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- Ethnomusicology is an Art and not a Seance
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Holy Brotherhood: Romani Music in a Hungarian Pentecostal Church
Barbara Rose Lange
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
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Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 019513723X |
Book Description
Holy Brotherhood: Romani Music in a Hungarian Pentecostal Church is a musical ethnography of a religious community. After the end of socialism, different ethnic groups in Hungary harbored antagonism toward one another. In one Pentecostal church in Pecs, Hungary, however, both Hungarians and Roma (Gypsies) worshipped and made music together. Three musical repertoires coexisted, each with a separate historical background and complex social meanings: Romani religious song; nineteenth-century gospel hymns originally from the United States; and contemporary Christian pop from the United States. Church members accommodated cultural and musical differences by developing several distinct performance styles.
Customer Reviews:
Ethnomusicology is an Art and not a Seance.......2003-07-16
Combining in-depth musical analysis with personal experience and scholarly ethnography, Barbara Rose Lange's _Holy Brotherhood: Romani Music in a Hungarian Pentecostal Church_ explores Romani or Gypsy music with an ear towards sprirtual meaning and music's profound social context in such a way that the general reader will be satisfied, and the specialist overjoyed. Forsaking jargon for direct reportage of interviews and musical experiences, Lange focuses on actual performance, providing precise translation of songs, practices, rituals--this is a book for the living. The result not only adds insight to outsider interpretations of Gypsy culture, but explicates music's relationship to religion, and Romani or Gypsy culture to the world at large. Delightful.
Book Description
In one compact volume, POP DREAMS analyzes the trends, events, and personalities that influenced American culture from 1945 to 1970. The discussion broadens students' understanding of major events in popular culture by putting those events in historical context.
Customer Reviews:
brief and well written.......2005-08-25
This little book could easily have been a fully fledged tome. Loss surveys the popular American media in the 1960s. He shows how it echoed and in turn fed back on the burning issues of the times. The Vietnam War and the civil rights movement.
There is discussion of politics at the Federal level, with the actions of US Presidents being key events. But Loss manages to tie this all into a narrative that also encompasses analysis of the rock and roll scene and the counterculture.
The book is aimed at an undergraduate or high school reader, as a quick synopsis of trends that Loss traces back to 1945 and the emergence of the US from the Second World War. He hopes to whet the reader's appetite for more detailed reading of these vast topics.
Average customer rating:
- Thinking Musically: Experiencing Music, Expressing Culture
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Thinking Musically: Experiencing Music, Expressing Culture (Global Music Series, 1)
Bonnie C. Wade
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
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Binding: Paperback
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Teaching Music Globally: Experiencing Music, Expressing Culture and Thinking Musically: Experiencing Music, Expressing Culture: Package: Includes 2 books, 1 CD (Global Music Series)
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ASIN: 0195136640 |
Book Description
Thinking Musically is the central volume in the Global Music Series. Designed for undergraduates and general readers with little or no background in music, it incorporates music from many diverse cultures--including the Americas, Asia, Africa, Oceania, and Europe--and establishes the framework for exploring the practice of music around the world. It sets the stage for an array of case study volumes, each of which focuses on a single area of the world. Each case study uses the contemporary musical situation as a point of departure--covering historical information and traditions as they relate to the present--and comes with an audio CD of musical examples discussed in the text. The case studies can be used in any combination with Thinking Musically to provide a rich exploration of world musical cultures. Visit www.oup.com/us/globalmusic for a list of case studies in the series. The website also includes instructional materials to accompany each study. Thinking Musically discusses the importance of musical instruments, describing their significance in a culture's folklore, religion, and history. It explores fundamental elements of music--including rhythm, pitch in melodic and harmonic relationships, and form--and examines how they vary in different musical traditions. The text considers the effects of cultural influences such as gender and ethnicity on the perception, interpretation, and performance of music. It also looks at how the forces of nationalism, acculturation, and westernization can affect musical traditions. Many of the musical examples are coordinated with material in the case studies. Thinking Musically includes activities designed to build critical listening and individual study skills and is packaged with an 80-minute CD that features selections from a wide variety of musical cultures. Also available: Thinking Musically and Teaching Music Globally Package (2 books + CD; ISBN 0-19-517143-8) Thinking Musically is also available in a package with Teaching Music Globally, by Patricia Shehan Campbell, a second framing volume in the Global Music Series. Essential for anyone teaching beginning students about the world's musical cultures, Teaching Music Globally describes pedagogical techniques for classes from K-12 to university level and offers a wealth of learning experiences.
