The Mexican singer-songwriter Amparo Ochoa is considered one of the most remarkable and versatile performers of the Mexican canto nuevo movement (related to nueva canción). Born in Culiacán in 1946, Ochoa grew up singing at various school events and with her father. She later taught in rural grade schools in her home state where songs were an essential part of her teaching. Her deep connection with Mexican and Latin American audiences is often expressed through her innate charm. This sense of popularity is not only rooted in the political messages of the songs she performed but also in the influential platforms where she showcased her talent.
The widespread perception of her voice as representative of the people is rooted in the rich vocal traditions of early 20th century Mexican musical theater, which evolved throughout the century and were recontextualized during the Latin American Cold War. These vocal strategies, deeply impactful on listeners, shaped their understanding of el pueblo and fostered sympathy for movements opposing dictatorial regimes in the 1970s and 1980s. This interpretation of her voice foregrounds the role of music and song in the ideological and political frameworks of the time and expresses how the emotional resonance of her voice influenced listeners’ subjectivity.
Celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month by reading “La voz del pueblo y para el pueblo” Amparo Ochoa’s vocal trajectory: From the Mexican Revolution to the Latin American Cold War” by Natalia Bieletto Bueno (Journal of interdisciplinary voice studies 5/1 [2020] 9–28; RILM Abstracts of Music Literature, 2020-72069).
Below is a video of Ochoa performing the song A que te tiras cuando sueñas mexicano on a Mexican television program.
Indonesian Balinese Muslim communities, or kampung, have developed distinctive performing arts nurtured through their social and cultural interactions with their Hindu rulers and neighbors. Each kampung has its unique history and ancestral roots but generally maintains special and interdependent connections with the regional Balinese nobility, centered around the royal palaces, or puri. The puri provides authentication, social recognition, and financial support to the kampung, while the kampung contribute through their skills, loyalty, and specific knowledge, including labor. These relationships have persisted for centuries, deeply influencing Muslim Balinese cultural practices, particularly their performing arts traditions.
A Balinese dance performance.
Muslim Balinese performing arts have long emphasized the historical, social, and cultural interplay between puri and kampung, with examples from eastern and southern Bali. The puri often offer performance opportunities for Muslim Balinese, allowing them to express their cultural identity and strengthen their community presence. In turn, the puri benefit from showcasing their power and history through these performances. Thus, the performing arts not only sustain these reciprocal relationships but also enhance social cohesion within the neighborhood and foster a unified local community.
This according to “Performing arts as a cultural bridge between Hindu rulers and Muslim communities in Bali” by Ako Mashino, Performing arts and the royal courts of Southeast Asia II: Pusaka as documented heritage, ed. by Mayco Santaella (Leiden: Brill, 2024, 45–68; RILM Abstracts of Music Literature, 2024-3868).
The video below shows a royal wedding ceremony held at a Balinese puri.
The library of the Institut du Monde Arabe (Arab World Institute) in Paris is home to an extensive collection of writings on music from the Arab world, a region stretching from the Atlas Mountains to the Indian Ocean. This series of blog posts highlights selections from this collection, along with abstracts written by RILM staff members contained in RILM Abstracts of Music Literature, the comprehensive bibliography of writings about music and music-related subjects. From February to November 2024, the Institut du Monde Arabe is hosting the exhibition “Baghdad: A Journey Back to Madinat al-Salam, with Assassin’s Creed Mirage”, showcasing life and achievements in the cosmopolitan city during the golden age of the Abbasid Caliphate. The library is also hosting an on-site exhibition of some of its book holdings covering the history of Abbasid Baghdad.
This craft [singing] is the last craft attained in civilization because it constitutes a luxury and has no occupational role except entertainment and leisure. It is also the first to disappear when a civilization disintegrates and declines.
و هذه الصناعة آخر ما يحصل في العمران من الصنائع لأنها كمالية في غير وظيفة من الوظائف إلا وظيفة الفراغ و الفرح. و هو أيضاً أول ما ينقطع من العمران عند اختلاله و تراجعه.
From Ibn H̱aldūn’s Muqaddimaẗ, chapter 32: On the craft of singing (Fī ṣināʻat al-gināʼ)
Writing in the 14th century, the historian Abū Zayd `Abd al-Raḥman Ibn H̱aldūn (1332–1406) observed musical life as a phenomenon associated with a phase of civilizational development and a sign of civilizational prosperity. Ibn H̱aldūn also observed the evolution of the art of singing in the Islamic caliphates and considered it to have reached perfection during the 8th and 9th centuries in Baghdad, the golden age of the Abbasid Caliphate.
When the second Abbasid caliph, Abū Ğaʻfar al-Mansūr (reign 754–775), envisioned a new city to serve as the capital of the caliphate, he also led the creation of a center of economic prosperity, political power, and intellectual activity that attracted peoples from East and West. Scholars, seekers of knowledge, craftsmen, poets, and musicians flocked to its renowned schools and intellectual and literary circles. Intellectual patronage reached its zenith under Bayt al-ḥikmaẗ(The House of Wisdom), which was established by the caliphate al-Maʾmūn (reign 813–833) in the early 9th century as a center of translation and scientific inquiry. Writings in Greek, Sanskrit, Middle Persian (Pahlavi), Syriac, and others in all fields of knowledge were translated into Arabic.
With political patronage and social acceptance, musicians thrived and scholarly writings on music flourished. Musīqá (music), ġināʼ (singing or the craft of singing), and samāʻ (attentive spiritual listening) became subjects of philosophical discourse and theoretical speculation, topics in adab writings, and contentious issues among jurists, mystics, and religious scholars who discussed at length their permissibility from the perspective of Islamic law.
