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Riding on Duke's Train
by Mick Carlon"Duke used to say that the individual sound of a musician revealed his soul. Mick Carlon is a 'soul' storyteller."--Nat Hentoff, author of Jazz Country "A ripping good yarn. . . . Plunges the reader into the world of Duke Ellington and the America of 1939."--Brian Morton, author of The Penguin Guide to Jazz "Wonderfully convincing and authentic characterizations. . . . A thoroughly enjoyable read."--Dan Morgenstern, author of Living with Jazz "We encounter not only Duke's genius, but his character and humanity. This is one train you won't want to get off!"--Dick Golden, radio host "When this marvelously evocative novel finds a home in the school curriculum, kids across America will be downloading Duke."--Jack Bradley "Excellent command of voice, period, and ethnic dialect . . . clear love and in-depth knowledge of Ellington and his band."--Alexandria LaFaye, author of The Keening Nine-year-old Danny stows away on Duke Ellington's train one Georgia night. Through Danny's eyes, we meet some of America's finest musicians as he accompanies them on their 1939 European tour, when the train was briefly held in Germany. Says Nat Hentoff, "I knew Duke Ellington for twenty-five years. The Ellington in this book is the man I knew." Mick Carlon is a twenty-seven-year veteran English/journalism high- and middle-school teacher. A lifelong jazz fan, he regularly plays jazz in his classroom and has turned hundreds of students into jazz fans. He says, "If young people are simply exposed to the music and stories of these American artists, they will make a friend for life."
Rifftide: The Life and Opinions of Papa Jo Jones
by Papa Jo JonesFinalist for Best Jazz Book of the Year Award from the Jazz Journalists AssociationThe things that I have, I&’ll give to you. This is my legacy with you, Albert. This is my last hoo-rah. So begins the autobiography of Jonathan David Samuel Jones—or as the world better knows him, Papa Jo Jones. Playing with Count Basie and his orchestra when they exploded out of Kansas City in 1936 and took the world by storm, Jones went on to inspire generations of jazz drummers, but until now few have had access to his own remarkable story.Rifftide presents Jones&’s inimitable life and opinions, as originally told by Jones to the prominent jazz historian and novelist Albert Murray and now transcribed, arranged, and introduced by Paul Devlin. Drawn from fourteen tapes recorded over eight years beginning in 1977, Rifftide is an impressionistic series of riffs and tales by Jones: his life as a musician on the road in segregated America, his outstanding solo career following his years with the Basie band, and his interactions with iconic artists and cultural figures of the time, including Ralph Ellison, James Baldwin, Langston Hughes, Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Bill &“Bojangles&” Robinson, and Satchell Paige.A true American original and jazz luminary, Papa Jo Jones bedazzled and intrigued many with his outrageous, volatile personality and his innovative drumming—and nowhere does his fierce intellect and humor shine more marvelously than in his life&’s telling. With a fascinating introduction and annotations by Paul Devlin and an afterword by Phil Schaap, jazz historian and longtime friend of Jones, Rifftide reveals a man at the forefront of both a whole new form of music and a country in the midst of incredible turmoil and opportunity. As Jones himself puts it: Listen man, I&’ve had a hell of a time . . .
Right Place, Right Time: The Life of a Rock & Roll Photographer
by Bob Gruen“Gruen chronicles his adventures as one of the preeminent photographers of rock and roll in his spectacular memoir . . . a roller-coaster narrative” (Publishers Weekly, starred review). Bob Gruen is one of the most well-known and respected photographers in rock and roll. From John Lennon to Johnny Rotten; Muddy Waters to the Rolling Stones; Elvis to Madonna; Bob Dylan to Bob Marley; Tina Turner to Debbie Harry, he has documented the music scene for more than fifty years in photographs that have captured the world’s attention. In Right Place, Right Time, Gruen recounts his personal journey from discovering a love of photography in his mother’s darkroom when he was five, through his time in Greenwich Village for 1960s rock and 1970s punk, to being named the world’s premiere rock photographer by the New York Times. With fast-paced stories and iconic images, Gruen gives the reader both a front row seat and a backstage pass to the evolution of American music culture over the last five decades. In the words of Alice Cooper, “Bob had the ultimate backstage pass. Can you imagine the stories he’s got?”
