Worlds of Music: An Introduction to the Music of the World's Peoples [Paperback]

Jeff Todd Titon (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0534591035 | ISBN-13: 978-0534591038 | Publication Date: October 5, 2001 | Edition: 4

This market-leading, best-selling book covers ethnomusicology-the study of music in a people's way of life, which treats music as a distillation of cultural styles. The authors of this book approach diverse musical styles with the desire to understand them on their own terms-as the people who make the music would understand them. The book is organized by region. Each study focuses on the life histories and autobiographies that are essential to understanding music as a human activity. Song lyrics are singled out by the authors as a way to understand the meaning and purpose of musical performances. Musical examples, or transcriptions, are included on the accompanying CDs, and are treated throughout as points of departure for discussion. Readers music-making projects-singing, building and playing instruments-greatly increase music appreciation and allow readers to experience firsthand what it's like to be an ethnomusicologist puzzling out unfamiliar music. This book seeks to provide as much pleasure as knowledge, fostering lifelong curiosity and a desire to experience and appreciate music in all its forms.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Jeff Todd Titon received his Ph.D. in American Studies from the University of Minnesota, where he studied ethnomusicology with Alan Kagan and musicology with Johannes Riedel. He has completed fieldwork in North America on religious folk music, blues music and old-time fiddling with support from the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities. For two years he was the guitarist in the Lazy Bill Lucas Blues Band, a group that appeared in the 1970 Ann Arbor Blues Festival. The author or editor of seven books, including EARLY DOWNHOME BLUES (which won the ASCAP-Deems Taylor Award) and the five-volume AMERICAN MUSICAL TRADITIONS (named by Library Journal as one of the outstanding reference works of 2003), Titon is also a documentary photographer and filmmaker. In 1991, he wrote a hypertext multimedia computer program about old-time fiddler Clyde Davenport that is regarded as a model for interactive representations of people making music. He founded the ethnomusicology program at Tufts University, where he taught from 1971 to 1986. From 1990 to 1995, he served as the editor of ETHNOMUSICOLOGY, the journal of the Society for Ethnomusicology. A Fellow of the American Folklore Society since 1986, he has been Professor of Music and the director of the Ph.D. program in ethnomusicology at Brown University.

Product Details

• Paperback: 485 pages
• Publisher: Schirmer; 4 edition (October 5, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0534591035
• ISBN-13: 978-0534591038
• Product Dimensions: 9.9 x 8 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #490,258 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

43 of 46 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not a bad world music textbook, but....., November 29, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Worlds of Music: An Introduction to the Music of the World's Peoples (Audio CD)

I've been teaching a world music course out of this textbook for a couple years now and will say that there are some positives to it: the CD compilation is great, good variety and interesting and there is some really good, detailed information that students would find interesting-it's good for people who go into world music without knowing much, it can be engaging and intriguing. It was the book I used as a student. But, on the other hand from an academic, teaching point of view there are some flaws. I will admit it's difficult to cover an entire world of music in one book, it must be an editor's nightmare on how to arrange the information. But one problem is that some chapters focus on a country or region within a country, i.e. - Japan, South India, Native America. Whereas other chapters focus too broadly-an entire chapter that covers the whole continent of Africa and one on South America!! It doesn't cover Brazil which is full of various musical traditions and is such a large country. Some of the chosen examples of traditions are highly localized too and not indicative of the general population. My Bosnian student had never heard of Bosnian ganga singing until this class. It's not that the information is at all wrong or presented in a bad way, it just needs clarification for students. You wouldn't want them walking away from a class thinking these musical traditions are known and practiced by the entire population (as with ganga singing). One other problem is that there is no chapter on the Middle East which is really unfortunate. I don't think this is a horrible textbook, of the few out there, this is probably the better one. Students can get a lot out of it, and especially the CDs, but if you teach with it, I highly suggest using supplemental information and even make your students be critical of the information they find in the book as well as how it's arranged.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A decent text, November 5, 2004

By 

R. Stokinger (Texas) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Worlds of Music (Audio Cassette)

While the text book is informative and enlightening on many of the aspects of World Music, it is frustrating that he continually puts out newer editions that have minimal changes except for the CD. For the general information gathered from this text, anyone will be able to gain loads of interesting facts about the different cultures and their musical ceremonies/practices.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Make sure to get the CD's in the deal, August 5, 2009

By 

C. M. Baker - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Custom Enrichment Module: Worlds of Music: An Introduction to the Music of the World's Peoples (Paperback)

Bought the book new but didn't realize that the CD's are sold separate, look for a used book deal that has them included if you are going to need them!!