Where Rivers and Mountains Sing: Sound, Music, and Nomadism in Tuva and Beyond [Hardcover]

Theodore Levin (Author), Valentina Süzükei (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 11, 2006

Theodore Levin takes readers on a journey through the rich sonic world of inner Asia, where the elemental energies of wind, water, and echo, the ubiquitous presence of birds and animals, and the legendary feats of heroes have inspired a remarkable art and technology of sound-making among nomadic pastoralists. As performers from Tuva and other parts of inner Asia have responded to the growing worldwide popularity of their music, Levin follows them to the West, detailing their efforts to nourish global connections while preserving the power and poignancy of their music traditions. A DVD/CD video/music disk is included.

Editorial Reviews

Review

This is a complex, informationally-dense book that fits well into recent trends towards aural phenomena.Nina Fales, Journal of Folklore Research, October 15, 2008

"Always readable, with issues and ideas presented in an immediate style, rich in personal vignettes and ethnographic detail, and brought to life by the fabulous double-sided DVD/CD, Where Rivers and Mountains Sing is a gift for teachers and students." -- Ethnomusicology, Winter 2009

"Thanks to his wonderful innate taste, his tremendous linguistic skills, and his curiosity and passion to share what he discovers, Ted Levin has given us a window into a world of traditional music we might never otherwise know." -- Yo-Yo Ma

"A vivid picture of music in inner Asia today -- both the ancient traditions and the way they're rubbing up against the modern world.... After reading this immensely readable and thought-provoking book, you'll never listen to throat singing the same way again." -- Simon Broughton, editor, Songlines and Rough Guide to World Music

"No other writer could extract such a melange of philosophy, acoustics, and aesthetics from one man's vocalization over a running stream -- or report with such canny insight on how that individual must negotiate his life as a 'star' in the West." -- Michael Church, BBC World Service

From the Publisher

Where Rivers and Mountains Sing is the account of a journey through the rich sonic world of Inner Asia, where the elemental energies of wind, water, and echo, the ubiquitous presence of birds and animals, and the legendary feats of heroes have inspired a remarkable art and technology of sound-making among nomadic pastoralists. Colllaborating with Tuvan ethnographer and folklorist Valentina Süzükei, Theodore Levin explores the spectacular "throat-singing" of Tuvan and Mongolian herders, the spirit-summoning seances of shamans and dream-inspired rhapsodies of oral epic reciters, and the affecting virtuosity of fiddle and lute players whose instruments narrate stories and legends without words. Like the Australian Aboriginals and their much-celebrated "songlines," Inner Asian pastoralists traditionally evoked detailed images of landscape through singing, and sound and music form part of a spiritual relationship with the natural environment that has endured in the face of formidable social and political challenges. As performers from Tuva and other parts of Inner Asia have responded to the growing worldwide popularity of their music, Theodore Levin follows them to the West, and describes their soul-searching efforts to nourish global connections while preserving the power and poignancy of music rooted in an authentic tradition. The book is accompanied by a DVD and CD that illustrate the music and musicians discussed in the text.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 312 pages
• Publisher: Indiana University Press (January 11, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0253347157
• ISBN-13: 978-0253347152
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,324,743 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Listening with New Ears, December 26, 2006

By 

Dr. Debra Jan Bibel "World Music Explorer" (Oakland, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

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This review is from: Where Rivers and Mountains Sing: Sound, Music, and Nomadism in Tuva and Beyond (Hardcover)

The ethnographer author of The Hundred Thousand Fools of God, who took us on a musical journey to Uzbekistan, truly enters new sonic territory with this account of traditional and developing Tuvan musical arts, including his fostering (as executive producer) of the group Huun-Huur-Tu. More than associating the various forms of throat singing with ambient environmental sounds, Tuvan music is based on timbre, not pitch, on relative intervals, not absolutes. Such a radical alteration of musical perspective requires new ways of listening, and here Levin helps us with a most interesting and well-written book and CD and, on the flip side of the disk, DVD. Instead of a deadly tedious textbook with some artificial, meaningless taxonomy and pages of scores, we are presented with a fascinating, lucid exploration that made me re-listen to my collection of Tuvan and Manchurian music with more appreciation and understanding. This book expanded my mind.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Highly professional and easy and rewarding reading, July 22, 2008

By 

Joseph Jordania "Dr J.J." (Australia) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Where Rivers and Mountains Sing: Sound, Music, and Nomadism in Tuva and Beyond (Hardcover)

The book is a great contribution to the study of the unique Central Asian tradition of overtone singing. Both professional ethnomusicologist and lay person will find in this book plenty of useful information, photos, maps, transcrptions, audio recordings and DVD files, you name it. Both Theodore Levin and Valentina Suzukei are professional ethnomusicologists and international experts of thes fascinating tradition. If you already know this tradition, you would know the names of the authors, and the brilliance of the international sensation from Tuva - the ensemble "Huun-Huur-Tu", but if you are a new person in this sphere, you are going to enrich your knowledge with the unique musical culture that will change your perception of the human musicality. Highly recomended.

4 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Informative but tedious, June 18, 2006

By 

Jonathan L. Stewart "jonathan_stewart2" (Thousand Oaks, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Where Rivers and Mountains Sing: Sound, Music, and Nomadism in Tuva and Beyond (Hardcover)

The DVD/CD that accompanies this book is outstaning, even though about half of the DVD's content is comprised of scenes of ambient noise from rivers, drives along California freeways and the like, there are tremendous performances of Tuvan vocal and instrumental music.

The book is highly informative, but too frequently reads like a scholarly treatise, following questionably relevant tangents at the expense of the core subject matter. Levin has admirably dedicated his professional life to bringing Central Asian music to the attention of Westerners, but his work suffers because he is more of a professor than an author. When Levin sticks to Tuva, Tuvans and Tuvan music, a lot of light is shed, but the portions of the book on mimesis, mimicry and immitation, ammong others, remind me too much of my university musicology days where I'd have to struggle in inventing something, ANYTHING, to fill up the pages on that term paper. Parts of the book unfortunately read like that and go beyond the scope of what I wanted to know about Central Asian music. Nonetheless, between those gaps lies everything I wanted to know about the music, so in that sense, the book was worthwhile.