Right To Rock: The Black Rock Coalition and the Cultural Politics of Race
by Maureen MahonThe original architects of rock 'n' roll were black musicians including Little Richard, Etta James, and Chuck Berry. Jimi Hendrix electrified rock with his explosive guitar in the late 1960s. Yet by the 1980s, rock music produced by African Americans no longer seemed to be "authentically black. " Particularly within the music industry, the prevailing view was that no one--not black audiences, not white audiences, and not black musicians--had an interest in black rock. In 1985 New York-based black musicians and writers formed the Black Rock Coalition (brc) to challenge that notion and create outlets for black rock music. A second branch of the coalition started in Los Angeles in 1989. Under the auspices of the brc, musicians organized performances and produced recordings and radio and television shows featuring black rock. The first book to focus on the brc, Right to Rock is, like the coalition itself, about the connections between race and music, identity and authenticity, art and politics, and power and change. Maureen Mahon observed and participated in brc activities in New York and Los Angeles, and she conducted interviews with more than two dozen brc members. In Right to Rock she offers an in-depth account of how, for nearly twenty years, members of the brc have broadened understandings of black identity and black culture through rock music.
Right to the Juke Joint: A Personal History of American Music (Music in American Life)
by Patrick B MullenThe cowboy songs and dusty Texas car rides of his youth set Patrick B. Mullen on a lifelong journey into the sprawling Arcadia of American music. That music fused so-called civilized elements with native forms to produce everything from Zydeco to Conjunto to jazz to Woody Guthrie. <P><P>The civilized/native idea, meanwhile, helped develop Mullen's critical perspective, guide his love of music, and steer his life's work. Part scholar's musings and part fan's memoir, Right to the Juke Joint follows Mullen from his early embrace of country and folk to the full flowering of an idiosyncratic, omnivorous interest in music. Personal memory merges with a lifetime of fieldwork in folklore and anthropology to provide readers with a deeply informed analysis of American roots music. <P>Mullen opens up on the world of ideas and his own tireless fandom to explore how his cultural identity--and ours--relates to concepts like authenticity and "folkness." The result is a charming musical map drawn by a gifted storyteller whose boots have traveled a thousand tuneful roads.
Rihanna: A Little Golden Book Biography (Little Golden Book)
by Regina AndreoniGet to know Rihanna and find out how the talented performer from Barbados became a worldwide sensation with this beautifully illustrated and collectible Little Golden Book!Read all about Rihanna, the Barbadian singer, songwriter, actress, and businesswoman. Known for her catchy hit songs "Umbrella" and "Diamonds," as well as her unique fashion sense, Rihanna's journey is truly captivating. Rihanna: A Little Golden Book Biography will be enjoyed by RiRi's fans of all ages!Look for more Little Golden Book biographies: • Lady Gaga • Beyoncé • Barbra Streisand • Taylor Swift • Selena
Rimsky-Korsakov and His World: Not Assigned (The\bard Music Festival Ser. #43)
by Marina Frolova-WalkerA rare look at the life and music of renowned Russian composer Nikolai Rimsky-KorsakovDuring his lifetime, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1844–1908) was a composer whose work had great influence not only in his native Russia but also internationally. While he remains well-known in Russia—where many of his fifteen operas and various orchestral pieces are still in the standard repertoire—very little of his work is performed in the West today beyond Scheherezade and arrangements of The Flight of the Bumblebee. In Western writings, he appears mainly in the context of the Mighty Handful, a group of five Russian