From Vienna into the World What would Vienna be without the Philharmonic? 175 years have passed since the founding of this world-class orchestra in March of 1842, 175 years in which the musicians have provided their public countless glorious musical experiences. Their inimitable and unmistakable sound has aroused truly rapturous enthusiasm everywhere. Christoph Wagner-Trenkwitz tells us of the milestones in the Philharmonic's history—collaboration with great conductors, the special quality of the "Viennese sound," the daily work of an international orchestra—and in so doing unearths memorable anecdotes from behind the scenes. With extensive illustrations and photographs from the Vienna Philharmonic archive

The Sound Traditions: Studies in Ismaili Texts and Thought is a collection of Ismail K. Poonawala’s articles that examine the origins and development of Ismaili thought.

In 1959, three writers - all intimately familiar with the Native American culture of their time and locale - collaborated to produce a study entitled 'Religious Customs of Modern Michigan Algonquians'. That study is reproduced here - for the first time in book form - along with a substantive editor's introduction.

Based on the author's fieldwork in Ghana with the Asante and Denkyira ivory trumpeters, this book draws on interviews, field recordings, oral traditions, written accounts, archaeological evidence, transcriptions and linguistic analyses to situate the Asante trumpet tradition in historical culture. There are seven ntahera trumpet ensembles in residence at the Asante Manhyia Palace in Kumase, and ntahera trumpets are blown at every Akan court.

Sonic Liturgy: Ritual and Music in Hindu Tradition builds on the foundation of Guy L. Beck's earlier work, which described the theoretical role of sound in Hindu thought. Sonic Liturgy continues the discussion of sound into the realm of Hindu ritual and musical traditions of worship. Beginning with the chanting of the Sama-Veda alongside the fire sacrifices of the ancient Indo-Aryans and with the classical Gandharva music as outlined in the musicological texts of Bharata and Dattila, Beck establishes a historical foundation for an in-depth understanding of the role of music in the early Puja rituals and Indian theater in the vernacular poetry of the Bhakti movements in medieval temple worship of Siva and Vishnu in southern India, and later in the worship of Krishna in the northern Braj region. By surveying a multitude of worship traditions, Beck reveals a continuous template of interwoven ritual and music in Hindu tradition that he terms "sonic liturgy," a structure of religious worship and experience that incorporates sound and music on many levels. In developing the concept and methods for understanding the phenomenon of sonic liturgy, Beck draws from liturgical studies and ritual studies, broadening the dimensions of each, as well as from recent work in the fields of Indian religion and music. As he maps the evolution of sonic liturgy in Hindu culture, Beck shows how, parallel to the development of religious ritual from ancient times to the present, there is a less understood progression of musical form, beginning with Vedic chants of two to three notes to complicated genres of devotional temple music employing ragas with up to a dozen notes. Sonic liturgy in its maturity is manifest as a complex interactive worship experience of the Vaishnava sects, presented here in Beck's final chapters.

This almanac of sound words important to artists and scholars highlights words that expand the way we speak (and write) about sonic experiences. Why write about sound, and how? If sonic philosophy is the attempt "to think about sound by philosophical means," then a metaphilosophical debate appears almost immediately on the horizon: What is called for is an understanding about sound and language, but also about the preconditions of musical understanding. What is at stake is the question of language and sound, as well as expanding how we speak about sonic experience. This almanac tackles these questions from artistic, experimental and personal perspectives. An assemblage of nearly 70 practitioners and theoreticians, artists and scholars offer their favorite 'sound word.' These sound words are onomatopoetical, mythological, practical; words of personal importance to the artists and their craft; words from their memory, related to sound. Many entries are not in English – some are untranslatable – and all are accompanied by a personal, explanatory, poetic entry. These are words that have the potential to change our perspective on listening-musicking-thinking.