Customer Reviews

Hundred Thousand Fools of God, The: Musical Travels in Central Asia (and Queens, New York)

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This book is a many faceted report on the state of music in the Central Asian Republics of the former Soviet Union, especially Uzbekistan. The author did his Ph.D. research in ethnomusicology in Tashkent on traditional court music called Shash maqam in 1977-1978. At the time, Levin was not as interested in this music as he had expected, which he later attributed to the Soviet cultural policies which extinguished the spark of vivacity from the Uzbek music. This book details many of the author's subsequent travels to Central Asia in search of traditional musicians who managed somehow to develop their unique talents within the stifling socialist milieu.

Levin provides much information about the artists, their music, and their poetry, which can all be heard on the accompanying CD. In the text itself, he rarely describes the instruments played by the musicians, referring to them merely with their local names. However, descriptions of the instruments can be found in the glossary at the end of the book, which I unfortunately didn't notice until I had finished reading. Occasionally, Levin's musicology terms get a little too thick for the general reader, but on the whole, the book is quite accessible.

The strongest aspect of the book is its description of the culture history of music in the Soviet Union. In my own brief travels to the Soviet Union, I was struck by how many people there were acquainted with classical music--how an appreciation of classical music stretched across the entire society. I never saw the dark side of this, however. In this book, Levin describes how centralized state policies governed even the field of music, changing and obliterating centuries' old traditions.

Mr. Levin has truly accomplished something noteworthy in this book. It is perhaps the best book from the often boring realm of ethnomusicological research that I have read in recent years. The breadth of understanding and acute cultural awareness brought out in the book is fantastic. It should find an audience among music scholars as well as the average reader, especially given the uncomplicated way Levin tells his tale. The addition of the CD to the book is truly complimentary unlike many of the other "multi-media" gimmicks so often offered to entice the buyer. This book is essential for anyone who seeks a clarity in writing about the musics of another culture.

Mr. Levin writes about cultural survival and cultural decay in Transoxiana, as seen from the vantage point of traditional musicians. Combining his own traveler's tales with detailed but accessible musicological analysis, he examines the role of the traditional performing arts in the modern world of Uzbekistan, and the way that they have been subverted by the Soviet and successor governments. Engagingly written, without condescension towards the reader or the people of whom he writes, this book will reward readers interested in the cultural life of the region.

Six years ago, I wrote my first review for Amazon, of Richard N. Frye's "Bukhara: The Medieval Achievement". Frye's work, concentrating mostly on the 10th and 11th centuries, described in detail how Turkic-speaking nomads combined with Iranian city dwellers and Arab bringers of a new religion to create a new synthesis in Islam in Central Asia, particularly in the city of Bukhara. That syncretic Islam later became most instrumental in the development of the Muslim faith in the Indian subcontinent. Levin's THE HUNDRED THOUSAND FOOLS OF GOD mainly describes the condition of music and musicians in the 1990s in the modern republics of Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. That same Richard N. Frye provides a strong endorsement on the back cover. I too find that this volume is a worthy successor in the on-going "project" of bringing Central Asian history and culture before Western eyes. The musical world of Central Asia still involves synthesis and syncretism---between the West and tradition, between new conservatism and older tolerance, between Soviet atheism and local spirituality, between Islam and older religions which we might label shamanistic, and between so-called ethnic groups like Uzbeks and Tajiks.

Levin travelled around the region with a musical companion, Otanazar Matyakubov, who provided endless contacts and insights. Together they interviewed and listened to all the varied performers of Central Asian music, from a female pop singer to humble performers of classical styles, from healers in remote villages who used music in their rituals to performers at schmaltzy Jewish weddings in the transplanted Bukharan Jewish community in Queens, New York. Levin describes the surroundings in which he found each musician, tells of his travels in decrepit cars between ancient cities or by donkey through the dramatic mountain scenery of remotest Tajikistan. While a certain amount of detail may be of interest chiefly to fellow ethnomusicologists, those specialized observations are spaced throughout the text in such a way that the non-professional reader never feels overwhelmed. Levin provides a number of excellent photographs, maps, and most importantly, a brilliant CD which illustrates all the styles and instruments he discusses. The effect of 70 years of Soviet policies is often mentioned, and a reader can deduce the results of this assault on local culture, though I would have liked more direct comment. Moscow's insistence on creating discrete "nationalities" created virulent brands of Uzbek and Tajik (and so many other) nationalism where none had existed. It created separate, ethnic-based countries where none had ever existed. It even created "Uzbek" and "Tajik" music out of a formerly seamless Central Asian tradition. This Soviet policy ultimately resulted in the squeezing out of Bukharan Jews-prominent in the Central Asian musical world for centuries---because they were deemed insufficiently "Uzbek" by newly nationalistic authorities.

In short, this is one of the best books of ethnomusicology I have ever read. It would be of interest to anyone trying to learn more about Central Asia and must be required reading for anthropologists concerned with the area. THE HUNDRED THOUSAND FOOLS OF GOD also brings the region to life and underlines the difference between the materialistic, narrowly nationalistic present and the past in which musicians played out of devotion and love of God without trying to fit into some culture apparatchik's idea of "national music".

As a PhD student in ethnomusicology in the late 1970s, Theodore Levin traveled to Uzbekistan to study the shash maqam, the classical music of Transoxania. At that time, Soviet bureaucracy prevented him from traveling freely and presented him with only a sanitized, Communist-friendly version of traditional music. But with the breakup of the USSR in the early 1990s, Levin got a chance to roam about the region and really take stock of the musical scene. THE HUNDRED THOUSAND FOOLS OF GOD is a record of these travels from 1991-1994, taken with the Tashkent-based musicologist Otanazar Matyakubov (usually referred to as "OM") who helps Levin navigate the cultural and linguistic challenges of Central Asia.

Levin encounters an enormous variety of musical traditions within Uzbekistan and Tajikistan: classical court music, shamans who heal with song, bards who recite epic poetry, Muslim mystics, and composers who represent folksong in their otherwise Western music. Throughout, Levin's concern is the relationship between these musical styles and society. He investigates the role these musical traditions played in Central Asia before the Soviet era and globalization, and he gives a grim view of their future. In the final chapter, Levin and OM visit a Bukharan Jewish musician who has emigrated to Queens, New York only to discover that, instead of preserving their traditions in the relative freedom of the United States, Bukharan Jews there are losing themselves in the great Jewish diaspora.

Though he is an academic, Levin knows how to write in a fun, engaging tone. He adds just enough of a travelogue element to satisfy the curiosity of Western readers on this still obscure part of the world. It has been nearly 15 years since Levin's book appeared, and there is still a dearth of information of Central Asian music, so THE HUNDRED THOUSAND FOOLS OF GOD certainly fills a void.

However, I do wish that Levin had talked more about the music itself, not just the relationship between music and society. Readers might wonder if this region's music is microtonal, as in the Middle East, or whether it accepts certain intervals we consider dissonant, as e.g. Bulgarian traditional music does. There is an accompanying CD where one can hear Levin's recordings, but I've encountered the book in a few places without the CD.

wonderful book, as much for its history of the peoples and politics of the region, as for the music.