This extraordinary book explores the richness of sound, instruments, and music from the world's astonishing variety of cultural and musical traditions. David Reck is one of the few musical scholars to realize that music can be broken down into a few basic ideas, and to show how those ideas manifest themselves in disparate cultures. Here he discusses the similarities and differences between the Western oboe and the Indian shehnai, between our large orchestras and Bali's gamelans, between a Mozart symphony, a Japanese noh drama, and a Tibetan chant.Profusely illustrated with photographs, drawings, maps, diagrams, and even instructions on how to make one's own instruments, Music of the Whole Earth helps to narrow the gaps between audience and performer and between our own musical culture and that of other people. For anyone who has ever been puzzled by the unfamiliar strains of non-Western music, Music of the Whole Earth is the ideal answer--an exciting and accessible companion to the sounds of the world.
Book Description
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
More About the Author
Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
This is Music Appreciation on a world level- old but good!,
By A Customer
This review is from: Music Of The Whole Earth (Paperback)
David Reck's "Music of the Whole Earth" remains one of the great staples for learning about how and why the world's peoples make music. Originally published in the 1970's, Da Capo Press has now intelligently elected to reprint this gem. Richly accompanied by Carol Reck's photographs, "Music of the Whole Earth" may at first appear to be a coffee table book. Don't let this style (in pictures and prose) fool you. There is a tremendous quantity of meat here. In fact, I highly suggest this text for required adoption on the undergraduate General Education university level. Be advised: if you are an instructor, there are no safety nets; you must know your music culture areas. David Reck will not help you with the grand world tour: he starts with musical universals and moves to worldwide examples. You must be prepared to fill in the gaps of cultural relativity. However, students may well love the lack of stuffy syntax and the inclusion of ecstatic prose. Just one caveat: this text is not without mistakes and even a few errors. Be on guard for 'golly gee, it's just wonderful' descriptions, and the tendency to infer that there are more musical universals than we have a right to take for granted. Overall, this is an A+ classic for learning about the elements of music as they are practised on our shrinking globe.dw
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
|
Tag this product(What's this?)Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organize and find favorite items. |
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