Customer Reviews:
Thinking Musically: Experiencing Music, Expressing Culture.......2007-07-27
Writing such an ethnomusicological monograph is not easy. I am happy with what Thinking Musically has achieved. The CD that comes with the book helps a great deal to widen my horizen on music of all peoples.
Book Description
In Lockhart, Texas, a rural working-class town just south of Austin, country music is a way of life. Conversation slips easily into song, and the songs are full of conversation. Anthropologist and musician Aaron A. Fox spent years in Lockhart making research notes, music, and friends. In Real Country, he provides an intimate, in-depth ethnography of the community and its music. Showing that country music is deeply embedded in the textures of working-class life, Fox argues that it is the cultural and intellectual property of working-class people and not only of the Nashville-based music industry or the stars whose lives figure so prominently in popular and scholarly writing about the genre.
Fox spent hundreds of hours observing, recording, and participating in talk and music-making in homes, beer joints, and garage jam sessions. He renders the everyday life of Lockhart’s working-class community in detail, right down to the ice cold beer, the battered guitars, and the technical skills of such local musical legends as Randy Meyer and Larry âHoppyâ Hopkins. Throughout, Fox focuses on the human voice. His analyses of conversations, interviews, songs, and vocal techniques show how feeling and experience are expressed, and how local understandings of place, memory, musical aesthetics, working-class social history, race, and gender are shared. In Real Country, working-class Texans re-imagine their past and give voice to the struggles and satisfactions of their lives in the present through music.
Customer Reviews:
Buy this book!.......2006-11-02
If you read one book about country music, this is the one you should read. Fox's brilliant analysis sidesteps the whole Nashville-Dollywood-Branson commericial thing to explore how working class people in rural Texas and Illinois use country music to express their senses of self and their aesthetic and cultural values. The way he writes about the singing voice and the way he incorporates the character of the people he studied with into his presentation is about the best I've seen. Why only four stars, you ask? Well.....It can get a little dense sometimes - he has a theoretical point to make about music and culture, and he is after all a scholar (teaches in the music department at Columbia University). But bear with that and you'll be very happy you did. If you love country music, read this book.
Book Description
A fascinating new introduction to music of the world's peoples, as seen from the vantage point of its function: music for dance, for the home, for worship, for political purposes, and others. W. W. Norton proudly presents Soundscapes, the first textbook to organize the study of music the way most people encounter it—by the roles it plays in their lives and communities. Through a series of illuminating case studies, students learn the fundamentals of music by exploring the social and cultural settings of different "soundscapes" —that is, musical traditions—from around the world, all of which either migrated to or originated in North America. The text embraces the diverse musical identities, tastes, and sound worlds present in our society and encourages students to participate in the soundscapes that surround them.
Customer Reviews:
Worldly.......2004-12-11
This is a very good, thorough book. It explains music of all countries, tying the music together quite well. The music from the listening guides was very helpful in understanding what she was talking about. I just wish I could find the CD's that came with the book.
My only complaint is that she did not go into any Classical, rap, pop, or Broadway music. These are very important to world music, and I was surprised to see that she did not include them.
All in all, its a great book that has interesting and educational topics.
Book Description
Born on February 18, 1965 to a sixteen-year-old single mom, Andre Young, AKA Dr. Dre, co-founded the notorious rap group N.W.A. The group was one of the most successful hip-hop groups of the late 1980s and, most importantly, started what the media quickly dubbed Gangsta Rap. His departure from N.W.A. was a story right out of a pulp fiction novel. His new mentor, Suge Knight, allegedly used guns, baseball bats and a kidnap threat to get Dr. Dre released from his contract. Dre and Knight went on to build Death Row Records and turned it into a multi-billlion dollar company. Yet despite its unprecedented success with stars such as Snoop Doggy Dogg and Tupac Shakur, the company quickly unraveled in a firestorm of rivalries, greed, violence, and scrutiny by both the government and the media.
Not one to fade into the background, Dr. Dre's next move was to start his own record company, Aftermath Entertainment. As CEO, he discovered and created new stars like Eminem, 50 Cent, The Game, and Eve. In this essential addition to any music section, award-winning author Ronin Ro details the rise, fall, and resurrection of one of the biggest names in rap music.
