent study, this set of materials receives
 my first recommendation since it covers a wide geographical range.  You will
 learn enough about the musical cultures of the twenty areas surveyed to have
a background for further studies through journals and conferences.

2. Worlds of Music edited by Jeff Todd Titon,
1st ed. 1984, 2d ed. 1991, 3d ed. 1998, Schirmer Books.

 The first edition (1984) of this work contained five major essays, each at least
forty pages long, which considered in detail the music of a certain area.  In
addition, there were essays on various facets of music cultures, instrument
building, and performance in South India, and discovering and documenting
a world of music.  Further essays were added to the second edition (1991),
and still more changes were made to the most recent edition.  The teacher or
  student may prefer a particular edition according to their main area of interest,
since some topics have been dropped, replaced, or added over the years.
The book is intended to be free from excessive jargon and assumes no formal
   musical background, making it often the textbook of choice for an introductory

   undergraduate course for general students. There are few transcriptions, which
makes it less intimidating for students without skills in musical literacy.
Two accompanying cassettes or CD’s contain the music referenced in the text.
 Lists of additional reading and listening suggestions are also included
for each chapter.

3. Music of the Whole Earth  by David Reck, 1977, Charles Scribner Sons.

 This fascinating book has recently been reprinted, much to my delight.  Reck
takes a wide-angle view of music, with chapter titles such as "The Global
Orchestra" and "The Quilt of Sound."  Almost every page contains photos
or charts or line drawings.  He makes use of graph paper for his notation
system (lines and dots), making it user-friendly for those who don't read
music.  References to writings are given at the end of each chapter, but no
attempt is made to suggest particular sound recordings to go with the text.
 You must use your imagination or locate recordings yourself, which I consider
the primary difficulty in making the best use of this book.  The book
 has about 550 large pages, meaning it has the most material of the books
reviewed here.  However, many pages are black-and-white illustrations
 and diagrams, so there may not be so much difference in comparative amount
of texts.  Reck transmits loads of information in a very engaging and personal
style; he makes a (successful) attempt to not get bogged down in pedantic
academic writing.  At the end of each chapter I think: "That was so much
fun. I didn't realize I was learning so much!"

4. Music in Human Life: Anthropological perspectives on music,
by John Kaemmer, 1993, Univ. of Texas Press.

  As the subtitle indicates, this 245-page volume is written by an anthropologist.
 Rather than being a sampler of music of the world, it is a "presentation of
a holistic framework for viewing music, focusing on features of socially
determined human motivation and behavior that produce music. . . This book
is where musicians can turn when they want more information about
anthropology and where anthropologists can turn when they want more
information regarding music."  The book has a distinct scholarly flavor,
with chapter subtitles such as, "The Sociocultural Matrix: Conceptual
Factors" and "Music and Anthropological Views of Change."  The text is
 key, with less than a handful of charts and transcriptions.  The accompanying
cassette contains musical examples of cultures discussed in the book.
Numerous important facets of ethnomusicology are examined, often
using contrasting examples from various parts of the world.

5. On the Nature of Music, by Hewitt Pantaleoni, 1985, Welkin Books.

This 444-page magnum opus was the culmination of Pantaleoni's career,
synthesizing musical material from his extensive fieldwork and research.
The bulk of the book is organized in a unique structure using four primary
sections: Melody, Harmony, Rhythm, and Form.  Each part has several
chapters: an introductory essay, followed by in-depth studies of several
examples from around the world.  In addition, there are introductory
and closing essays of a more general nature concerning music.  Pantaleoni
 developed his own unique graphic notation systems (not necessarily the same
in each chapter), in part to make his work more accessible to the non-
specialist. With a bit of study, the graphs can be figured out.  A number of
songs are examined and analyzed to reveal interesting detail; unfortunately,
 recordings of the musical examples are listed but not included, so you'll have
to hunt around and buy them yourself.

6. Excursions in World Music, by Bruno Nettl, Charles Capwell, Isabel
Wong, Thomas Turino, and Philip Bohlman, 2d ed. 1997. Prentice-Hall,
 and Instructor's Manual, by Margaret Sarkissian, 2d ed. 1997 Prentice-Hall..

This textbook has a lot of information and technical terms (explained in the
twenty-page glossary).  I would consider it as good reference material
on the ten geo-graphical areas covered, and not an introductory text-book.
I think students first being exposed to ethnomusicology would find this
volume rather daunting!  To really get all the information, I think even
professionals would benefit from reading each chapter more than once.
The chapters average about thirty pages and recordings come with the
textbook.  As well as focusing on a particular musical culture, each chapter
concentrates on one or two key concepts at the same time—relationship of
music and dance (India); relationship of musical and social values
(Latin America); and different concepts of music (Middle East)—are
some examples. The accompanying Instructor's Manual is very
 helpful even for the student.  I find that each textbook chapter has so much
material that the summary and focus points in the manual are invaluable
for wading through the deep waters.  The manual includes test questions,
diagrams, and draws in other helpful materials in each chapter.

