Analytical Studies in World Music

Combining the approaches of ethnomusicology and music theory, Analytical Studies in World Music offers fresh perspectives for thinking about how musical sounds are shaped, arranged, and composed by their diverse makers worldwide. Eleven inspired, insightful, and in-depth explanations of Iranian sung poetry, Javanese and Balinese gamelan music, Afro-Cuban drumming, flamenco, modern American chamber music, and a wealth of other genres create a border-erasing compendium of ingenious music analyses. Through description of contexts of performance and creation, and especially compositional and formal construction, each chapter proposes stimulating ways to hear, conceive, and imagine these repertoires. Selections on the companion CD are carefully matched with extensive transcriptions and illuminating diagrams in every chapter. Opening rich cross-cultural perspectives on music, this volume addresses the practical needs of students and scholars in the contemporary world of fusions, contact, borrowing, and curiosity about music everywhere.