Customer Reviews:
For Those Who Look Beyond The Music.......2007-08-24
This book is a chronicle of Andre Young's life, better known as Dr. Dre. It is a book written to inform and tell a story, rather than just re-count the life of a hip-hop legend. I recommend this book to anyone who looks beyond the music to the motives and the characteristics that make a Producer create music the way they do, or where they get their inspiration from. The book follows Dr. Dre through his life, beginning with a little background about his troubled life through high school, and ending with the current status of his record label, Aftermath Records. It gives a glimpse into the very personal life of this amazing producer, which is rare for any producer in music as to the nature of their work is in the studio for most of their days. It talks about his affiliations with record labels, the hardships he faced with the women, labels, friends, enemies, and death of his younger brother. This book is a must read for any Dr. Dre fan and is a must for any aspiring producer or current producer who looks beyond the music.
Nothin' But A G Thang..........2007-07-28
DR. DRE is the life story of the rise of a prolific hip hop producer and his struggles to succeed in the ever changing music industry. Ro attempts to share with readers Andre Young aka Dr. Dre's life from birth until now.
Born on February 18, 1965 to teenage parents, Dr. Dre's life was not an easy one living in California. However, his mom and stepfather provided a safe environment, but could not truly motivate Dr. Dre with his education. They purchased him his first mixer and found music was his motivation. From his early days as a DJ until his becoming a Grammy awarding winning producer, Dr. Dre has had to deal with change in the industry standards and even the violence he rapped about as part of NWA. He also dealt with tragedies such as the death of his brother Tyrell. Included in this biography are bits and pieces of a more personal Dr. Dre including his numerous children and the change his marriage made in how he viewed music. Impressive was the ability to chronicle how Dr. Dre rapped about life in the streets when he wasn't from the streets in the sense of being a gang banger or dealer, as well as how the hip hop changed from gangster rap to lyrics of excess and a lot less shocking in its nature.
Ro's biography of Dr. Dre seems inclusive, but at times stiff and jagged in its delivery. The life story seems to be based on information already reported in different mediums with little coming from Dr. Dre or others involved in his life. I would have liked to have seen a smoother flow of the biography where it didn't seem years overlapped and clarity of when some things took place. Although some readers will appreciate the dissection of the lyrics, I was more interested in learning something new about this producer who has produced the likes of hip hop legends and some of the new generation of hip hop. Even though I learned Dr. Dre had to deal with a lot of malcontent in the music industry, I wanted a more personal read about the man and what truly made him successful. This is a good showcase of the history of hip hop.
Reviewed by Cashana Seals
of The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers
Great book.........2007-07-01
First of all I'd like to say i love this book and that i have followed dre's career since the days of NWA.. I know a lot about his career but this book focused on his personal life before music and behind the scenes while he was making hits. It goes into his creative process for making hits and what his session players do. When a new character is introduced, that person gets the spotlight put on them with a little mini biography as well.. Warren G(dre's little step brother) plays a part here as well. This book also goes into detail about why Rakim and King Tee's albums were shelved.. The only problem i had with the book was a few facts were twisted as well as quotes. For example, Suge Knight's exact quote on stage at the 1995 Source Awards was misquoted and Daz's part in the making of DOGGYSTYLE wasn't included.. I wouldn't take a star away from the book for those reasons.. I recommend this book to any dre fan or music fan.. You will definately look at him different after reading this. For better or worse.
Rap Music Producer King.......2007-06-04
this Book is a Good Chop on Dr.Dre's career as the Best Producer in Rap Music History period. Dr.Dre has often been a Mysterious and often a quite figure despite all the controversy that has often been associated with him,but make no mistakes about it, Dr.Dre is as close to a forrest Gump figure in Rap Music history as you can get. He started out with World class Wreckin crew,but His first real claim to fame was with NWA. NWA were the Sex Pistols of Rap Music and any other Musical figure that was considered a Outlaw Bad Boy type. NWA changed the whole landscape of Rap Music forever with there debut Album 'Straight outta compton". there impact and effect is still felt on Rap Music to this day. Dre's Beats and trademark Synth Grooves with the Low string vibes are part of his formula along with catchy past Hooks and grooves of yesteryear that have made him the Quincy Jones of Rap Music. and as a talent scout He is the Man who Put Snoop Dogg and Eminem truly on the Map with his touch. Ronin Ro does a really good job at chopping and creating a Book that flows really well. Dr.Dre is One of the Most Important Musical Figures over the past 25 years. also add in the fact that He was part of Ruthless Records which was Owned by the Late Eazy E,and then Dre Help Form Death Row Records and then his own Aftermath Records. either as a Artist,producer, CEO and conceptionalist Dr.Dre has had a strong hand in creating so much that has taken Rap Music to the next level and that makes the Man a Trail-Blazer of his time this Book covers his personal losses,his drama with Ruthless,Death Row and Sug Knight also his battles within the Politics of the Music Industry and being a Black Man. a Good read.