composers to which he belonged at the outset of his career. Rimsky-Korsakov and His World finally gives the composer center stage and due attention.In this collection, Rimsky-Korsakov’s major operas, The Snow Maiden, Mozart and Salieri, and The Golden Cockerel, receive multifaceted exploration and are carefully contextualized within the wider Russian culture of the era. The discussion of these operas is accompanied and enriched by the composer’s letters to Nadezhda Zabela, the distinguished soprano for whom he wrote several leading roles. Other essays look at more general aspects of Rimsky-Korsakov’s work and examine his far-reaching legacy as a professor of composition and orchestration, including his impact on his most famous pupil Igor Stravinsky.The contributors are Lidia Ader, Leon Botstein, Emily Frey, Marina Frolova-Walker, Adalyat Issiyeva, Simon Morrison, Anna Nisnevich, Olga Panteleeva, and Yaroslav Timofeev.The Bard Music FestivalBard Music Festival 2018Rimsky-Korsakov and His WorldBard CollegeAugust 10–12 and August 17–19, 2018
Ring of Power: A Jungian Feminist Perspective
by Jean Shinoda BolenBest-selling author and Jungian analyst Jean Shinoda Bolen's vivid grasp of the story and the characters in The Ring of the Nibelung brings Richard Wagner's mythic four-opera cycle to life. The Ring Cycle has a hold on our imagination like no other operatic work, because it is archetypal, and has the power of myth as well as music, to reverberate in the psyche. As in her acclaimed Goddesses in Everywoman and Gods in Everyman, Bolen shows how myth illuminates psychology, and more-Ring of Power goes beyond the psychology of the individual, to examine dysfunctional families and patriarchal institutions. In "The Rhinegold," "The Valkyrie," "Siegfried," and "Twilight of the Gods," we see how the pursuit of power can be destructive to the personality and relationships. In "Freeing Ourselves from the Ring Cycle," Bolen describes how seeing the truth and acting upon what we know can liberate us, and lead to authenticity and individuation. "Beyond Valhalla: A Post-Patriarchal World?" provides a provocative and hopeful speculation on the possibilities of the return of the repressed feminine into society that is a millennial potential.
Ringo: A Fab Life
by Tom DoyleRingo Starr&’s eventful and remarkable life laid bare in a first-of-its-kind mosaic biography of one of the greatest musicians of all time. Often overshadowed by his former bandmates, Starr&’s remarkable story is no less compelling. &‘Ringo: A Fab Life&’ highlights a life so jaw-droppingly eventful that one is left wondering how he also had time to become one of the best musicians on the planet. Through an episodic, mosaic format critically acclaimed author Tom Doyle takes readers through the ride of a lifetime, from Starr&’s brushes with death as a child bought up in poverty, through to dizzying heights of fame and success with The Beatles and beyond. By examining pivotal moments, anecdotes and cautionary tales, we see Starr soar as part of the biggest band in the world - and then try and cope with life outside of it: a film career, misadventures with friends, children&’s TV narrator, furniture designer, marriage to a Bond girl, before eventually finding peace and sobriety as one of the elder statesmen of rock. So much more than another Beatles related biography, we follow Starr&’s career far beyond the rose-tinted sixties, through the various addictions and career left turns in the seventies and eighties, before reaching the 1990&’s, his legacy and reputation intact. The life of Richard Starkey is long overdue a proper inspection and this book - with exclusive new interviews conducted by Doyle with, amongst others, Starr himself - provides a never-before-seen level of detail that will delight hardcore fans and curious readers alike.Ringo: A Fab Life - hilarious, moving, insightful and constantly surprising - is the definitive account of one of the greatest living musicians and the uncontested best drummer in The Beatles.
