Writing Program Notes: Historical and Stylistic Information

Richard Taruskin and Christopher Gibbs have taken the best-selling six-volume Oxford History of Western Music and created a one-volume edition suitable for the undergraduate music history sequence. This compelling narrative introduces students to the broad sweep of music history by making connections between music and the larger human, social, and political context in which pieces were created and heard. Abundant features such as timelines, chapter summaries, key terms, study questions, and a glossary, ensure the volume will be accessible to students of varying levels.

Explores key themes in African music that have emerged in recent years-a subject usually neglected in country-by-country coverage emphasizes the contexts of musical performance-unlike studies that offer static interpretations isolated from other performing traditions presents the fresh insights and analyses of musicologists and anthropologists of diverse national origins-African, Asian, European, and American Charts the flow and influence of music. The Encyclopedia also charts the musical interchanges that followed the movement of people and ideas across the continent, including: cross-regional musical influences throughout Africa * Islam and its effect on African music * spread of guitar music * Kru mariners of Liberia * Latin American influences on African music * musical interchanges in local contexts * crossovers between popular and traditional practices. Audio CD included. Also includes nine maps and 96 music examples.