The Study of Ethnomusicology: Twenty-nine Issues and Concepts [Hardcover]

Bruno Nettl (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 424 pages
• Publisher: University of Illinois Press (March 1, 1983)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 025200986X
• ISBN-13: 978-0252009860
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,784,104 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very well done!, May 15, 2003

By 

Erika Mitchell (E. Calais, VT USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: STUDY OF ETHNOMUSICOLOGY: Twenty-nine Issues and Concepts (Music in American Life) (Paperback)

This book is an overview and introduction to the field of ethnomusicology. In the introduction, Nettl mentions that the book could be used as an introduction to ethnomusicology for graduate students. However, the text is quite accessible and the terminology and concepts are easily comprehensible to the general reader. The book consists of essays by Nettl on numerous topics that cover the field of ethnomusicology. Many of the essays have catchy titles that address commonly-held beliefs about ethnomusicology directly, such as "The Non-Universal Language", or "Music Hath Charms". The book is very well referenced, and it provides a succinct introduction to the ethnomusicology literature. If you want to know what ethnomusicologists do (or think about), this book will be quite useful.

As a linguist, I was struck when reading this book by how relevant much of linguistic theory and research could be for the field of ethnomusicology. The methods of historical linguistics could be quite useful for researchers studying the spread of instruments or musical forms. Formal theories of syntax and phonology could also be applied to intervals in scales and rhythms. Nettl considers many of these possibilities, and reviews published research in these areas. One important area that could receive even more focus is the association of form and meaning, a concept that is at the foundation of linguistic research, but doesn't seem to be a central issue for ethnomusicologists, at least as discussed in these essays.

3.0 out of 5 stars Fundamental, June 1, 2011

By 

Christian - See all my reviews

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This review is from: STUDY OF ETHNOMUSICOLOGY: Twenty-nine Issues and Concepts (Music in American Life) (Paperback)

This a basic book in the field of ethnomusicology. It summarizes the transition between one type of ethnomusicology and other. For me, Bruno Netl is the ethnomusicology itself. With all its prejudices, brilliant phrases, regrets, changes and USA-centred approach. It is an important book to see the "evolution"·of the discipline.

0 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars great work, March 25, 2006

By 

G. Ying - See all my reviews
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This review is from: STUDY OF ETHNOMUSICOLOGY: Twenty-nine Issues and Concepts (Music in American Life) (Paperback)

This is one of the most important works of Nettle. He discuss the interesting issues which sculpture the ethnomusicology in his time.