WORLD MUSICS / ORAL TRADITIONS REFERENCE SOURCES
This is a guide to reference material on folk and non-Western musical
traditions in the Music Library
of the University of the Arts. If you have questions about this guide
or about library materials on world musics contact the author (see end of this page).
BIBLIOGRAPHY, DISCOGRAPHY
|| HISTORICAL / CHRONOLOGICAL SURVEYS
|| MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS || ADDITIONAL NOTE
ENCYCLOPEDIAS,
DICTIONARIES
- Brundvand, Jan Harold. American
Folklore: An Encyclopedia. New York: Garland, 1996.
- Not only includes general
articles on ethnic cultures but also
contains significant entries on musical subjects ("Ballad",
"Bluegrass", "Shape-Note Singing", "Klezmer", "Rap", "Zydeco").
American folklorists have traditionally emphasized musical expression
as an object of study. This is a meticulously edited volume.
REF GR101 .A54 1996
- Kaufmann, Walter. Selected
Musical Terms of Non-Western Cultures: A Notebook-Glossary. .
Warren, Mich.: Harmonie Park Press, 1990.
- Originally
conceived as a personal reference notebook, and so is inevitable
idiosyncratic in coverage; but there is nothing comparable for short
clarifications. Especially good for the high cultures of Asia, Oceania,
and Africa.
REF ML108 .K37 1990
- Lawless, Ray. Folksingers and
Folksongs in America New York: Duell, Sloan and Pearce, 1960.
- The largest sections are devoted
to biographical entries for
noted American folksingers and printed songbook collections. There are
also essays on folk instruments and genres of North-American folk song.
REF ML3550 .L418F6
- Enciclopedia da Musica
Brasileira: Popular, Erudita, e Folclorica. 3rd ed. Ed. Marcos
Antonio Marcondes. Sao Paulo: Art Editoria, 2000.
- Weighted toward the biographical,
though in fact an
encyclopedia in that musical and dance folk terminology is included.
The best resource on the myriad musics of Brazil.
REF ML106 .B73E5 2000
- Mulvaney, Rebekah. Rastafari
and Reggae: A dictionary and Sourcebook. New York: Greenwood Press,
1990.
- First comprehensive documentation
of the relationships between
Rastafari and reggae, from the larger perspective of African Jamaicans
within the Africa diaspora. The dictionary portion is followed by
annotated bibliographic and discographic references.
REF ML102 R4M8 1990
- Myers, Helen, ed. Ethnomusicology:
An Introduction [v.1] and Ethnomusicology: Historical and
Regional Studies [v.2] New York: W.W. Norton, 1992-93.
- A comprehensive history and
documentation of the fields of
world music study from its nineteenth-century origins to ca. 1990. Each
section contains extensive bibliographies of print and sound resources,
thus updating Kunst (see below). Vol.2 is now the best single-volume
guide to our current knowledge of music of the world's peoples.
REF ML3798 .E74 1992
- Porter, James and Timothy Rice,
eds. The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music. New York:
Garland, 1998-2001; Routledge, 2002. 10 vols.
- A comprehensive enterprise
representing the work of hundreds
of cooperating specialists. The initial volume, on Sub-Saharan Africa,
for instance, emphasizes contemporary issues: epic song traditions,
archaeological evidence, instrument making, the impact of radio and
other media. The 4th volume, covering Southeast Asia, encompasses the
islands as well as the mainland, majority as well as indigenous
minority peoples. The final volume can stand as a synthetic survey of
the methodologies and disciplines of ethnomusicology. Volumes 1-9 are
each accompanied by a compact disc with recorded music examples.
REF ML100 .G37 1998
BIBLIOGRAPHY,
DISCOGRAPHY
- Banerji, Sures Chandra. A
Companion to Indian Music and Dance. Delhi: Indian Books Centre,
1990.
- A brief survey of important works
on Indian performing arts,
especially as music is accounted for in the Sanskrit monuments of Hindu
literature. Some chapters function as dictionaries or chronologies;
entries for literary works are annotated.
