Riverrun Press, Incorporated, Date: 1993. Paperback. Good. Pages can have notes/highlighting. Spine may show signs of wear. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less.Dust jacket quality is not guaranteed. 1993. Riverrun Press, Incorporated ISBN 0714536148 9780714536149 [US]

Riverrun Pr, Date: 1982-02. Paperback. Good. 1982. Riverrun Pr ISBN 0714536148 9780714536149 [US]

London: John Calder (Publishers) Ltd, Date: 1977. Repaired; Light Creasing on Front, Rear Covers, Spine; Front, Rear Covers, Spine Lightly Chipped; Spine Slightly Cocked; Edges Lightly Soiled; Slight Yellowing Due to Age. SYNOPSIS: This is probably the most original and controversial book on music to appear in English for many years. The author argues that the musical tradition of Western Society has become stultified, that music is heard in artificial conditions and is increasingly irrelevant to modern life, however much pleasure it may give to a small elite. In contrast he examines the very different role that music plays in Eastern, African and less industrialized cultures, where whole villages and communities participate directly in music-making and where music is not an artificial ritualised oasis outside normal life, but an essential part of everyday experience. From a radical analysis of musical history and its styles over the last 400 years, he draws new conclusions, showing how the present nature and the future of a society can be deduced from its music and how changing musical patterns directly effect change in society. The author examines composers and schools of music that are often unknown to modern musicians and music lovers, such as the early American music of William Billings, the experiments of Harry Partch and the music of Bali and Africa. He is often critical of modern musical institutions that he feels have betrayed the goals that the best modern ...