A Journalistic Re-Mix.......2007-03-11
Ronin Ro is probably perferct for hip-hop journalism since his style of writing seems to borrow the sampling technique found in most rap music. If you've followed Dre's press career, no matter how sparse, you'll quickly realize that most, if not all the quotes in this book, are "samples" from other magazines. Like an expert hip-hop producer, Ro chops up all the press and then brilliantly re-arranges it all into a coherent and remarkably seamless story. While a lot of biographies do this, they don't pull it off to the extent that Ro does.
I am grateful that this book brings all of those previously disparate pieces under the same roof. Having the puzzle finally put together reveals a man who really had to fight uphill to become the Producer that he is today. In a lot of ways, according to this book, Dre's rise to fame seem destined, but destiny sometimes seems to have taken the rockiest road.
If you haven't followed Dre's career closely, or if you simply don't remember the reportage of Dre over the years, than this book will feel fresh or, at the least, a re-fresher on the years spanning the life of hip hop's most noted producer. And in someways that's the danger of this book: because it pulls so heavily from pre-existing interviews, there's nothing really new to be presented here. But that's hardly the fault of the author, since Dre, being press shy, probably will never give a biographer any new material to work with. And maybe all that there is to say about Dre's past has been said before, and the most we can expect than is a creative narrative and Re-mix of those words.
Book Description
Merengue—the quintessential Dominican dance music—has a long and complex history, both on the island and in the large immigrant community in New York City. In this ambitious work, Paul Austerlitz unravels the African and Iberian roots of merengue and traces its growth under dictator Rafael Trujillo and its renewed popularity as an international music.
Using extensive interviews as well as written commentaries, Austerlitz examines the historical and contemporary contexts in which merengue is performed and danced, its symbolic significance, its social functions, and its musical and choreographic structures. He tells the tale of merengue's political functions, and of its class and racial significance. He not only explores the various ethnic origins of this Ibero-African art form, but points out how some Dominicans have tried to deny its African roots.
In today's global society, mass culture often marks ethnic identity. Found throughout Dominican society, both at home and abroad, merengue is the prime marker of Dominican identity. By telling the story of this dance music, the author captures the meaning of mass and folk expression in contemporary ethnicity as well as the relationship between regional, national, and migrant culture and between rural/regional and urban/mass culture. Austerlitz also traces the impact of migration and global culture on the native music, itself already a vibrant intermixture of home-grown merengue forms.
From rural folk idiom to transnational mass music, merengue has had a long and colorful career. Its well-deserved popularity will make this book a must read for anyone interested in contemporary music; its complex history will make the book equally indispensable to anyone interested in cultural studies.
Customer Reviews:
AY COMPAY! DON'T MISS THIS!.......2001-04-26
Up in Manhattan's Morningside Heights and its Dominican analogs all over the US, salsa is edged out by the magnificently manic beat of the merengue, whether stirred into Dominican rap and house (the most original as well as the least known versions of the genre) or in the tear-em-down accordion of Fefita La Grande. Austerlitz has all this and a lot more, all the way from the luckless Toma' back in the 1840s (read the book!)Austerlitz covers merengue from rural to hi-society in all its fierce joviality. Read this book and you'll know there's one good thing Trujillo did for the Dominican Republic!
John Storm Roberts
An Important Addition to the Library of Any Merengue Fan.......2000-04-25
If you are looking for a quick yet thorough coverage of this topic then this is the book for you. It is a relatively short book, coming in at 167 pages (not including bibliography but including notes section), yet it covers the whole spectrum of the national music of the Dominican Republic.
Mr Austerlitz covers the beginnings of this music all the way through to its current state. It also spends time on Merengue's development during the Trujillo era (a particularly interesting topic to anyone who studies the Dominican Republic).
