Book Review
Jul. 3rd, 2004 10:22 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kenjariThe Anthropology of Music
by Alan P. Merriam
One of the nice things about the arts is that information does not become out of date as fast as it does in the sciences. This book was written in 1964, and I still found it largely useful. There were a few areas in which it showed its age, especially the use of "men" when the author clearly meant all the members of a society, tribe, group, etc. But I still got a lot out of it.
I went to Wesleyan University, which has a very good ethnomusicology program. My focus was more on piano, composing, and contemporary music, but I did take a couple of classes in world music, and I was very much aware of the world music studies going on around me. Reading The Anthropology of Music, I felt like I was filling in some of the the gaps of my knowledge of ethnomusicology. The book isn't really about specific music traditions or studies, although it has abundant examples drawn from ethnomusicological studies. It's more of an explanation and exploration of the concerns of ethnomusicology in general terms. According to Merriam, ethnomusicology had, prior to the mid 20th century, concentrated heavily on the analysis of the music itself. Thus, he concentrates on the anthropological and sociological side of the discipline: how music functions in a society, the role of the musician, how music is learned and transmitted, what music can tell us about a culture and its history, etc. It provided me with plenty to think about.
by Alan P. Merriam
One of the nice things about the arts is that information does not become out of date as fast as it does in the sciences. This book was written in 1964, and I still found it largely useful. There were a few areas in which it showed its age, especially the use of "men" when the author clearly meant all the members of a society, tribe, group, etc. But I still got a lot out of it.
I went to Wesleyan University, which has a very good ethnomusicology program. My focus was more on piano, composing, and contemporary music, but I did take a couple of classes in world music, and I was very much aware of the world music studies going on around me. Reading The Anthropology of Music, I felt like I was filling in some of the the gaps of my knowledge of ethnomusicology. The book isn't really about specific music traditions or studies, although it has abundant examples drawn from ethnomusicological studies. It's more of an explanation and exploration of the concerns of ethnomusicology in general terms. According to Merriam, ethnomusicology had, prior to the mid 20th century, concentrated heavily on the analysis of the music itself. Thus, he concentrates on the anthropological and sociological side of the discipline: how music functions in a society, the role of the musician, how music is learned and transmitted, what music can tell us about a culture and its history, etc. It provided me with plenty to think about.
