Contemporary Music and Music Cultures

Book excerpt: The purpose of this book of essays is to provide a novel sort of introduction to music. Struck by the fact that most introductions to the art are oriented toward an historical approach or, on the other hand, cover the field of music systematically by giving attention to selected parameters such as melody, rhythm, and harmony, or to genres of music such as symphony, opera, and song, the authors were impressed by the attractiveness of an approach that focuses on music in the contemporary world, and particularly on the way in which it interacts with those social, political, and cultural processes that distinguish the twentieth century. The authors have attempted to produce a group of original essays, each of which is devoted to an approach to the study of music and musical culture, and which has one repertory or culture as its main topic of discussion. The authors view the contemporary world as consisting of the industrialized nations of the West and the developing countries of the Third World; they include among contemporary musics all sorts of musical styles that have come into existence in the twentieth century, whether their background is part and parcel of the twentieth century or whether it is to be ultimately sought in the distant past. The authors feel also that the reader will be interested in musics of the educated and elite as well as those of the broad masses of urban and rural population.