Mr Austerlitz also does a good job of addressing the sociological issues that arise from music and manages to blend well the merengue of the campo with that of the salon.
A good read and it even comes with a CD with some very good campo (country) merengue. If you are looking for merengue at its roots then this CD should please you.
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
1.Introduction
PART 1: THE HISTORY OF MERENGUE 1854-1961. 2. Nineteenth-Century Caribbean Merengue. 3. Merengue Cibaeno, Cultural Nationalism, and Resistance. 4. Music and the State: Merengue during the Era of Trujillo, 1930-1961.
PART 2: The Contemporary Era, 1961-1995. 5. Merengue in the Transnational Community. 6. Innovation and Social Issues in Pop Merengue. 7. Merengue on the Global Stage. 8. Enduring Localism. 9. Conclusion
Let me know if you found this useful.
Great Overview of Merengue.......1999-04-08
Enjoyed the insight into the history of Merengue and its cultural context. This book has a place on my bookshelf along with "The Latin Tinge" and "The Brazilian Sound."
Book Description
Operas are about the meaning of love and life, and also very much about the meaning of death. Opera as a form, however, might even be dead itself. The last great operas are said to be those written around 1900.
But, the psychoanalytic critic and philosopher Slavoj Zizek is quick to point out, 1900 is also the year in which Freud 'invents' psychoanalysis. Can this be a coincidence? Opera's Second Death is a passionate exploration of opera---the genre, its masterpieces, and the nature of death. Using a dazzling array of tools, Slavoj Zizek and coauthor Mladen Dolar explore the strange compulsions that overpower characters in Mozart and Wagner, as well as our own desires to die and to go to the opera.
Mozart's understanding of psychoanalysis and Wagner's sense of humor are but two of the many surprises in Zizek and Dolar's operatic tour de force. Opera's Second Death is an extended aria on a subject that is far from dead.
Customer Reviews:
leads you backstage into places opera don't know.......2005-05-01
Opera is perhaps the most perfect subject for Zizek's gaze with Hegelian negations and Absolutes Lacan's "object petit a,"Four Discourses" in the Master Signifier, the divided self,desire, don't be scared away for the cloistered world of opera can use such insights to help clarify its own anxieties self-indulgences and excesses throughout its histories. In fact opera now cannot live without someone speaking about it deeply as Zizek does, especially the self-conscious dimensions in Wagner's dramas, the negations of the negations(from Hegel) as "Parsifal" a redeemer redeeming the redemption,or dealing with "Other" those aspects that we wish we could do without but are there anyways, like feminist extremism not wanting man to be around,as in Carmen, or Tosca, or Wotan not wanting to be responsible for his pacts carved on his staff. Zizek and Dolar both bring a formidable array of concepts to opera to make some illuminations clearer I think. If you simply want opera to go on as it is without comment, simply sit back and let it wash over your brain, well this is not a book for you.
Opera on the Couch.......2002-04-02
To those who love opera and know nothing about psychoanalysis or philosophy this book will be challenging and probably incomprehensible. Still, if anyone can get an Opera Queen to think, it might be Slavoj Zizek and Mladen Dolar. Dolar's is a more conventional and comprehensive treatment of the history of opera as a history of ideas. It is excellent and one can almost read the copious notes as a separate and equally enjoyable experience. Zizek uses particular operas to explain profound and fascinating ideas about love and death, narcissism and self-destruction, through the ideas (among others) of Lacan and Hegel. Ever since Zizek's seminal books explaining the complexities of Lacan and Hegel through popular entertainment he has accrued fame in intellectual circles without ever becoming pompous or complacent. He makes for enjoyable and provocative reading and chances are, after you've read him, you'll be keeping an eye out for his next book.
Amazon.com
More than 20 years after its initial publication, Mystery Train remains one of the smartest, most provocative books ever written about rock-and-roll. Marcus puts his subjects--which include Robert Johnson, Elvis Presley, The Band, Randy Newman, and Sly Stone--into their proper context, which is the culture-at-large. He makes you understand why these musicians matter, and what they've contributed to the American imagination. In his introduction, Marcus confesses that he's no longer "capable of mulling over Elvis without thinking about Herman Melville"--to the benefit, I might add, of both parties.
