Music, culture and place (work in progress)
This page has a selection of resources related to music cultures across the world. Included are audiovisual resources, journals, edited books and books from series such as the Global Music Series, Cambridge companions and the Bloomsbury 33 1/3 series. To find further examples in Search enter the keywords related to your topic.
Edited Books
Selected edited books with chapters on the music of many different cultures and countries.
Musical Collaboration Between Indigenous and Non-Indigenous People in Australia by Call Number: OnlinePublication Date: 2022Each chapter demonstrates the processes of intercultural musical collaboration which contribute to positive relationships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples in Australia and reflects on the benefits and the challenges. Specific examples show how Indigenous and non-Indigenous people to work together, to learn from each other, and to improve and strengthen their relationships. The metaphor of the "third space" of intercultural music making is interwoven in different ways throughout.
The other classical musics: Fifteen great traditions by Call Number: OnlinePublication Date: 2016Fifteen parallel traditions are presented in this book where each music is analysed in terms of its modes, scales, and theory; its instruments, forms, and aesthetic goals; its historical development, golden age, and condition today; and the conventions governing its performance. It includes Mande and Uzbek-Tajik music, plus North American jazz, in addition to the styles of the Middle East, the Indian sub-continent, the Far East, and South-East Asia.
Music = Cultures in Contact by Call Number: Online (2014) and print (1994)Publication Date: 2014First Published in print in 1994 this edited collection examines how and why change occurs in musical culture, particularly change caused by contact between two or many impinging cultures, sub-cultures or classes within a culture.
Musics of many cultures: An introduction by Call Number: Online and print 780.89 M466M.uPublication Date: 1983Twenty essays by ethnomusicologists focus on Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Thai, Indian, Iranian, Jewish, Polynesian and South American Indian music as well as the music of Indonesia (Sumatra, Java and Bali), the Sahara, the Arabic Near East, Ghana, Ethiopia and the music of the First Nations of Australia, South Africa, Alaska and North America. There are extensive illustrations with maps, drawings, diagrams, photographs, and music examples.
The Oxford Handbook of Children's Musical Cultures by Call Number: OnlinePublication Date: 201335 chapters provide an interdisciplinary approach to the musical lives of children in a variety of cultures, and their role as both preservers and innovators of music. This handbook provides windows into the musical enculturation, education, and training of children, and the ways in which they learn, express, invent, and preserve music. Offering an understanding of the nature, structures, and styles of music preferred and used by children from toddlerhood through childhood and into adolescence.
The Oxford Handbook of Applied Ethnomusicology by
Applied studies scholarship has triggered a not-so-quiet revolution in the discipline of ethnomusicology. The current generation of applied ethnomusicologists has moved toward participatory action research, involving themselves in musical communities and working directly on their behalf. Theessays in The Oxford Handbook of Applied Ethnomusicology, edited by Svanibor Pettan and Jeff Todd Titon, theorize applied ethnomusicology, offer histories, and detail practical examples with the goal of stimulating further development in the field.The essays in the book, all newly commissioned for the volume, reflect scholarship and data gleaned from eleven countries by over twenty contributors. Themes and locations of the research discussed encompass all world continents. The authors present case studies encompassing multiple places; otherthat discuss circumstances within a geopolitical unit, either near or far. Many of the authors consider marginalized peoples and communities; others argue for participatory action research. All are united in their interest in overarching themes such as conflict, education, archives, and the statusof indigenous peoples and immigrants.A volume that at once defines its field, advances it, and even acts as a large-scale applied ethnomusicology project in the way it connects ideas and methodology, The Oxford Handbook of Applied Ethnomusicology is a seminal contribution to the study of ethnomusicology, theoretical and applied.
