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Review Essay

Volume 22 • Number 3

Spring 2003



 

 

AN ENCYCLOPEDIA OF ETHNIC NEIGHBORS AND THEIR MUSIC
American Musical Traditions: Volume 1, Native American Music. Edited by Jeff Todd Titon and Bob Carlin. Washington, D.C.: Prepared in collaboration with the Smithsonian/Folkways Archives. New York: Schirmer Reference, 2001. xviii + 188 pp. Maps, illustrations, bibliographies, glossary, and index. 5 vol. set $450.00.

Volume 2, African American Music. Edited by Jeff Todd Titon and Bob Carlin. Washington, D.C.: Prepared in collaboration with the Smithsonian/Folkways Archives. New York: Schirmer Reference, 2001. xviii + 200 pp. Maps, illustrations, bibliographies, glossary, and index.

Volume 3, British Isles Music. Edited by Jeff Todd Titon and Bob Carlin. Washington, D.C.: Prepared in collaboration with the Smithsonian/Folkways Archives. New York: Schirmer Reference, 2001. xviii + 254 pp. Maps, illustrations, bibliographies, glossary, and index.

Volume 4, European American Music. Edited by Jeff Todd Titon and Bob Carlin. Washington, D.C.: Prepared in collaboration with the Smithsonian/ Folkways Archives. New York: Schirmer Reference, 2001. xviii + 188 pp. Maps, illustrations, bibliographies, glossary, and index.

Volume 5, Latino American and Asian American Music. Edited by Jeff Todd Titon and Bob Carlin. Prepared in collaboration with the Smithsonian/Folk- ways Archives. New York: Schirmer Reference, 2001. xviii + 234 pp. Maps, illustrations, bibliographies, glossary, and index.

Victor Greene
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee


Anyone interested in an important part of the expressive culture of American ethnic groups will welcome with enthusiasm the publication of this pioneer reference work. This is true in at least two respects. One is, as editor Titon explains in his opening rationale, to recognize the scholarship of the latest generation of music researchers dealing with "traditional" music in both instrumental and vocal forms. This new genre is better called "traditional" rather than "folk" or popular, for it refers to a non-mainstream music, both oral and written, that groups have produced over a long period of time. Most of it has endured but changed over the generations; some of it has disappeared. In any event, what we have here is a valuable collection of recent ethnic music schol- arship, some of it from publications not easily accessible and other writings appearing in print for the first time. The heretofore scattered studies on ethnic musical traditions have been pulled together in this one multi-volume work.


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