Customer Reviews:
Rock and Roll Poetry.......2007-03-25
This book is an amazing look into the history and impact of rock and roll on pop culture. Greil Marcus writes about this artists and songs as a poet who has been deeply affected by this music. The lyrics seem to impact the very roots of his soul and diversly shape his world and view of America. This book is a must for any fan of rock and roll music or anyone interested on the impact rock and roll has had on American culture in general. Highly recommended.
Don't believe the hype.......2007-02-02
Uh, I'm not sure I agree a hundred percent with your detective work, there, Greil.
If he truly wanted to present and comprehensive view of what his subtitle purports, that is, American myths archetypes and how they inform and are presented by Rock and Roll, why is the scope of this book so narrow? The artists he focuses on are a motley crew. Elvis, Robert Johnson sure- but Randy Newman? The Band, but not Dylan? Harmonica Frank, but no Chuck Berry? Berry's oeuvre itself is a perfect microcosm of 20th century American Mythos. Speaking of myth, why is Pilgram's Progress invoked as a metaphor for The Band, but Faust isn't referenced at all in the Robert Johnson chapter. America is nothing if not Faustian. This book is 40 percent Rock-Geek trivia, and 60 percent pure ponderous speculation. Marcus occasionally drifts into a fugue and wanders far away from his (musical) subject, several times in the Elvis section whereupon he suddenly remembers what he was supposed to be writing about and tries vainly to shoehorn all of his speculations together. I think Marcus is a fine writer (we would not entertain his notions for a second if he wasn't), and this book certainly has its moments, but on the whole it does not nearly live up to its hype. He has done better, in The Old, Weird America, dealing with the same themes and sticking to one musical subject (Dylan's Basement Tapes).
I will never read anything by this author again!.......2006-10-05
I was SO excited about getting this in the mail to start reading, I had just read "This Wheels on Fire" by Levon Helm (which is AMAZING) and wanted to read more about that kind of music and read a critics take on it all and well...it was awful!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was pretentious and cliche...all of it. I cannot understand why this book is supposed to be so great. He makes all of these assumptions about what these musicians bodies of work are really about or are supposed to represent but even to someone who was not alive during the time period, it is obvious B.S.! Marcus tries to explain that The Band's whole body of work is some sort of metaphor...that is about a "worried man"...that their work is a story that they have made up to represent their fears and their vices. If you want to know what "the weight" is about, read Levon Helm's book which is honest, touching, inspiring AND informative.
Dancing About Architecture, Yay!.......2005-11-02
This was one of the first music criticism books I ever read. Sometime since I read someone scoffingly say, "Writing about music is like dancing about architecture." Well yes, this is true, and this is what makes Greil Marcus so great -- his writing his half dancing, half architecture. Even though the TONE of his writing makes a foray into claiming authority, he never loses his subjectivity. You always have the feeling that this is just another guy talking about music, except that he's incredibly smart and knowledgeable about music, literature and culture. I've heard some people complain about his choices for subjects here, that Robert Johnson does not deserve to be singled out, and that Dylan should have his own chapter, or even his own volume. But this book doesn't pretend to pick the greatest artists of all time and write about their greatest hits; there's dozens of other books for that. Read those books first, and then come to Marcus if you want something deeper. He does something different, and his books shouldn't be judged by those standards. At the end of the day, the best thing I can say is that I wish this book included a chapter about every artist that I love, and that reading this has deepened my appreciation of every figure involved.