Riot Woman: Using Feminist Values to Destroy the Patriarchy
by Eleanor C. WhitneyGrowing up immersed in the feminist, DIY values of punk, Riot Grrrl, and zine culture of the 1990s and early 2000s gave Eleanor Whitney, like so many other young people who gravitate towards activism and musical subcultures, a sense of power, confidence, community, and social responsibility. As she grew into adulthood she struggled to stay true to those values, and with the gaps left by her punk rock education. This insightful, deeply personal history of early-2000s subcultures lovingly explores the difficulty of applying feminist values to real-life dilemmas, and embrace an evolving political and personal consciousness. Whitney traces the sometimes painful clash between her feminist values and everyday, adult realities — and anyone who has worked to integrate their political ideals into their daily life will resonate with the histories and analysis on these pages, such as engaging in anti-domestic violence advocacy while feeling trapped in an unhealthy relationship, envisioning a unified "girl utopia" while lacking racial consciousness, or espousing body positivity while feeling ambivalent towards one's own body. Throughout the book, the words and power of Bikini Kill and other Riot Grrrl bands ground the story and analysis, bringing it back to the raw emotions and experiences that gave this movement its lasting power while offering a complex, contemporary look at the promises and pitfalls of Riot Grrrl-informed feminism.
Rip It Up And Start Again
by Simon ReynoldsIn this, the first book to take a big-picture view of the entire post punk period, acclaimed author and music journalist Simon Reynolds recreates a time of tremendous urgency and idealism in pop music.Full of anecdote and insight, and featuring the likes of Joy Division, The Fall, Pere Ubu, PiL and Talking Heads, Rip It Up And Start Again stands as one of the most inspired and inspiring books on popular music ever written.
Rip It Up and Start Again
by Simon ReynoldsRip It Up and Start Again is the first book-length exploration of the wildly adventurous music created in the years after punk. Renowned music journalist Simon Reynolds celebrates the futurist spirit of such bands as Joy Division, Gang of Four, Talking Heads, and Devo, which resulted in endless innovations in music, lyrics, performance, and style and continued into the early eighties with the video-savvy synth-pop of groups such as Human League, Depeche Mode, and Soft Cell, whose success coincided with the rise of MTV. Full of insight and anecdotes and populated by charismatic characters, Rip It Up and Start Again re-creates the idealism, urgency, and excitement of one of the most important and challenging periods in the history of popular music. .
Ripped: How the Wired Generation Revolutionized Music
by Greg KotA decade ago the vast majority of mainstream music was funneled through a handful of media conglomerates. Now, more people are listening to more music from a greater variety of sources than at any time in history. And big corporations such as Viacom, Clear Channel, and Sony are no longer the sole gatekeepers and distributors, their monopoly busted by a revolution -- an uprising led by bands and fans networking on the Internet. Ripped tells the story of how the laptop generation created a new grassroots music industry, with the fans and bands rather than the corporations in charge. In this new world, bands aren't just musicmakers but self-contained multimedia businesses; and fans aren't just consumers but distributors and even collaborators. As the Web popularized bands and albums that previously would have been relegated to obscurity, innovative artists -- from Prince to Death Cab for Cutie -- started coming up with, and stumbling into, alternative ways of getting their music out to fans. Live music took on an even more significant role. TV shows and commercials emerged as great places to hear new tunes. Sample-based composition and mash-ups leapfrogged ahead of the industry's, and the law's, ability to keep up with them. Then, in 2007, Radiohead released an album exclusively on the Internet and allowed customers to name their own price, including $0.00. Radiohead's "it's up to you" marketing coup seized on a concept the old music industry had forgotten: the customer is always right. National radio host and critically acclaimed music journalist Greg Kot masterfully chronicles this story of how we went from $17.99 to $0.00 in less than a decade. It's a fascinating tale of backward thinking, forward thinking, and the power of music.
Rise Up and Sing
by Lex BuckleyAn essential, practical handbook that equips female worshippers to lead worship, work with musicians, pastor a worship team, write songs, and work effectively with their pastor. For women who are called to lead worship--or think they might be--worship leader Lex Buckley offers this essential handbook. Buckley shares from the Bible and from her heart to encourage, empower, and equip female worship leaders, urging them to be themselves and lead with confidence, secure in the knowledge that there is a role for women to lead worship and pastor a worship team. Packed with practical tips and featuring advice from outstanding female leaders and songwriters, such as Beth Redman, Christy Nockels, and Kathryn Scott, this book fills an empty niche, providing aspiring worship leaders with the female friends and mentors they need and probably don't have.