Call Number: OnlinePublication Date: 2015
The Oxford Handbook of Medical Ethnomusicology by
Medical Ethnomusicology is a new field of integrative and holistic research and applied practice that approaches music, health, and healing anew, engaging the biological, psychological, emotional, social, and spiritual domains of human life that frame and inform our experiences of health and healing, illness and disease, life and death. The power of music to create health and healing at the individual, community, and societal levels is not only linked to these domains of human life, but is intimately interwoven with the ever present and multifaceted frame of culture, which is often where meaning lies, and is a key factor that creates or inhibits efficacy. The Oxford Handbook of Medical Ethnomusicology appeals to all those interested in music, medicine, and culture, and represents a new stage of collaborative discourse among researchers and practitioners who embrace and incorporate knowledge from a diversity of fields. Importantly, such knowledge, by definition, spans the globe of traditional cultural practices of music, spirituality, and medicine, including biomedical, integrative, complementary, and alternative models; is rooted in new physics, philosophy, psychology, sociology, cognitive science, linguistics, medical anthropology, and of course, music, dance, and all the healing arts. The book is more than the first collected volume to establish the discipline of medical ethnomusicology and express its broad potential; it is also an expression of a wider paradigm shift of innovative thinking and collaboration that fully embraces both the health sciences and the healing arts. The authors encourage the development of this new paradigm through an openness to and engagement of knowledge from diverse research areas and domains of human life conventionally viewed as disparate, yet laden with potential benefits for an improved or vibrant quality of life, prevention of illness and disease, even cure and healing.
Call Number: OnlinePublication Date: 2008
Global Music Series
The Matheson Library holds 40 titles in the Global Music Series.
Music in Pacific Island Cultures by Call Number: 781.62994 D566M 2011
Music in Ireland by Call Number: 781.629162 H356M 2004
Music in Mainland Southeast Asia by Call Number: 780.959 D734M 2010
Music in Brazil by Call Number: 781.640981 M978M 2006
Thinking musically: experiencing music, expressing culture by Call Number: 780.8 W119T 2013Publication Date: 2012Bonnie Wade discusses how various cultural influences - gender, ethnicity, mass media, westernization, nationalism, and acculturation - are shaping music and the ways that we experience it.
Musical Instruments
The Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments is a good starting place for studying the evolution of musical instruments from different countries of the world with comprehensive articles such as those for Lute, Lyre, Trumpet and Drum offering lists of academic sources. Since organology includes the study of musical instruments and their classifications, as well as their development through history and cultures, it is a good key word to use when searching databases. Musical Instruments from Oxford Bibliographies has a section "Instruments by Global Region".
The Origin of Musical Instruments by Call Number: OnlinePublication Date: 2020The work of French musicologist, ethnologist and critic Andre Schaeffner (1895- 1980) grew out of his first organological studies of the history of Western classical instruments in the late 1920s. Almost 80 years after its first publication, the scientific relevance and influence of Schaeffner's primary hypothesis--that the origins of music can be traced to the human body through gesture, dance and the movements in the use of musical instruments and their ancestor tools--remains pertinent in fields which have returned to informed speculative and empirical research on the origins of music.
Japanese Musical Instruments by Call Number: 784.1952 D313J 2000Publication Date: 2000During Japan's early history, musical instruments were seen as sources of ritual power, allowing performers to call up divine forces for inspiration and aid. As Japan developed a court and then an urbanized society, instrumental performance remained at the heart of aesthetic experience. A survey from the tenth to the twentieth century, it describes the dual roles musical instruments have as 'instruments of culture' and as devices for producing sound.
The African Imagination in Music by Call Number: OnlinePublication Date: 2016A general introduction to sub-Saharan African music that covers musical instruments directly in chapter two, examining historical sources for information on instruments, classification, and Indigenous ideas about instruments.
Musical instruments of India: Their history and development by Call Number: 781.910954 D488M2Publication Date: 1987Contents: Cultural basis -- Ethnic and cultural history of instruments -- Generalia -- Ghana vadya [Idiophones] -- Avanaddha vadya [Membranophones] -- Sushira vadya [Aerophones] -- Tata vadya [Chordophones] -- Note on the jaltarang.