I'm confused on what he focuses on the most..........2005-03-07
Is it the music or the events surrounding the music? In any case, Greil Marcus' MYSTERY TRAIN is perhaps the most unusual rock criticism book in existence. I purchased this volume because of my interest in the Band (who are by far the greatest artists in the whole story). And that point makes me wonder why the Band's records weren't scrutinized and explained even more. Where else can you read about the song "Across the Great Divide" and then tell people you know what it's about? I love the chapter on the Band, although I am not a fan of Marcus' writing, and I wish that he would have cleaned up his word choices and focused on the Band days instead of the Hawks' days (and some people can't see that artistic growth?). Anyway, anyone who says no one has heard of these artists needs serious medical attention. If anyone hasn't heard of the Band, I recommend that the get their head back into the real world. To call the Band's music siginificant and worthwhile is the understatement of the century. However, I never felt that Elvis did much for music (well, he didn't do much for me), and if you really want to get confused read the chapter on Sly Stone. Who the heck is Stagger Lee and why is he mentioned here? Did Marcus see WOODSTOCK? I think he spends too much time comparing things with classic authors from days gone by and he even draws paralells between old movies. That is fine with me, and I can certainly see the way music influences movies and vice versa, but a lot of that seems to be overblown. I didn't know if I was reading about Randy Newman or Raymond Chandler. He devotes a surprising amount of time to the Kinks, and while I find some of their material interesting, their place as one of the greatest bands in history is probably in question. I really don't like the words that Marcus uses to describe musical ideas that he hears, nor do I care for his admitting to having a perverted Elvis dream and his declaration of Ray Davies' homosexuality and his sensitivity towards murder and violence. If you want to, you can get confused. I am enthused by pop culture but particularly the music, and I love the sixties and would love to write about that decade myself, and I have purchased Levon Helm's THIS WHEELS ON FIRE, and have been fascinated by THE TWILIGHT ZONE COMPANION, WAITING FOR THE SUN, and I even bought the films EASY RIDER, DON'T LOOK BACK, and WOODSTOCK. Yet somehow, MYSTERY TRAIN doesn't seem to fit either in the forties or in the seventies, so I really don't know how to label it--but I suppose I am just grateful for the Band pages, but mind you I wasn't terribly impressed with those or Marcus' all-too-brief run down of a song called "The Rumor". At least he acknowledges it in detail later on, but what is his point in doing so?
Amazon.com
When a Princeton-trained ethnomusicologist returns to follow up his studies in the Central Asian nations east of China and north of Afghanistan, he stumbles into a cornucopia of music, history, and religion. With a trusty guide called OM, Theodore Levin travels back and forth through the newly liberated cities and countryside of an ancient land that is home to such exotic names as Tashkent and Samarkand. Levin writes not only about his successes in identifying and recording the musical traditions of the area but also of the experiences of the people under Soviet rule, the myths that are kept alive through music, and the healers that use music as therapy. Levin finds a complex and colorful mix of ethnic and religious traditions where music unites Jew, Muslim, and shaman. The Hundred Thousand Fools of God is more than just a travel diary: it is a snapshot of an evolving culture. And the accompanying CD is divine. --Brian Bruya
Book Description
"This erudite, absorbing volume chronicles the travels of ethnomusicologist Theodore Levin through urban and rural Transoxania . . . He writes in evocative, imaginative, personalized prose that vividly captures the flavor of his everyday experiences, providing plush visual detail, trenchant character profiles, attention to perplexing local hospitality codes and the shaping hand of gender, throughout." --Slavic Review
". . . extremely informative, using music as a platform for a much wider discussion of cultural and political issues." --Times Literary Supplement, London
"The subject is music, but Levin uses it to cast a wider light, revealing places of considerable sorrow long hidden in the shadows of Soviet power, and to create a travelogue with wide potential appeal. . . . Candor about his own uncertainties and personal struggles helps make this a personal as well as a scholarly adventure." --Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Not to be missed by those interested in music and world culture . . . " --Library Journal
". . . may be destined to become the definitive work on the music of this newly accessed region." --Dirty Linen
The Hundred Thousand Fools of God assembles a living musical and ethnographic map by highlighting the fate of traditions, beliefs, and social relationships in Muslim and Jewish Central Asian cultures during and after seventy years of Soviet rule. Theodore Levin evokes the spectacular physical and human geography of the area and weaves a rich ethnography of the life styles, values, and art of the musical performers. Photographs, maps, and an accompanying CD (featuring 24 on-site recordings) make The Hundred Thousand Fools of God a unique reading and listening experience.
Customer Reviews:
Tunes and Tales from the Heart of Asia.......2004-03-25
Six years ago, I wrote my first review for Amazon, of Richard N. Frye's "Bukhara: The Medieval Achievement". Frye's work, concentrating mostly on the 10th and 11th centuries, described in detail how Turkic-speaking nomads combined with Iranian city dwellers and Arab bringers of a new religion to create a new synthesis in Islam in Central Asia, particularly in the city of Bukhara. That syncretic Islam later became most instrumental in the development of the Muslim faith in the Indian subcontinent. Levin's THE HUNDRED THOUSAND FOOLS OF GOD mainly describes the condition of music and musicians in the 1990s in the modern republics of Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. That same Richard N. Frye provides a strong endorsement on the back cover. I too find that this volume is a worthy successor in the on-going "project" of bringing Central Asian history and culture before Western eyes. The musical world of Central Asia still involves synthesis and syncretism---between the West and tradition, between new conservatism and older tolerance, between Soviet atheism and local spirituality, between Islam and older religions which we might label shamanistic, and between so-called ethnic groups like Uzbeks and Tajiks.