7. World Sound Matters: An anthology of music from around the world,
edited by Jonathan Stock, 1996, London: Schott.
For ordering information, contact   eamdc@eamdc.com

This musical anthology contains (a) two compact discs with 58 songs
representing 35 different countries; (b) notated transcriptions of all
 recorded examples (96 pages); (c) a teacher's manual covering the
sociomusical context of each song style and its musical content (108 pages);
 and (d) pupil's questions (60 pages).  As one can see, the emphasis within
 these materials is breadth—a tour of musical traditions.  All the other
resources described here focus on a smaller number of musical traditions,
whereas this one gives a few pages to each of nearly sixty musical styles.
Because every musical example is transcribed, and context and content are
always given some explanation, however brief, this set of materials fills a
unique place in the shelf of resources. It is an especially good place to get
an introduction into sound structures. Stock is a leading member of the
British Forum for Ethnomusicology, and is aided in this project by a dozen
other specialists.

8. Musics of the World's Cultures: A source book for music educators,
edited by Barbara Lundquist and C. K. Szego, 1998, Callaway International
Resource Centre for Music Education (CIRCME).

This book came to my attention just before publication and may well be very
helpful though I have not seen it. Contributors include luminaries
such as Bruno Nettl.

9. Exploring the World of Music: An Introduction to Music from a World
Music Perspective.  The Annenberg/CPB Multimedia Collection, 1999.

This brand-new video/book/CD set of materials is a must-have resource for
schools.  The curriculum is based around 12 half-hour videos, each of which
covers a part of music such as "rhythm" or "timbre" and utilizes examples
 from many countries and many centuries.  For example, the unit on "Texture"
includes Japanese shakuhachi, steel drums from Trinidad, Bosnian vocal
polyphony, West African percussion ensemble, modern choral music from
Australia, Irish dance tunes, and Beethoven.  The student's
Reader/Guide includes essays, maps, notated musical examples,
self-study review material, a glossary and bibliography, and more.  There is
 also a Faculty Manual which gives learning objectives.  Sixty-four audio
  selections are available on CD or cassette, and are keyed to the accompanying
Reader/Guide.  They include full versions of a number of the musical pieces
introduced and analyzed in the videos.  The advisory board for this project
 includes several well-known ethnomusicologists, including a past president of
the Society for Ethnomusicology and a former editor of the SEM Journal.
The stated goal of the multimedia series is to help students gain an
understanding of aspects of music that is at once historical, ethnographical,
global, and personal, building on ethno musicological perspectives but with
straightforward terminology and clear examples.  I have not seen the
 entire video set nor the whole Reader, but what I have seen indicates that
  will become a standard set of teaching materials. This is organized in a manner
 this similar to Pantaleoni's book (#5) with the enormously helpful addition of
video and audio materials being included in the set.  In my opinion, the
 interrelated use of videos, books and recordings with worldwide examples
grouped into themes makes for the best learning experience.
A set of videos and Faculty Guide is $269, the student's Reader is $40.
A preview video and book are available to teachers.
For more information, go to  www.learner.org  .

SUMMARY

So, which books do I suggest you own and read?  All of them, if you're a
specialist!  They all shine in certain areas, and complement one another
wonderfully.  But since you probably won't read nine books at one time,
 where should you start?  The first one I ever read, and a favorite to this day,
 is Music of the Whole Earth.  Reck's writing style and the plenitude of
 photos and drawings still keep me captivated for a long time.
Pantaleoni's book from the globalist perspective provides a fascinating
dissection of each part of the musical sound.  For example: How is harmony
realized in differing musical traditions?   And how are people of various
cultures thinking differently to produce such divergent musical realizations
 of harmony?  It is a very thought-provoking and accessible study. The
third globalist book, by Kaemmer, is full to the brim of good material, but it
 is pretty dry in style.  If you enjoy reading anthropology textbooks, you'll want
 to read this one.  It is an important reference source when you want to
research topics such as, "Social Legitimization of Music." The first two and
 two books examined do not reflect the globalist approach so much, but they
 are last geographical sociomusical surveys.  They are excellent collections of
essays by various specialists who focus on specific musical areas.  "Musics of
Many Cultures" has a wider and shallower overview, covering more areas of
 the world but with less pages on each one.  Musical transcriptions are a
 major part of this book's value.  "World Sound Matters"  has even more
 transcriptions and touches on more musical traditions but with less text.
Worlds of Music and Excursions in World Music examine fewer musical
 cultures, but each is in more detail. If you're working in one of the areas
covered in these books, consider the relevant chapter to be essential reading.
One would wish that all of these books came with sound recordings that aurally
present the material discussed on paper.  Unfortunately, the volumes by Reck
and Pantaleoni are silent until you locate the recorded songs yourself.
May's volume comes with a short selected sample of songs, but using Olsen's
 indispensable study guide will require you to go further afield.  The other
volumes happily come with  recordings included.  Exploring the World of
Music is so good it's in a class all by itself, and I suggest that every
ethnomusicology student and teacher make an effort to use it sooner
rather than later.  When supplemented by sections from Pantaleoni and Reck,
it's an unbeatable resource for learning about music from the globalist
perspective (and not country-by-country, which is also very useful in
a different way).  The next time summer rolls around, take these
volumes and your boombox and head for the beach, and come back in the fall
with a glazed look in your eyes but a head full of wisdom.

(This essay was published in EM News 7/4, 1998.)
by Paul Neeley