Beth Szczepanski examines how traditional and modern elements interact in the current practice, reception and functions of wind music, or shengguan, at monasteries in Wutaishan, one of China's four holy mountains of Buddhism. The book provides an invaluable insight into the political and economic history of Wutaishan and its music, as well as the instrumentation, notation, repertoires, transmission and ritual function of monastic music at Wutaishan, and how that music has adapted to China's current economic, political and religious climate. The book is based on extensive field research at Wutaishan from 2005 to 2007, including interviews with monks, nuns, pilgrims and tourists. The author learned to play the sheng mouth organ and guanzi double-reed pipe, and recorded dozens of performances of monastic and lay music. The first extensive examination of Wutaishan's music by a Western scholar, the book brings a new perspective to a topic long favored by Chinese musicologists. At the same time, the book provides the non-musical scholar with an engaging exploration of the historical, political, economic and cultural forces that shape musical and religious practices in China.

Beth Szczepanski examines how traditional and modern elements interact in the current practice, reception and functions of wind music, or shengguan, at monasteries in Wutaishan, one of China's four holy mountains of Buddhism. The book provides an invaluable insight into the political and economic history of Wutaishan and its music, as well as the instrumentation, notation, repertoires, transmission and ritual function of monastic music at Wutaishan, and how that music has adapted to China's current economic, political and religious climate. The book is based on extensive field research at Wutaishan from 2005 to 2007, including interviews with monks, nuns, pilgrims and tourists. The author learned to play the sheng mouth organ and guanzi double-reed pipe, and recorded dozens of performances of monastic and lay music. The first extensive examination of Wutaishan's music by a Western scholar, the book brings a new perspective to a topic long favored by Chinese musicologists. At the same time, the book provides the non-musical scholar with an engaging exploration of the historical, political, economic and cultural forces that shape musical and religious practices in China.

This book opens the door on the magnificent living traditions of folk music in rural China. Stephen Jones's book illustrates the beauty and variety of these folk traditions, from the plangent shawm bands of the rugged north to the more mellifluous string ensembles of the southeastern coast. Working closely with the Music Research Institute in Beijing, Stephen Jones has used his fieldwork in China to write a book offering a rare insight into the riches of these traditions. It opens up a country where for the outsider official culture still largely obscures folk traditions, and where revolutionary opera and kitsch urban professional arrangements still dominate our image of Chinese music. The book is in three parts. Part one, The Social Background, discuses the turbulent history of folk ensembles in the twentieth century and the survival of folk ceremonial; part two outlines musical features of Chinese instrumental groups, such as scales, melody, and variation; part three gives practical introductions to some of the diverse regional genres.