Description
Book SynopsisTrade ReviewThis is a perceptive book and a comfortable read. . . . [Levin] beautifully presents his central ideas regarding the spiritual and ecological music making in Inner Asia with enchanting and captivating storytelling. . . . A welcome addition to reading this text is the accompanying CD/DVD, which includes musical examples illustrating the stories and further draws readers into the telling of his story. These audiovisual examples not only function to help in understanding the book itself but are useful for class teaching on Inner Asian music.
* Asian Music *
Always readable, with issues and ideas presented in an immediate style, rich in personal vignettes and ethnographic detail, and brought to life by the fabulous audio/visual supplement material that is available on-line, Where Rivers and Mountains Sing is a gift for teachers and students.
* Ethnomusicology *
This is a complex, informationally-dense book that fits well into recent trends toward aural phenomena.
-- Nina Fales
Table of ContentsContents
Preface
Acknowledgments
On Language and Pronunciation
Dramatis Personae
1. Finding the Field
Road Warriors
Kyzyl
Reinventing Tuva
2. The World Is Alive with the Music of Sound
Musical Offerings
In a Cave
Natural Reverb
Interlude
3. Listening the Tuvan Way
Timbre-Centered Music
Throat-Singing: The Ideal Timbral Art
4. Sound Mimesis
Mimesis and the Power of Representation
Hunters: The Earliest Sound Technologists?
Ludic Mimesis
Sound Mimesis and Spiritual Landscape
Sound Mimesis as Narrative
The Mimesis of Mimesis
Mimesis as Cultural Memory
5. Music, Sound, and Animals
Animal Spirits
Signaling and Singing to Animals
Listening to Animals
Animals in Music
"Animal Style" Art and Music
6. An Animist View of the World
Huun-Huur-Tu at Home
Epic Dreams
Shamans and Champagne
The Spirit of Manas
Women Are Not Supposed to Do This
The Ondar Phenomenon
Crete
Postlude: Appropriation and Its Discontents
Glossary
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Key to Selections on Compact Disc
Key to Selections on DVD