Rise Up!: Indigenous Music in North America
by Craig HarrisMusic historian Craig Harris explores more than five hundred years of Indigenous history, religion, and cultural evolution in Rise Up! Indigenous Music in North America. More than powwow drums and wooden flutes, Indigenous music intersects with rock, blues, jazz, folk music, reggae, hip-hop, classical music, and more. Combining deep research with personal stories by nearly four dozen award-winning Indigenous musicians, Harris offers an eye-opening look at the growth of Indigenous music. Among a host of North America&’s most vital Indigenous musicians, the biographical narratives include new and well-established figures such as Mildred Bailey, Louis W. Ballard, Cody Blackbird, Donna Coane (Spirit of Thunderheart), Theresa &“Bear&” Fox, Robbie Robertson, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Joanne Shenandoah, DJ Shub (Dan General), Maria Tallchief, John Trudell, and Fawn Wood.
Rise Up, Shepherd!: Advent Reflections On The Spirituals
by Luke A. PoweryValuable not only for their sublime musical expression, the African American spirituals give us profound insights into the human condition and the Christian life. Many focus on an essential scene of the Christian drama: the coming of God as the child in Bethlehem and as the hope of the world and the liberator of God's oppressed people. <P><P>In these devotions for the season of Advent, Luke Powery leads the reader through the spirituals as they confront the mystery of incarnation and redemption. In Rise Up, Shepherd! each devotion features the lyrics of the spiritual, a reflection on the spiritual's meaning, a Scripture verse, and a brief prayer.
Rise of a Killah
by Ghostface KillahThe story of the celebrated rapper and the iconic Wu-Tang Clan, told by one of its founding members Dennis Coles—aka Ghostface Killah—is a co-founder of the Wu-Tang Clan, a legendary hip hop group who established themselves by breaking all the rules, taking their music to the streets during hip hop’s golden era on a decade-long wave of releasing anthem after classic anthem, and serving as the foundation of modern hip hop. An all-star cast who formed like Voltron to establish the pillars that serve as the foundation of modern hip hop and released seminal albums that have stood the test of time.Rise of a Killah is Ghost’s autobiography, focusing on the people, places and events that mean the most to him as he enters his fourth decade writing and performing. It’s a beautiful and intense book, going back to the creative ferment that led to Ghost’s first handwritten rhymes. Dive into Ghost’s defining personal moments, his battles with his personal demons, his journey to Africa, his religious viewpoints, his childhood in Staten Island, and his commitment to his family (including his two brothers with muscular dystrophy), from the Clan’s early successes to the pinnacle of Ghost’s career touring and spreading his wings as a solo artist, fashion icon, and trendsetter. Exclusive photos and memorabilia, as well as graphic art commissioned for this book, make Rise of a Killah both a memoir and a unique visual record, a “real feel” narrative of Ghost’s life as he sees it, a one of a kind holy grail for Wu-Tang and Ghost fans alike.
Risible: Laughter without Reason and the Reproduction of Sound
by Delia CasadeiA free ebook version of this title is available through Luminos, University of California Press’s Open Access publishing program. Visit www.luminosoa.org to learn more.Risible explores the forgotten history of laughter, from ancient Greece to the sitcom stages of Hollywood. Delia Casadei approaches laughter not as a phenomenon that can be accounted for by studies of humor and theories of comedy but rather as a technique of the human body, knowable by its repetitive, clipped, and proliferating sound and its enduring links to the capacity for language and reproduction. This buried genealogy of laughter re-emerges with explosive force thanks to the binding of laughter to sound reproduction technology in the late nineteenth century. Analyzing case studies ranging from the early global market for phonographic laughing songs to the McCarthy-era rise of prerecorded laugh tracks, Casadei convincingly demonstrates how laughter was central to the twentieth century’s development of the very category of sound as not-quite-human, unintelligible, reproductive, reproducible, and contagious.