Journals
A selection of scholarly journals which will include peer reviewed journal articles related to music across place. For more key music journals go to https://guides.lib.monash.edu/music/journals.
- Ethnomusicology
The official journal of the Society for Ethnomusicology and is published by the University of Illinois which publishes articles on current theoretical perspectives and research in ethnomusicology and related fields. It is aimed at a diverse audience of musicologists, anthropologists, folklorists, cultural studies scholars, musicians, and others.
Example:
Doubleday, V. (1999). The frame drum in the Middle East: Women, musical instruments and power. Ethnomusicology, 43(1), 101-134. https://doi.org/10.2307/852696 - Ethnomusicology forum
This journal has provides a forum for new thinking in ethnomusicology, defined broadly as the study of "people making music". It is characterised by its interdisciplinary nature and its global perspective. Articles often emphasise engagement with people as music makers, taking the form of ethnographic writing following one or more periods of fieldwork.
Example:
Wiedenkeller, T.M. (2021) The Hizz Collective: acoustic disruption and claiming space in the Cairo soundscape, Ethnomusicology Forum, 30(3), 443-464. https://doi.org/10.1080/17411912.2021.2008263 -
Publishes research and scholarship on recent issues and debates surrounding international popular musics, also known as World Music, Global Pop, World Beat or, more recently, World Music 2.0.
Example:
Alonso, G. (2017). “Tomorrow never knows”: The influence of the Beatles’ music in Brazil. Journal of World Popular Music, 4(2), 245–263. https://doi.org/10.1558/jwpm.33207 - MUSICultures
This journal published by the Canadian Society for Traditional Music contains scholarly articles and reviews on ethnomusicology topics in Canada and abroad. The Journal is intended for universities, and other academic and scholarly institutions and communities.
Example:
Little, J. T., & Przybylski, L. (2022). Hearing resistance through Wolakota: Lakota hip hop and environmental activism. MUSICultures, 49, 45-70. https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/hearing-resistance-through-wolakota-lakota-hip/docview/2779162734/se-2?accountid=12528 - Muziki : journal of music research in Africa
Muziki is focused primarily on African music research. It provides a platform for established and emerging scholars in the fields of performance practice, ethnomusicology, and ‘traditional’ musicology as well as jazz and popular music studies encompassing diverse aspects of local, diasporic, and global research.
Example:
Zegeye, A. (2007). Mulatu Astatke, Ethio-jazz maestro. Muziki, 4(1), 129-151. https://doi.org/10.1080/18125980701754645 - Perfect beat : the journal of research into contemporary music and popular culture
Perfect Beat focuses on the popular music of the 'Pacific rim' and includes historical and contemporary studies with contributions invited from popular music studies, musicology, cultural studies and ethnomusicological perspectives.
Example:
Strong, C. (2014). All the girls in town: The missing women of Australian rock, cultural memory and coverage of the death of Chrissy Amphlett. Perfect Beat, 15(2), 149–166. https://doi.org/10.1558/prbt.v15i2.18363 - The World of Music
The World of Music promotes research and study in the field of ethnomusicology. It seeks a critical understanding of performing arts and cultural practices involving music, dance and theatre worldwide. Journal articles discuss music around the world, ranging from highly particular and localized systems of musical thinking in traditional musics to global (musical) cultural flows and consumption.
Example:
Ghrab, A. (2005). The Western study of intervals in "Arabic music," from the eighteenth century to the Cairo Congress. The World of Music, 47(3), 55-79. https://www.jstor.org/stable/41700007 - Yearbook of Traditional Music
The Yearbook for Traditional Music is published by Cambridge University Press. It contains essays, reviews and reports of music and dance research around the world. The Yearbook was established in 1949 as the Journal of the International Folk Music Council.
