SOAS Musicology Series

By Owen Wright

The Safavid era (1501–1722) is one of the most important in the history of Persian culture, celebrated especially for its architecture and art, including miniature paintings that frequently represent singers and instrumentalists. Their presence reflects a sophisticated tradition of music making…

Hardback – 2018-10-15
Routledge
SOAS Musicology Series

Edited by Barley Norton, Naomi Matsumoto

As economic, technological and cultural change gathers pace across the world, issues of music heritage and sustainability have become ever more pressing. Discourse on intangible cultural heritage has developed in complex ways in recent years, and musical practices have been transformed by…

Hardback – 2018-08-02
Routledge
SOAS Musicology Series

By Bob Van Der Linden

Arnold Bake (1899–1963) was a Dutch pioneer in South Asian ethnomusicology, whose research impressed not only the most renowned Indologists of his time but also the leading figures in the emerging field of ethnomusicology. This long overdue biography sheds light on his knowledge of the theory and…

Hardback – 2018-07-30
Routledge
SOAS Musicology Series

By Tony Lewis

The garamut is a log idiophone that is found in many of the coastal and island areas of Papua New Guinea. The instrument’s primary use is as a speech surrogate and in some regions the garamut is also used in large ensembles to play complex music for dancing. In Baluan Island, within the Manus…

Hardback – 2018-04-20
Routledge
SOAS Musicology Series

Edited by Reinhard Strohm

The idea of a global history of music may be traced back to the Enlightenment, and today, the question of a conceptual framework for a history of music that pays due attention to global relationships in music is often raised. But how might a historical interpretation of those relationships proceed?…

Hardback – 2018-03-13
Routledge
SOAS Musicology Series

By Laudan Nooshin

Questions of creativity, and particularly the processes which underlie creative performance or ’improvisation’, form some of the central areas of interest in current musicology. Yet the predominant discourses on which musicological thought in this area are based have rarely been challenged. In this…

Paperback – 2018-02-12
Routledge
SOAS Musicology Series

By Frances Wilkins

Following three years of ethnomusicological fieldwork on the sacred singing traditions of evangelical Christians in North-East Scotland and Northern Isles coastal communities, Frances Wilkins documents and analyses current singing practices in this book by placing them historically and…

Hardback – 2018-01-29
Routledge
SOAS Musicology Series

Edited by Razia Sultanova, Megan Rancier

The Turkic soundscape is both geographically huge and culturally diverse (twenty-eight countries, republics and districts extending from Eastern Europe through the Caucasus and throughout Central Asia). Although the Turkic peoples of the world can trace their linguistic and genetic ancestries to…

Hardback – 2018-01-25
Routledge
SOAS Musicology Series

By Graham Harvey

Edited by Karen Ralls-MacLeod

Celebrating the diversity of indigenous nations, cultures and religions, the essays which comprise this volume discuss the musics performed by a wide variety of peoples as an integral part of their cultural traditions. These include examinations of the various styles of Maori, Inuit and Australian…

Paperback – 2017-11-24
Routledge
SOAS Musicology Series

Edited by Rachel Harris, Martin Stokes

This volume of original essays is dedicated to Owen Wright in recognition of his formative contribution to the study of music in the Islamic Middle East. Wright’s work, which comprises, at the time of writing, six field-defining volumes and countless articles, has reconfigured the relationship…

Hardback – 2017-11-20
Routledge
SOAS Musicology Series

By Margaret E. Walker

Kathak, the classical dance of North India, combines virtuosic footwork and dazzling spins with subtle pantomime and soft gestures. As a global practice and one of India's cultural markers, kathak dance is often presented as heir to an ancient Hindu devotional tradition in which men called Kathakas…

Paperback – 2017-07-13
Routledge
SOAS Musicology Series

By Donna A. Buchanan

Dedicated to the late Gerard Béhague (1937-2005), whose pioneering work in Latin American music, popular culture, and performance studies contributed extensively to ethnomusicological discourse in the 1970s-1990s, this anthology offers comparative perspectives on the evolving legacy of performance…

Paperback – 2017-06-30
Routledge
SOAS Musicology Series

By Stephen Jones

This second volume of Stephen Jones' work on ritual and musical life in north China, again with an accompanying DVD, gives an impression of music-making in daily life in the poor mountainous region of Shaanbei, northwest China. It conveys some of the diverse musical activities there around 2000,…

Paperback – 2017-06-14
Routledge
SOAS Musicology Series

By Stephen Jones

The rich local traditions of musical life in rural China are still little known. Music-making in village society is largely ceremonial, and shawm bands account for a significant part of such music. This is the first major ethnographic study of Chinese shawm bands in their ceremonial and social…

Paperback – 2017-06-14
Routledge
SOAS Musicology Series

By Andrew Alter

In the Central Himalayan region of Garhwal, the gods (devtas) enjoy dancing. Musicians - whether ritual specialists or musical specialists - are therefore an indispensable part of most entertainment and religious events. In shamanistic ceremonies, their incantations, songs and drumming 'make' the…

Paperback – 2017-06-14
Routledge
SOAS Musicology Series

By Shzr Ee Tan

Taiwan aboriginal song has received extensive media coverage since the launch and settlement of a copyright lawsuit following pop group Enigma's allegedly unauthorized use of Amis voices in the 1996 Olympics hit, Return To Innocence. Taking as her starting point the ripple effects of this case,…

Paperback – 2017-06-13
Routledge
SOAS Musicology Series

By Patricia Matusky, Tan Sooi Beng

The Music of Malaysia, first published in Malay in 1997 and followed by an English edition in 2004 is still the only history, appreciation and analysis of Malaysian music in its many and varied forms available in English. The book categorizes the types of music genres found in Malaysian society and…

Hardback – 2017-05-10
Routledge
SOAS Musicology Series

Edited by Suzel Ana Reily

The musical human: without a doubt, this vision of the human species as naturally musical has become the most enduring legacy John Blacking bequeathed to ethnomusicology. The image aptly embodies his preoccupations, which integrated theoretical and methodological issues within the discipline with a…

Paperback – 2017-03-06
Routledge
SOAS Musicology Series

By Francesca R. Sborgi Lawson

Why has the female voice—as the resonant incarnation of the female body—inspired both fascination and ambivalence? Why were women restricted from performing on the Chinese public stage? How have female roles and voices been appropriated by men throughout much of the history of Chinese theatre? Why…

Hardback – 2017-02-16
Routledge
SOAS Musicology Series

By Terence A. Lancashire

Japanese folk performing arts incorporate a body of entertainments that range from the ritual to the secular. They may be the ritual dances at Shinto shrines performed to summon and entertain deities; group dances to drive away disease-bearing spirits; or theatrical mime to portray the tenets of…

Paperback – 2016-11-28
Routledge
SOAS Musicology Series

By Beth Szczepanski

Beth Szczepanski examines how traditional and modern elements interact in the current practice, reception and functions of wind music, or shengguan, at monasteries in Wutaishan, one of China's four holy mountains of Buddhism. The book provides an invaluable insight into the political and economic…

Paperback – 2016-11-15
Routledge
SOAS Musicology Series

Edited by Timothy Rice

Designed as a tribute to Robert Garfias, who has conducted field work in more cultures than any other living ethnomusicologist, this volume explores the originating encounter in field work of ethnomusicologists with the musicians and musical traditions they study. The nineteen contributors provide…

Paperback – 2016-11-15
Routledge
SOAS Musicology Series

By Abigail Wood

The dawn of the twenty-first century marked a turning period for American Yiddish culture. The 'Old World' of Yiddish-speaking Eastern Europe was fading from living memory - yet at the same time, Yiddish song enjoyed a renaissance of creative interest, both among a younger generation seeking…

Paperback – 2016-11-15
Routledge
SOAS Musicology Series

By Ron Emoff

Marie-Galante is a small island situated in the Caribbean to the south of Guadeloupe. The majority of Marie-Galantais are descendants of the slave era, though a few French settlers also occupy the island. Along with its neighbours Guadeloupe and Martinique, Marie-Galante forms an official…

Paperback – 2016-11-11
Routledge
SOAS Musicology Series

By James Burns

Ewe dance-drumming has been extensively studied throughout the history of ethnomusicology, but up to now there has not been a single study that addresses Ewe female musicians. James Burns redresses this deficiency through a detailed ethnography of a group of female musicians from the Dzigbordi…

Paperback – 2016-11-11
Routledge
SOAS Musicology Series

By Kelly M. Foreman

The Japanese geisha is an international icon, known almost universally as a symbol of traditional Japan. Numerous books exist on the topic, yet this is the first to focus on the 'gei' of geisha - the art that constitutes their title (gei translates as fine art, sha refers to person). Kelly M.…

Paperback – 2016-11-11
Routledge
SOAS Musicology Series

By Vincenzo Perna

Cuban music is recognized unanimously as a major historical force behind Latin American popular music, and as an important player in the development of US popular music and jazz. However, the music produced on the island after the Revolution in 1959 has been largely overlooked and overshadowed by…

Paperback – 2016-11-11
Routledge
SOAS Musicology Series

By Moshe Morad

The ‘Special Period’ in Cuba was an extended era of economic depression starting in the early 1990s, characterized by the collapse of revolutionary values and social norms, and a way of life conducted by improvised solutions for survival, including hustling and sex-work. During this time there…

Paperback – 2016-11-07
Routledge
SOAS Musicology Series

By Katherine Brucher

Edited by Suzel Ana Reily

Bands structured around western wind instruments are among the most widespread instrumental ensembles in the world. Although these ensembles draw upon European military traditions that spread globally through colonialism, militarism and missionary work, local musicians have adapted the brass band…

Paperback – 2016-10-19
Routledge
SOAS Musicology Series

By Haekyung Um

P’ansori is the quintessential traditional Korean musical drama, in which epic tales are sung and narrated by a solo singer accompanied by a drummer. Drawing on her extensive research in Korea and its diasporas, Haekyung Um describes and analyses the creative processes of p’ansori, weaving into her…

Paperback – 2016-10-03
Routledge
SOAS Musicology Series

Edited by Keith Howard

Focussing on music traditions, these essays explore the policy, ideology and practice of preservation and promotion of East Asian intangible cultural heritage. For the first time, Japan, Korea, China and Taiwan - states that were amongst the first to establish legislation and systems for indigenous…

Paperback – 2016-09-09
Routledge
SOAS Musicology Series

By Janet Topp Fargion

The musical genre of taarab is played for entertainment at weddings and other festive occasions all along the Swahili Coast in East Africa. Taarab contains all the features of a typical 'Indian Ocean' music, combining influences from Egypt, the Arabian Peninsula, India and the West with local…

Paperback – 2016-09-09
Routledge
SOAS Musicology Series

Edited by Alison Tokita, Hugh de Ferranti

This anthology addresses the modern musical culture of interwar Osaka and its surrounding Hanshin region. Modernity as experienced in this locale, with its particular historical, geographic and demographic character, and its established traditions of music and performance, gave rise to…

Paperback – 2016-09-09
Routledge
SOAS Musicology Series

By Philip Ciantar

The musical tradition of Ma'luf is believed to have come to North Africa with Muslim and Jewish refugees escaping the Christian reconquista of Spain between the tenth and seventeenth centuries. Although this Arab Andalusian music tradition has been studied in other parts of the region, until now,…

Paperback – 2016-08-26
Routledge
SOAS Musicology Series

Edited by Laudan Nooshin

What is it about the history, geographical position and cultures of the Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia that has made music such a potent and powerful agent? This volume presents the first direct look at the complex relationship between music and power across a range of musical genres…

Paperback – 2016-08-26
Routledge
SOAS Musicology Series

By John Morgan O'Connell

The early-Republican era (1923-1938) was a major period of musical and cultural change in Turkey. Alaturka: Style in Turkish Music is a study of the significance of style in Turkish music and, in particular, the polemical debate about an eastern style of Turkish music (called, alaturka) that…

Paperback – 2016-08-26
Routledge
SOAS Musicology Series

By Matthew Machin-Autenrieth

Flamenco, Regionalism and Musical Heritage in Southern Spain explores the relationship between regional identity politics and flamenco in Andalusia, the southernmost autonomous community of Spain. In recent years, the Andalusian Government has embarked on an ambitious project aimed at developing…

Hardback – 2016-08-08
Routledge
SOAS Musicology Series

By John Baily

In the 1970s John Baily conducted extensive ethnomusicological research in Afghanistan, principally in the city of Herat but also in Kabul. Then, with Taraki’s coup in 1978, came conflict, war, and the dispersal of many musicians to locations far and wide. This new publication is the culmination of…

Paperback – 2016-08-02
Routledge
SOAS Musicology Series

Edited by Mohd Anis Md Nor, Kendra Stepputat

Performing arts in most parts of Maritime Southeast Asia are seen as an entity, where music and dance, sound and movement, acoustic and tactile elements intermingle and complement each other. Although this fact is widely known and referenced, most scholarly works in the performing arts so far have…

Hardback – 2016-07-08
Routledge
SOAS Musicology Series

By Daniel Koglin

Greek Rebetiko from a Psychocultural Perspective: Same Songs Changing Minds examines the ways in which audiences in present-day Greece and Turkey perceive and use the Greek popular song genre rebetiko to cultivate specific cultural habits and identities. In the past, rebetiko has been associated…

Hardback – 2015-12-15
Routledge
SOAS Musicology Series

By Michael Wright

The jews-harp is a distinctive musical instrument of international importance, yet it remains one of those musical instruments, like the ocarina, kazoo or even the art of whistling, that travels beneath the established musical radar. The story of the jews-harp is also part of our musical culture,…

Hardback – 2015-12-04
Routledge
SOAS Musicology Series

By Anna Morcom

Since their beginnings in the 1930s, Hindi films and film songs have dominated Indian public culture in India, and have also made their presence felt strongly in many global contexts. Hindi film songs have been described on the one hand as highly standardized and on the other as highly eclectic.…

Paperback – 2015-10-28
Routledge
SOAS Musicology Series

By Keith Howard

SamulNori is a percussion quartet which has given rise to a genre, of the same name, that is arguably Korea’s most successful ’traditional’ music of recent times. Today, there are dozens of amateur and professional samulnori groups. There is a canon of samulnori pieces, closely associated with the…

Hardback – 2015-10-28
Routledge
SOAS Musicology Series

By Kalin S. Kirilov

An in-depth study of the Bulgarian harmonic system is long overdue. More than two decades since the Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares choir was awarded a Grammy (1990), there is no scholarly study of the captivating sounds of Bulgarian vertical sonorities. Kalin Kirilov traces the gradual formation of a…

Hardback – 2015-10-28
Routledge
SOAS Musicology Series

By Eckehard Pistrick

Migration studies is an area of increasing significance in musicology as in other disciplines. How do migrants express and imagine themselves through musical practice? How does music help them to construct social imaginaries and to cope with longings and belongings? In this study of migration music…

Hardback – 2015-08-28
Routledge
SOAS Musicology Series

By Sun Zhuo

The zheng zither is one of the most popular instruments in contemporary China. It is commonly regarded as a solo instrument with a continuous tradition dating back to ancient times. But in fact, much of its contemporary solo repertory is derived from several different regional folk ensemble…

Hardback – 2015-07-28
Routledge
SOAS Musicology Series

By Simon Barker

For over a century, drummers have been turning to a variety of percussive traditions as prompts for the creation of new expressive possibilities on the drumset. In this book, Simon Barker sets out in detail the developmental processes he has followed creating an improvisational language for the…

Hardback – 2015-04-14
Routledge
SOAS Musicology Series

By Sharon Meredith

Barbados is a small Caribbean island better known as a tourist destination rather than for its culture. The island was first claimed in 1627 for the English King and remained a British colony until independence was gained in 1966. This firmly entrenched British culture in the Barbadian way of life,…

Hardback – 2015-03-28
Routledge
SOAS Musicology Series

By Alison McQueen Tokita

Alison McQueen Tokita presents a series of case studies that demonstrate the persistence of Japanese sung narratives in a multiplicity of genres over ten centuries, including the way they flourished and declined, together with factors contributing to development and change in narrative performance.…

Hardback – 2015-02-28
Routledge
SOAS Musicology Series

By Owen Wright

The ġāyat al-maṭlūb fī ‘ilm al-adwār wa-'l-ḍurūb by Ibn Kurr is the only theoretical text of any substance that can be considered representative of musicological discourse in Cairo during the first half of the fourteenth century CE. Indeed, nothing comparable survives from the whole Mamluk period,…

Hardback – 2014-07-02
Routledge
SOAS Musicology Series