REF ML120 .I53B3 1990
- Bor, Joep, ed. The Raga Guide.Monmouth,
U.K.: Nimbus Records, 1999.
- Detailed reference resource on 74
Hindustani ragas, their
musical and extramusical attributes, and their illustrative paintings
(ragamala). Includes recorded examples on 4 accompanying compact discs.
REF ML128 .R25B6 1999
- Gray, John. African Music: A
Bibliographic Guide to the Traditional, Popular, Art, and Liturgical
Musics of Sub-Saharan Africa. New York: Greenwood Press, 1991.
- Emphasizes regional studies of
both traditional and popular
musics of Western, Central, and Southern Africa. The nearly 5,000
citations are not annotated, but include essays in collections, journal
articles, theses, and media materials.
REF ML120 A35G7 1991
- Hart, Mary, et al. The Blues:
A Bibliographic Guide. New York: Garland, 1989.
- Wide-ranging, as the subject
requires. Entries range from the
literary to the journalistic, and video footage is appropriately
represented; but there are no annotations.
REF ML128 .B49H3 1989
- Keeling, Richard. North
American Indian Music: A Guide to Published Sources and Selected
Recordings. New York: Garland, 1997.
- Generously annotated bibliography
of nearly 1,500 sources on
Native American musics. Entries are grouped by geographical area
("Arctic and Sub-Arctic", "Plains") and range chronologically from the
earliest written accounts in 1535 to 1995. The first comprehensive work
of its kind.
REF ML128 .I5K4 1997
- Kunst, Jaap. Ethnomusicology:
A Study of its Nature, Problems, Methods, and Representative
Personalities. 3rd ed. with supplement. The Hague: Nijhoff, 1959-60.
- Beginning with a now classic
summary of the study of music as
an aspect of human behavior by a founder of modern ethnomusicology (the
coiner of the word, in fact), this is largely a list of early
publications in European languages, which is then indexed by subject. A
cornerstone of serious music study.
REF ML128 .E74K8 1959
- McLean, Mervyn. An Annotated
Bibliography of Oceanic Music and Dance. Warren, Mich.: Harmonie
Park Press, 1995.
- Historic and modern literature
covering musics of the Pacific
Islands, including New Guinea, but exclusive of the Indonesian and
Malaysian archipelagos. Nearly 3700 entries, some briefly annotated.
REF ML120 .I84M3 1995
- Miller, Terry. Folk Music in
America: A Reference Guide. New York: Garland, 1986.
- Annotated entries on a wide range
of topics from ballads to
bluegrass; more generous coverage of Anglo-, Native-, and Afro-American
than of other ethnic traditions.
REF ML128 .F74M5 1986
- Porter, James. The
Traditional Music of Britain and Ireland. New York: Garland, 1989.
- Bibliography, with expert
annotations, of printed music
collections and secondary literature going back more than a century.
Separate divisions for England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales.
REF ML128 .F74P6 1989
- Post, Jennifer. Ethnomusicology:
A guide to Research. New York: Rontledge, 2004.
- An attempt at a comprehensive
survey, in all relevant formats,
issued from 1990 to 2002, though including serial publications with
earlier start dates. Descriptions extend from the perfunctory to the
generous. Incorporation of sound and video recordings is a strength.
REF ML128 .E84P6 2004
- Schuursma, Ann Briegleb. Ethnomusicology
Research: A Reference Guide. New York: Garland, 1992.
- A thoughtful, highly selective
bibliography designed as an
introduction and arranged according to the principal areas of world
musics research. The annotations situate the relevant subjects not only
within the field but also relate them to themes in anthropology and
humanistic studies. Concise and approachable.
REF ML128 .E74S4 1992
- Southern, Eileen and Josephine
Wright. African-American Traditions in Song, Sermon, Tale, and
Dance. New York: Garland, 1990.
- An annotated guide to collections
of primary documents as well as to the published literature on
Afro-American oral traditions.