Example:
Curran, G., & Yeoh, C. (2022). “That is why I am telling this story”: Musical analysis as insight into the transmission of knowledge and performance practice of a Wapurtarli song by Warlpiri Women from Yuendumu, Central Australia. Yearbook for Traditional Music, 53, 45-70. https://doi.org/10.1017/ytm.2021.4
33 1/3 Series from Bloomsbury Music and Sound
33 1/3 Series from Bloomsbury Music and Sound
A series of short books about popular music, focusing on individual albums and their cultural impact. The initial volumes in the series focused on Japanese and Brazilian music and now titles include volumes on the popular music of Australia/Oceania, Europe, Africa, the Middle East and more.
João Gilberto and Stan Getz's Getz/Gilberto by Call Number: OnlinePublication Date: 2018A study of all artists who contributed to a great album. The leading figure of bossa nova João Gilberto, the Philadelphia-born and New York-raised cool jazz artist Stan Getz and the less-understood participants, Astrud Gilberto with unrehearsed, English-language vocals, Creed Taylor the producer and Olga Albizu who drew the arresting, abstract-expressionist cover art.
Shonen Knife's Happy Hour by Call Number: OnlinePublication Date: 2021Shonen Knife-an all-female punk trio from Osaka, Japan-cultivated a global fan base that has included the likes of Nirvana's Kurt Cobain and Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore. Their 1998 album Happy Hour, with tunes about delicacies from sushi to banana chips, encapsulates the band's charming fusion of cuteness with punk rock cool. Over the last forty years Shonen Knife have used seemingly straightforward songs about food to comment on gender stereotypes in popular culture.
Darkthrone's a Blaze in the Northern Sky by Call Number: OnlinePublication Date: 2020Darkthrone's A Blaze in the Northern Sky (1992) is a foundational keystone of the musical and aesthetic vision of the notorious Norwegian black metal scene and one of the most beloved albums of the genre. This book explores the album in the context of exoticism and musical geography, examining how black metal music has come to conjure images of untamed Nordic wildernesses for fans worldwide. In doing so, it analyzes aspects of musical style and production that created the distinctly "grim" sound of Darkthrone and Norwegian black metal.
Selected archives
Many musical styles have a connection with particular places. The Library of Congress has a "Songs of America" site which celebrates the songs of the people of the United States of America.
- Hip Hop/RapAugust 2023 marks the fiftieth anniversary of Hip-Hop, said to have begun in 1973 at a little South-Bronx party hosted by DJ Kool Herc. We can read that "years before Herc introduced New York to the breakbeat, African-American music" and that spoken-word traditions had been "brewing in the great social unrest of the 60s and 70s."
This blog describes two original copyright deposits which represent the early foundations of Hip-Hop.
Streamed video
Streamed video related to music, culture and place can be found on databases such at Ethnographic Video Online, Kanopy and BBC Video Collection.
- BBC video collection This link opens in a new windowAlexander Street's BBC Video Collection comprises nearly 600 titles from the most-viewed BBC films. Viewers can explore relevant, timely documentaries on topics that span multiple subjects, such as history, anthropology, science, religion, health sciences, art, and more.
- Ethnographic video online This link opens in a new windowTis database is is intended to be a visual encyclopedia of human behavior and culture, It contains classic and contemporary documentaries; previously unpublished footage from working anthropologists and ethnographers in the field; and select feature films. It includes footage from every continent and hundreds of unique cultures.
- Kanopy This link opens in a new windowTo log into Kanopy: - Click on 'Log In to Monash' - Enter your Monash credentials in the popup window - Click on 'Skip' for "Create Your Account" Kanopy includes music documentaries and features such as captions, transcripts, clip creation, and playlist creation.
- Music & performing arts (Music online) This link opens in a new windowContains streaming audio, video, reference, and scores on the web. It allows users to cross search all of the music databases that Monash University library subscribes to from Alexander Street Press; that is, any combination of these databases: American Song, Classical Music Library, Classical Scores Library, Contemporary World Music, Dance in Video, Theatre in video, The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music, Opera in Video, Smithsonian Global Sound for Libraries, Garland Encyclopedia of World Music and Popular Music Library.
