Scholars have long known that world music was not merely the globalized product of modern media, but rather that it connected religions, cultures, languages and nations throughout world history. The chapters in this History take readers to foundational historical moments – in Europe, Oceania, China, India, the Muslim world, North and South America – in search of the connections provided by a truly world music. Historically, world music emerged from ritual and religion, labor and life-cycles, which occupy chapters on Native American musicians, religious practices in India and Indonesia, and nationalism in Argentina and Portugal. The contributors critically examine music in cultural encounter and conflict, and as the critical core of scientific theories from the Arabic Middle Ages through the Enlightenment to postmodernism. Overall, the book contains the histories of the music of diverse cultures, which increasingly become the folk, popular and classical music of our own era.

Following the success of A Brief History of Curating this publication gathers together interviews with pioneering musicians of the 1950s to the 1980s.The book brings together avant-garde composers such as Elliot Carter, Pierre Boulez, and Karlheinz Stockhausen; originators of electro-acoustic music such as François Bayle, Pauline Oliveros, Iannis Xenakis, and Peter Zinovieff; Minimalist and Fluxus-inspired artists such as Tony Conrad, Henry Flynt, Phil Niblock, Yoko Ono, Steve Reich, and Terry Riley; as well figures such as Brian Eno, Kraftwerk, Arto Lindsay, and Gaetano Veloso.Their contributions map the evolution of the musical field, from early experiments in concrete and abstract music, to the electronic development and the hybridisation between Pop and avant-garde culture.This book is part of the Documents series, co-published with Les presses du réel and dedicated to critical writings.

A rapid journey through history from the Big Bang through to the 21st century.

Bringing together scholars from the fields of musicology and international history, this book investigates the significance of music to foreign relations, and how it affected the interaction of nations since the late 19th century. For more than a century, both state and non-state actors have sought to employ sound and harmony to influence allies and enemies, resolve conflicts, and export their own culture around the world. This book asks how we can understand music as an instrument of power and influence, and how the cultural encounters fostered by music changes our ideas about international history.