REF ML128 .B45S6 1990
HISTORICAL
/ CHRONOLOGICAL SURVEYS
- Ling, Jan. A History of
European Folk Music. Rochester, N.Y.: Rochester University Press,
1997.
- Arranged thematically by social
function. An outline and
typology of the forms of orally transmitted musical traditions--from
signal calls to seasonal rituals--in early modern to 20th-century
Europe.
REF ML3580 .L55 1997
- Lovell, John. Black Song: The
Forge and the Flame. New York: Macmillan, 1972.
- Drawing on sources in the fields
of sociology, folk narrative,
and theology as well as music and dance, this is an unprecedented
exploration of a folk tradition of enormous influence.
REF ML3556 .L68B5 1972
MUSICAL
INSTRUMENTS / ORGANOLOGY
- Brincard, Marie-Therese, ed.. Sounding
Forms: African Musical Instruments. New York: American Federation
of Arts, 1989.
- 10 essays by music and art
historians and photographs from an
exhibition first installed at the National Museum of African Art in
Washington, D.C.
REF ML462 .N5A47 1989
- Diagram Group. Musical
Instruments of the World.New York: Sterling, 1997.
- Documents the search among
cultures worldwide for objects that
can be manipulated to make music; organized according to the
Sachs-Hornbostel system. With several thousand detailed line drawings
and diagrams.
REF ML102 .I59D4 1997
- Kartomi, Margaret. On
Concepts and Classifications of Musical Instruments. Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, 1990.
- Comparison of organological
classification systems in various
cultures, in part so as to understand the role of music-making in human
life itself.
REF ML460 .K36 1990
- Ortiz, Fernando. Los
Instrumentos de la Musica Afrocubana. Madrid: Musica Mundana
Maqueda, [1996]. 2 vols.
- An internationally praised study,
originally published in the
1950s, that documents the extraordinary influence of instruments of
African origin in the Caribbean and throughout the Americas.
REF ML480 .O77I5 1996x
- Rault, Lucie. Musical
Instruments: Craftsmanship and Traditions from Prehistory to the
Present. New York: Harry Abrams, 2000.
- Highly selective cross-cultural
survey, but valuable for its
extensive visual documentation of both instruments and the ritual
settings in which they are played.
REF ML460 .R385M8 2000
- Sadie, Stanley, ed. The New
Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments. London: Macmillan, 1984. 3
vols.
- The standard resource, without
question the most important of
its kind. Includes entires for some 10,000 folk and non-Western
instruments.
REF ML102 .I59N48 1984
-
A note on
periodical indexes:
There is no current indexing
agency that addresses world or
ethnic musics periodicals exclusively, and many relevant writings
appear in anthropology, folklore, and other publications. For music
periodicals, there exist three publishers' cumulations:
--Répertoire Internationale de Littérature Musicale,
or RILM.
Abstracts, indexes most formats (books, conference reports, theses, as
well as periodicals), though emphasizes coverage of scholarly
publications. Has the advantage of providing content abstracts in
addition to citations. The print edition, available in Music Library,
begins coverage with 1967. Consult quinquennial (5-year) index volumes
when available.
REF ML1 .I83 (located on central REF shelves)
--The Music Index
has expanded its coverage over the years to include most English and
major foreign-language jazz periodicals; has included Down Beat and
Metronome from its inception. For the print edition, published since
1949 and available in the Music Library, each volume must be consulted
separately. All authors, subjects, and titles in a single alphabetical
listing. Also indexes reviews.
REF ML118 .M987M8 (located on central REF shelves)
--International Index to Music Periodicals,
or IIMP, is a recent undertaking that is published on CD-ROM and on the
Web. For the present its usefulness lies in its being the most
up-to-date index, but its coverage is gradually extending
chronologically backwards and it promises full text access to articles
in the future. The Music Library subscribes to the CD-ROM edition.
For a recommended view of the
publishing situation in this
field, read Kathleen Abromeit's review of Music Index and IIMP CD-ROMs
in Notes 53 (1996-97): 1215-1220.
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Last updated 5.03.06 jv
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