Levin travelled around the region with a musical companion, Otanazar Matyakubov, who provided endless contacts and insights. Together they interviewed and listened to all the varied performers of Central Asian music, from a female pop singer to humble performers of classical styles, from healers in remote villages who used music in their rituals to performers at schmaltzy Jewish weddings in the transplanted Bukharan Jewish community in Queens, New York. Levin describes the surroundings in which he found each musician, tells of his travels in decrepit cars between ancient cities or by donkey through the dramatic mountain scenery of remotest Tajikistan. While a certain amount of detail may be of interest chiefly to fellow ethnomusicologists, those specialized observations are spaced throughout the text in such a way that the non-professional reader never feels overwhelmed. Levin provides a number of excellent photographs, maps, and most importantly, a brilliant CD which illustrates all the styles and instruments he discusses. The effect of 70 years of Soviet policies is often mentioned, and a reader can deduce the results of this assault on local culture, though I would have liked more direct comment. Moscow's insistence on creating discrete "nationalities" created virulent brands of Uzbek and Tajik (and so many other) nationalism where none had existed. It created separate, ethnic-based countries where none had ever existed. It even created "Uzbek" and "Tajik" music out of a formerly seamless Central Asian tradition. This Soviet policy ultimately resulted in the squeezing out of Bukharan Jews-prominent in the Central Asian musical world for centuries---because they were deemed insufficiently "Uzbek" by newly nationalistic authorities.
In short, this is one of the best books of ethnomusicology I have ever read. It would be of interest to anyone trying to learn more about Central Asia and must be required reading for anthropologists concerned with the area. THE HUNDRED THOUSAND FOOLS OF GOD also brings the region to life and underlines the difference between the materialistic, narrowly nationalistic present and the past in which musicians played out of devotion and love of God without trying to fit into some culture apparatchik's idea of "national music".
Fascinating.......2001-05-30
This book is a many faceted report on the state of music in the Central Asian Republics of the former Soviet Union, especially Uzbekistan. The author did his Ph.D. research in ethnomusicology in Tashkent on traditional court music called Shash maqam in 1977-1978. At the time, Levin was not as interested in this music as he had expected, which he later attributed to the Soviet cultural policies which extinguished the spark of vivacity from the Uzbek music. This book details many of the author's subsequent travels to Central Asia in search of traditional musicians who managed somehow to develop their unique talents within the stifling socialist milieu.
Levin provides much information about the artists, their music, and their poetry, which can all be heard on the accompanying CD. In the text itself, he rarely describes the instruments played by the musicians, referring to them merely with their local names. However, descriptions of the instruments can be found in the glossary at the end of the book, which I unfortunately didn't notice until I had finished reading. Occasionally, Levin's musicology terms get a little too thick for the general reader, but on the whole, the book is quite accessible.
The strongest aspect of the book is its description of the culture history of music in the Soviet Union. In my own brief travels to the Soviet Union, I was struck by how many people there were acquainted with classical music--how an appreciation of classical music stretched across the entire society. I never saw the dark side of this, however. In this book, Levin describes how centralized state policies governed even the field of music, changing and obliterating centuries' old traditions.
Excellent exploration of music and culture in Central Asia.......1998-08-06
Mr. Levin writes about cultural survival and cultural decay in Transoxiana, as seen from the vantage point of traditional musicians. Combining his own traveler's tales with detailed but accessible musicological analysis, he examines the role of the traditional performing arts in the modern world of Uzbekistan, and the way that they have been subverted by the Soviet and successor governments. Engagingly written, without condescension towards the reader or the people of whom he writes, this book will reward readers interested in the cultural life of the region.
Levin sets quite a standard!.......1998-03-31
Mr. Levin has truly accomplished something noteworthy in this book. It is perhaps the best book from the often boring realm of ethnomusicological research that I have read in recent years. The breadth of understanding and acute cultural awareness brought out in the book is fantastic. It should find an audience among music scholars as well as the average reader, especially given the uncomplicated way Levin tells his tale. The addition of the CD to the book is truly complimentary unlike many of the other "multi-media" gimmicks so often offered to entice the buyer. This book is essential for anyone who seeks a clarity in writing about the musics of another culture.
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