Books in the SOAS Studies in Music series

Providing assessments of John Blacking's work, this book talks about the manipulation of traditional performance settings in pursuit of political or social strategies; children's music acquisition as an indicator of the innate musical capacity of humans; the biology of music making; the creation of pleasure, pain and power during dance; and more.

P'ansori is the quintessential traditional Korean musical drama, in which epic tales are sung and narrated by a solo singer accompanied by a drummer. Drawing on her extensive research in Korea and its diasporas, Haekyung Um describes and analyses the creative processes of p'ansori, weaving into her discussion musical.

The early-Republican era (1923-1938) was a major period of musical and cultural change in Turkey. Representing more than twenty years of research, Alaturka: Style in Turkish Music is a study of the significance of style in Turkish music and, in particular.

The last quarter of the twentieth century and the early years of the twenty-first saw a steady stream of new songbook publications and recordings in Yiddish - newly composed songs, well-known singers performing nostalgic favourites, American popular songs translated into Yiddish, theatre songs, and even a couple of forays into Yiddish hip hop.

Ma'luf, which literally means 'familiar' or 'customary,' bears the auditory traces of music brought to North Africa by Muslim and Jewish refugees escaping the Christian reconquista of Spain between the tenth and seventeenth centuries.

Explores the policy, ideology and practice of preservation and promotion of East Asian intangible cultural heritage, focusing on music traditions. This title intends to situate considerations of Japan, Korea, China and Taiwan together - states that were amongst the first to establish legislation and systems for indigenous traditions.

Marie-Galante is a small island situated in the Caribbean to the south of Guadeloupe. This book focuses on kadril dance and gwo ka drumming, two musical practices on the island with which Marie-Galantais construct unique perceptions of self in relation, specifically, to Africa and France.

Explains how musical art is an essential part of the identity of the Japanese geisha rather than a secondary feature. This book details the musical genres and traditions with which geisha have been involved during their artistic history, as well as their position within the traditional arts society.

In the Central Himalayan region of Garhwal, the gods (devtas) enjoy dancing and come on to their mediums when musicians play and 'make' them dance. This book examines music and musical practice in Garhwal from an analytical perspective that explores the nexus between musical sounds and performance events.

Serves as a musical ethnography of a Quechua-speaking community of Northern Potosi, in the Bolivian Andes. This work explores how music permeates the lives of this group of herders and agriculturalists. It delves into the meanings ascribed to sound; charts unfamiliar aesthetic territories; and suggests how modernity can contribute to indigeneity.

What is it about the history, geographical position and cultures of the Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia that has made music such a potent and powerful agent? This book looks at the complex relationship between music and power across a range of musical genres and countries.

Japanese folk performing arts incorporate a body of entertainments that range from the ritual to the secular. They may be the ritual dances at Shinto shrines performed to summon and entertain deities. This title provides an introductory guide to the major performance types as understood by Japanese scholars.

An examination of the music of the Balinese gender wayang, the quartet of metallophones - gender - that accompanies the Balinese shadow puppet play - wayang kulit. It tackles a number of core ethnomusicological concerns, including the relationship between composition and improvisation, and also highlights issues specific to Balinese music.

Traces the formation the Twelve Muqam, a set of musical suites linked to the Uyghurs, who are one of China's minority nationalities, and culturally Central Asian Muslims.

In this work, the author examines timba, a contemporary Afrocuban dance music style that has become popular since Cuba's post-Soviet economic crisis, and shows how this music has come to represent the sound of a crisis that is not only economic but also social and political in nature.

Since the early 1990s, Okinawan music has experienced an extraordinary boom in popularity throughout Japan. In particular, the Yaeyama region in the south of Okinawa has long been known as a region rich in performing arts. This title explores some of the reasons for the high profile of Yaeyaman music, both inside and outside Yaeyama.