Risë Stevens: A Life in Music (Great Voices #10)
by John PenninoRisë Stevens (1913-2013) was a force of nature on the stage. From her humble beginnings in New York, Stevens'talent, determination and heart helped her rise up to perform on the greatest stages all over the world. Whether she was on the radio, up on the screen, or stunning audiences at the Met, her vocal presence was unforgettable. But in Carmen, Risë Stevens ascended to the level of legendary performers. The author, John Pennino, documents her amazing life, struggles and achievements. He also includes a detailed chronology and discography, and a CD of rare recordings. This book deals briefly with her post-operatic career.
Rites, Rights And Rhythms: A Genealogy Of Musical Meaning In Colombia's Black Pacific (Currents In Latin Amer And Iberian Music)
by Michael Birenbaum QuinteroColombia has the largest black population in the Spanish-speaking world, but Afro-Colombians have long remained at the nation's margins. Their recent irruption into the political, social, and cultural spheres is tied to appeals to cultural difference, dramatized by the traditional music of Colombia's majority-black Southern Pacific region, often called currulao. Yet that music remains largely unknown and unstudied despite its complexity, aesthetic appeal, and social importance. Rites, Rights & Rhythms: A Genealogy of Musical Meaning in Colombia's Black Pacific is the first book-length academic study of currulao, inquiring into the numerous ways it has been used: to praise the saints, to grapple with modernization, to dramatize black politics, to perform the nation, to generate economic development and to provide social amelioration in a context of war. Author Michael Birenbaum Quintero draws on both archival and ethnographic research to trace these and other understandings of how currulao has been understood, illuminating a history of struggles over the meanings of currulao that are also struggles over the meanings of blackness in Colombia. Moving from the eighteenth century to the present, Rites, Rights & Rhythms asks how musical meaning is made, maintained, and sometimes abandoned across historical contexts as varied as colonial slavery, twentieth-century national populism, and neoliberal multiculturalism. What emerges is both a rich portrait of one of the hemisphere's most important and understudied black cultures and a theory of history traced through the performative practice of currulao.
Ritmo: el eterno organizador
by Victoria Santa CruzEl único libro escrito por Victoria Santa Cruz, la mayor representante de la cultura afroperuana Ritmo: el eterno organizador es el único libro de Victoria Santa Cruz. Fue publicado cuando la autora tenía más de ochenta años, en la última etapa de su carrera creativa, de modo que constituye un auténtico legado escrito de quien es la mayor representante de la cultura afroperuana. Reseñas: «Ritmo: el eterno organizador es un libro fascinante, de cabecera, de permanente consulta y uso recordatorio. Nos alerta sobre vivir el presente, que es donde finalmente estamos». Jorge Chiarella «Una dramática reflexión que la lleva a propuestas singulares y fascinantes, orientadas ellas a repensar sobre la importancia que el hacer y la acción tienen sobre la vida como escuela irremplazable para el aprendizaje desde uno mismo». Edgar Valcárcel «Para quienes trabajaron directamente bajo su dirección, cada comentario, cada reflexión podrá recordarles que en la danza, el canto y el arte nada es gratuito». Octavio Santa Cruz «Ella es coherente con lo que enseña y busca compartir con todos —con una sencilla generosidad— sus hallazgos, que son el resultado del trabajo de toda». Nelson Manrique
Ritual Soundings: Women Performers and World Religions (New Perspectives on Gender in Music)
by Sarah WeissThe women of communities in Hindu India and Christian Orthodox Finland alike offer lamentations and mockery during wedding rituals. Catholic women of southern Italy perform tarantella on pilgrimages while Muslim Berger girls recite poetry at Moroccan weddings. Around the world, women actively claim agency through performance during such ritual events. These moments, though brief, allow them a rare freedom to move beyond culturally determined boundaries. In Ritual Soundings, Sarah Weiss reads deeply into and across the ethnographic details of multiple studies while offering a robust framework for studying music and world religion. Her meta-ethnography reveals surprising patterns of similarity between unrelated cultures. Deftly blending ethnomusicology, the study of gender in religion, and sacred music studies, she invites ethnomusicologists back into comparative work, offering them encouragement to think across disciplinary boundaries. As Weiss delves into a number of less-studied rituals, she offers a forceful narrative of how women assert agency within institutional religious structures while remaining faithful to the local cultural practices the rituals represent.
Ritual and Music of North China: Shawm Bands in Shanxi (SOAS Studies in Music)
by Stephen JonesThe 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 context. Based in a poor county in Shanxi province in northwestern China, Stephen Jones describes the painful maintenance of ceremonial and its music there under Maoism, its revival with the market reforms of the 1980s and its modification under the assault of pop music since the 1990s. Part One of the text explains the social and historical background by outlining the lives of shawm band musicians in modern times. Part Two looks at the main performing contexts of funerals and temple fairs, whilst Part Three discusses musical features such as instruments, scales, and repertories. The DVD consists of a 47-minute film in two parts, showing excerpts from funerals and temple fairs (complementing Part Two of the text), while a separate section contains a magnificent 1992 funerary performance of a complete shawm-band suite. As a package, the book and DVD illuminate the whole ceremonial context of music-making in rural China, illustrating the ritual-music experience of villagers, with lay Daoist priests, opera troupes, and beggars also making cameo appearances. While the modern stage repertories of urban professionals remain our main exposure to Chinese music, this publication is all the more valuable in showing the daily musical experiences of the majority of people in China. It will appeal to ethnomusicologists, anthropologists and all those interested in modern Chinese history and society.
Ritual and Music of North China: Volume 2: Shaanbei (SOAS Studies in Music)
by Stephen JonesThis second volume of Stephen Jones' work on ritual and musical life in north China, again with accompanying downloadable resources, 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, from the barrage of pop music blaring from speakers in the bustling county-towns to the life-cycle and calendrical ceremonies of poor mountain villages. Based on the practice of grass-roots music-making in daily life, not merely on official images, the main theme is the painful maintenance of ritual and its music under Maoism, its revival with the market reforms of the 1980s, and its modification under the assaults of TV, pop music, and migration since the 1990s. The text is in four parts. Part One gives background to the area and music-making in society. Parts Two and Three discuss the lives of bards and shawm bands respectively, describing modifications in their ceremonial activities through the twentieth century. Part Four acclimatizes us to the modern world with glimpses of various types of musical life in Yulin city, the regional capital, illustrating the contrast with the surrounding countryside. The 44-minute downloadable resources, with its informative commentary, is intended both to illuminate the text and to stand on its own. It shows bards performing at a temple fair and to bless a family in distress, and shawm bands performing at a wedding, at funerals, and a shop opening - including their pop repertory with the 'big band'. Also featuring as part of these events are opera troupes, geomancers, and performing beggars; by contrast, the film shows a glimpse of the official image of Shaanbei culture as presented by a state ensemble in the regional capital. The publication will appeal to ethnomusicologists, anthropologists, and all those interested in modern Chinese history and society.
Rituals and Music in Europe: An ethnological study through data analytics (New Approaches to the Scientific Study of Religion #13)
by Daniel BurgosThis book explores modern European religious and non-religious rituals and their main features by focusing on music as a key element required for the full expression of beliefs. It specifically examines the relationship between religious, non-religious, pagan, cultural, celebratory, and traditional rituals. In doing so, this text focuses on the extent to which the rituals overlap, replace, or feed religious or pseudo-religious beliefs to create alternative beliefs (individual or collective) that systematically ignore any religion. The book further analyses the relationship between daily habits, holidays, sports, politics, culture, and other pagan rituals as forms that represent social feelings by identifying, enjoying, or impersonating emotions; and transversally, it explores how music facilitates and fosters those emotions. The volume also investigates how rituals coexist and mutually influence each other through a representation of religious and non-religious rituals, and how music plays a central role in that phenomenology. The author argues that music is a key part of various types of rituals (e.g. rites of passage), and that music supports and enriches the meaning of the ritual, to ultimately strengthen the bond of communication with the individual and the group. This monograph appeals to students and researchers working in religious studies and in music theory.