Music and Culture databases with audiovisual content
- Music online. Smithsonian global sound for libraries This link opens in a new window This database includes the published recordings owned by the Smithsonian Folkways Recordings label, and the archival audio collections of the legendary Folkways Records, Cook, Dyer-Bennet, Fast Folk, Monitor, Paredon and other labels. It also includes music recorded around the African continent by Hugh Tracey for the International Library of African Music, as well as material collected by recordists on the South Asian subcontinent from the Archive Research Centre for Ethnomusicology (ARCE). It constitutes a virtual encyclopedia of the world's musical and aural traditions.
- Music online. Garland encyclopedia of world music This link opens in a new window The Garland encyclopedia of world music online is a comprehensive online resource devoted to music research of all the world's peoples. Each volume contains an overview of a geographic region, a survey of its musical heritage, and a description of specific musical genres, practices, and performances. Articles include detailed photographs that show musicians, musical instruments, and the cultural context of dances, rituals, and ceremonies. It contains the entire set of 10 print volumes (over 9,200 pages) as well as complete indexing for genre, subject, instrument, place, person, ensemble, and cultural group, as well as links to the associated audio examples for each volume.
- British Library Sounds The British Library makes collections of ethnographic sound available for non-commercial research, study and private enjoyment. See the World & Traditional Music which includes a series of interviews with leading ethnomusicologists, about their lives working in the field of ethnomusicology. Before using these recordings, please read the information on ethical and permitted usage.
- Robert Winslow Gordon and American folk music This link opens in a new window In 1928 Robert Winslow Gordon became the first archivist of the Archive of American Folk Song (now the Archive of Folk Culture) in the Library of Congress. He was a pioneer in using mechanical means to document folk musicians, and his cylinders and discs in the Library of Congress form part of his legacy. The collection of Gordon manuscripts contained here, primarily from 1922 to 1932, offers researchers online access to the daily workings of an important twentieth-century American folklorist ...
Streamed world music on CD
- Music online. Contemporary world music This link opens in a new window Music Online: Contemporary World Music delivers the sounds of all regions from every continent. The database contains important genres such as reggae, worldbeat, neo-traditional, world fusion, Balkanic jazz, African film, Bollywood, Arab swing and jazz, and other genres such as traditional music - Indian classical, fado, flamenco, klezmer, zydeco, gospel, gagaku, and more.
- Music online. Smithsonian global sound for libraries This link opens in a new window This database includes the published recordings owned by the Smithsonian Folkways Recordings label, and the archival audio collections of the legendary Folkways Records, Cook, Dyer-Bennet, Fast Folk, Monitor, Paredon and other labels. It also includes music recorded around the African continent by Hugh Tracey for the International Library of African Music, as well as material collected by recordists on the South Asian subcontinent from the Archive Research Centre for Ethnomusicology (ARCE). It constitutes a virtual encyclopedia of the world's musical and aural traditions.
- Music online. Garland encyclopedia of world music This link opens in a new window The Garland encyclopedia of world music online is a comprehensive online resource devoted to music research of all the world's peoples. Each volume contains an overview of a geographic region, a survey of its musical heritage, and a description of specific musical genres, practices, and performances. Articles include detailed photographs that show musicians, musical instruments, and the cultural context of dances, rituals, and ceremonies. It contains the entire set of 10 print volumes (over 9,200 pages) as well as complete indexing for genre, subject, instrument, place, person, ensemble, and cultural group, as well as links to the associated audio examples for each volume.
MAMU Music Archive of Monash University
Image Credits: Photographer, Hidris Kartomi,Margaret Kartomi Collection, Music Archive of Monash University, Sir Zelman Cowen School of Music.
The Music Archive of Monash University is located in the South wing of the 4th floor, Menzies Building. You can also search the Online Collection.
The Monash University Library has access to The Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments.