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

by Mark Slobin, David P. McAllester

Worlds of Music is a unique introduction to ethnomusicology, the ideal text with which to experience and understand the meanings of music in the lives of diverse human communities. Writing about cultures they have studied at first hand, the authors describe and analyze the indigenous musics of Africa, North and South America, Eastern Europe, India, Indonesia, and Japan. They also show how ethnomusicologists "get inside" a culture to document its music. Free from excessive jargon and assuming no formal musical background, Worlds of Music conveys the excitement of ethnomusicology by focusing in depth on the music of a small number of representative groups; looks at music both on its own terms and as a human activity in diverse historical, social, and cultural contexts; features fascinating biographies and oral histories of musicians in diverse cultures; includes many original photographs, drawings, and transcriptions of musical examples; and encourages active student involvement by showing how a beginner may document, play, and even build the instruments used in the music of another culture.

Genres: Music, Nonfiction, Textbooks, History, Anthropology, Reference

325 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1984

About the author

Mark Slobin was a professor at Wesleyan University for 45 years in its renowned ethnomusicology program.
He wrote books on music in Afghanistan and Central Asia, the Eastern European Jews (immigrants, cantors, klezmer), 2 of which won the prestigious ASCAP-Deems Taylor Award, global film music, and folk music.
A native Detroiter, he has written the first-ever survey of a major American city's musics, from the European, Appalachian, and African American immigrants to the worlds of classical music, the auto industry, the unions, the counterculture, and the media. His own memoirs and his family's music set the tone for the writing of "Motor City Music: A Detroiter Looks Back," published by Oxford University Press in November, 2018.

Reviews

[Neil · Rating 3 out of 5]

Worlds of Music, by Jeff Todd Titon et al., was one of the original world music survey textbooks. I have known of it for a long time, but I hadn't looked at it until this past month when I read the 5th edition cover to cover for review. At the same time as I was reading Worlds of Music at home, I was also reading Excursions in World Music in the office. I had no special purpose in reading both of these at the same time (I'm about to move, and am trying to work through some of the remaining "to-read" shelf before I go), but as it turns out it was interesting to read them side by side--primarily because these two textbooks are more similar to each other than to any of the other textbooks I've reviewed for world music survey. In fact, they are so alike that I wonder why they are both needed. The good parts of each could easily be brought together to make a textbook that is superior to either one alone. It seems a little silly that instructors have to somehow choose between these two books. That is not, however, the way that publishers think, so we have two very similar textbooks available for the same kind of undergraduate course. Here are some of the things I liked, and some of the disappointments, in Worlds of Music.

The good. The best feature of Worlds of Music, and the feature that sets it apart from Excursions in World Music, is the musicians' biographies that appear in most of the chapters. These personal life histories, often taken from interviews conducted by the chapter author, are insightful, sometimes humorous, and thoroughly interesting. They bring the study of musical traditions down to a personal level, reminding the reader/student that music is made by real people, making difficult decisions. I really liked these biographies, and I would recommend even a stronger focus on them in future editions.

Individual chapters included focuses that I enjoyed. For example, the chapter on Indian musical traditions focused on South Indian Carnatic traditions, where many introductions to Indian classical music tend to give more attention to North Indian Hindustani music. The diagram of gamelan instruments, on page 304, was very useful--far better than verbal descriptions of the instruments.

I always like to see what musics each textbook includes that aren't included anywhere else. Worlds of Music hits most of "the usual suspects" (though Japan, which is one of the standards, is available online only), and also looks at the blues in North America, musics in rural Poland, and a full (and very interesting) chapter on musics in Chile, Bolivia, Ecuador, and Peru. The biggest surprise of all for me was the section about Chinese Christian music (405-408). That was really nicely done, and would be a good discussion starter in class. The book ends with a chapter on doing basic ethnographic fieldwork. This chapter would most certainly need a good instructor to guide the students, but there were some good tips on participant-observation, interviewing, and other aspects of field research. The danger in a chapter like that is talking about technology, and I wonder if in 2008 anyone was actually still using cassettes. Things have definitely changed since then, too. Best to be very general when mentioning equipment.

