The Musical World

Pieces of the Musical World: Sounds and Cultures is a fieldwork-based ethnomusicology textbook that introduces a series of musical worlds each through a single "piece." It focuses on a musical sound or object that provides a springboard from which to tell a story about a particular geographic region, introducing key aspects of the cultures in which it is embedded, contexts of performance, the musicians who create or perform it, the journeys it has travelled, and its changing meanings. A collaborative venture by staff and research ethnomusicologists associated with the Department of Music at SOAS, University of London, Pieces of the Musical World is organized thematically. Three broad themes: "Place", "Spirituality" and "Movement" help teachers to connect contemporary issues in ethnomusicology, including soundscape studies, music and the environment, the politics of identity, diaspora and globalization, and music and the body. Each of the book's fourteen chapters highlights a single musical "piece" broadly defined, spanning the range of "traditional," "popular", "classical" and "contemporary" musics, and even sounds which might be considered "not music." Primary sources and a web site hosting recordings with interactive listening guides, a glossary of musical terms and interviews all help to create a unique and dynamic learning experience of our musical world.

Secular Songbooks Classroom Music

Now in Paperback! J.J. Johnson, known as the spiritual father of modern trombone, has been a notable figure in the history of jazz. His career has embodied virtually every innovation and development in jazz over the past half-century. The first comprehensive biography, filmography, catalog of compositions, and discography of J.J. Johnson.

Egyptian-born composer Halim El-Dabh has studied with the giants of 20th-century musical composition and conducting, including Leopold Stokowski, Irving Fine, and Leonard Bernstein. In the late 1950s El-Dabh worked with electronic music pioneers Otto Luening and Vladimir Ussachevsky at the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center. He was commissioned by choreographer and modern dance innovator Martha Graham to write the music for Clytemnestra and Lucifer. Although this biography focuses on his career from his arrival in the US in 1950 to his retirement from the faculty of Kent State University in 1991, his life in Egypt, its influence on him musically, and his creative life after retirement is also covered. In March 2002 El-Dabh presented a concert of his electronic and electro-acoustic works and three concerts of his orchestral chamber music in collaboration with the Bibliotheca Alexandrina String Orchestra at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina (the famous Library of Alexandria of antiquity). The accompanying CD features excerpts of this programme.