The bad. Some of the chapters include activities, like instructions for making an instrument. This is an interesting idea, but not one I would've been interested in assigning in the undergrad survey classes I taught. Also, because these activities only appear in a few chapters, it's uneven. If there was one activity in each chapter, then it would be an easier decision to try all or some, as the class progresses.

As with any general survey textbook, the sheer amount of information in each chapter is overwhelming, and for the reader it becomes difficult to stay focused and interested in one chapter after another. I don't imagine I would be able to work through the entire book in a one-semester course, and so then I have to start figuring how much of the book I would use, compared to its per-student cost (can it really be possible that the textbook + CD set costs $329.95, as currently listed on Amazon.com??). It's a pretty decent book, but I couldn't ask students to pay hundreds of dollars for it.

As I read this book, I felt again that there is no single intro survey textbook that can be exactly what I'm looking for. One reason is that I'm less convinced of the rightness of isolating music as the primary object of study. All of the creative arts are so interconnected, it seems almost artificial to prefer music. As one author in the book wrote, "the musical sounds alone on our first recording would not inform us that this is a scene from a wedding" (209). Exactly! So why are we isolating music, even to the point of including only the audio from a video recording? I also question more and more Titon's assertion that "ethnomusicologists believe there is no such reality as 'the music itself'--that is, music apart from cultural considerations" (xviii). That belief has served ethnomusicology well for decades, but I often wonder if it blinds us to other interesting observations, and separates us too much from other researchers pursuing different directions in understanding music.

My final verdict is that Worlds of Music (5th edition) is decent, better in some ways that its most similar counterpart, Excursions in World Music, but not the book for me if I teach an undergrad-level world music survey course.

[ally wright ⋆˙⟡ · Rating 1 out of 5]

i remembered i read the entire textbook for class and im deciding to count it towards my reading goal!

[Shawn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Textbook-like. Bold attempt, laudable, & satisfying. To (hear) the bizarre (music/noise) of whichever region lends ponderance, reflection, & meditation. There's some pretty interesting music brought up. The several authors did a commendable job at unearthing the richness of such cultures as Indonesian, Javanese, Bosnia, Serbia, Ecuador, Japan, South Indian, Ewe, Shona, Dagbamba, Navajo, et. al. and they provided for samples which spanned decades & centuries. Many of the essays made attempts to notate & transpose (the music), and some included indigenous notations that appeared bizarre! For linguists & cryptologists this book might prove a mine of dazzling gems to gaze at for the variety of systems that were and are created to make written record of that which we call music, or sound, or, for some, it might even be just noise. Thus the reader gets to peer at music notated in the form of concentric circles (think of an ensemble of percussionists arranged seated in a circle), or see transposed the chromatic or pentatonic ornaments and schemes in Native American flute songs. The book's an altogether educational one though it can feel dry due to its general effort to translate for the Western ear & mind the myriad sounds, pitches & approaches to music. For some cultures it is merely a part of a workday whereas for others it is sacred, and dispensed to disciples in traditional, orthodox fashion.

I'd probably suggest to look at the least at some other similar books of this kind before jumping into this one because it's dated to 1996--no internet references at all. I'll be on the look out for a solid E-Book w/hyperlinks. The book's a good introduction though for high school or college students that are in some sort of music (appreciation) class. It's got a lot of technical stuff, this weighs it down and makes it kinda boring, but musicians versed in Western musical theory (or, again, linguists or cryptologists) might enjoy the adventure through hills, deserts, jungles & coasts where the music doesn't follow a duple or triple meter, or it has no fixed pitch, or it is never played the same twice.

[Z · Rating 3 out of 5]

Didn't read all of it, but I think all that was left were a couple chapters we didn't take up in class. Very informative, really detailed text. Gives you a good sense of what the music is like, and breaks down the songs alongside the text in much detail.