In the 9th century, a distinctive genre of writing emerged, influenced by Greek theories on music and other scholarly domains that had been translated into Arabic. These writings on music delved into the philosophies of music and music theory. The authors, often philosophers and polymaths, also drew on their practical experiences as instrumentalists, singers, or poets.
The earliest attempt to comment on Greek music theory in Arabic was undertaken by Abū Yūsuf Yaʻqūb ibn Isḥāq al-Kindī (801?–866?), who served at the Abbasid court under the caliph al-Muʿtaṣim (reign 833–842). Influenced by the writings of Aristotle and his commentators, al-Kindī authored many epistles and introduced the first known, though brief, notation of music written in Arabic. Similarly, Abū Naṣr Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad al-Fārābī (870?–950?) was commissioned by the vizier of the caliph al-Qāhir bi-Allāh (reign 932–934) to write his seminal work Kitāb al-mūsīqá al-kabīr (The grand book on music). Known as the “Second Teacher”, after Aristotle, al-Fārābī investigated Greek writings on music, adopting some elements and expanding on others. As an ʻūd player, he was able to supplement his writing with commentary on the musical practice of his era. To this day, his book remains one of the most comprehensive works on music theory in Arabic.
Above: A statue of al-Fārābī in central Baghdad, depicted holding a book in his left hand and resting his right hand on the neck of an ʻūd. Photo taken by the author in 2022.
By the 13th century, Ṣafī al-Dīn `Abd al-Mu’min ibn Yūsuf ibn Fāẖir al-Urmawī (1216?–94) continued this tradition of systematization in music theory. He wrote about the modal system that was used then and which was further expanded upon in subsequent centuries. Al-Urmawī also enjoyed the patronage of political courts. He served at the court of the last Abbasid caliph, al-Mustaʻṣim (reign 1242–58) and at the court of the Mongol ruler and invader of Baghdad, Hülegü (1217?–65), who was impressed by the musician’s performance.
The album Music of the Abbasid era: The legacy of Ṣafiy a-d-Dīn al-Urmawī (Paris: Maison des Cultures du Monde, 2005) features a musical interpretation of notations attributed to the 13th-century musician and music theorist.]
By the 13th century, Ṣafī al-Dīn `Abd al-Mu’min ibn Yūsuf ibn Fāẖir al-Urmawī (1216?–94) continued this tradition of systematization in music theory. He wrote about the modal system that was used then and which was further expanded upon in subsequent centuries. Al-Urmawī also enjoyed the patronage of political courts. He served at the court of the last Abbasid caliph, al-Mustaʻṣim (reign 1242–58) and at the court of the Mongol ruler and invader of Baghdad, Hülegü (1217?–65), who was impressed by the musician’s performance.
Above: An illustration of a conversation in medieval Baghdad as depicted by scholar of Medieval Arabic literature, Emily Selove, in her book Popeye and Curly: 120 days in Medieval Baghdad (Moorhead, M.I.: Theran Press, 2021). IMA library reference.
Other depictions and commentaries on musical life are found in writings in poetical, historical, bureaucratic, geographical, and jurisprudence literature, offering valuable insights into the state of music making and status of musicians. Jurists and religious scholars, for example, articulated concerns regarding the classification of sounds into music and non-music, emphasizing the effect of music on behavior and public morality. They debated the effects of listening on the self and its influence on individuals’ relationship to God. Mystics, on the other hand, explored the spiritual preparedness for listening to music and the role of samāʻ in transmitting spiritual knowledge.
Despite the loss of many manuscripts from the period, those that have survived continue to draw scholarly interest and provoke questions regarding the continuity of musical practice and knowledge. The enduring fascination with al-Iṣfahānī’s The book of songs continues to inspire extracts and abridged thematic books on various topics. Musicologists and orientalists have also edited and provided commentaries on medieval Arabic writings to explore the potential influences of these theoretical works on European music theory. These writings not only reflected the intellectual and cultural life of the era but also laid the foundations for musical practices and knowledge that have guided a long lineage of music research and performance in the Islamicate world and beyond.
Written and compiled by Farah Zahra, Associate Editor, RILM
Annotated bibliography
al-ʽAllāf, ʽAbd al-Karīm. قيان بغداد في العصر العباسي والعثماني والأخير (Women singers in Baghdad in the Abbasid and Ottoman periods and beyond) (Baġdād: Dār al-Bayān, 1969). [RILM Abstracts of Music Literature, 1969-17952; IMA catalogue reference]
Musical life in the golden period of the Abbasid Caliphate (750–847) was marked by the activities of women slave singers who hailed from different backgrounds and ethnicities and underwent rigorous musical training. The biographies of and anecdotes about 43 women slave singers (qiyān) from that period highlight their role in the court and public life. The fall of Baghdad following the Mongol invasion in 1258 led to a decline in the musical life in the city, a downturn that persisted until the late 19th century, during which women singers became more active, especially in taverns and nightclubs. The first half of the 20th century witnessed a vibrant activity by women singers. Sixty-one women singers from that later period are profiled.
al-Bakrī, ʽᾹdil and Sālim Ḥusayn. قياسات النغم عند الفارابي من خلال كتاب الموسيقى الكبير (Intervals as understood by al-Fārābī in Kitāb al-mūsīqá al-kabīr [The grand book of music]) (Baġdād: Wizāraẗ al-Iʽlām, 1975). [RILM Abstracts of Music Literature, 1975-28792; IMA catalogue reference].
The chapter Iḥṣā’ al-naġam al- ṭabīʻiyyaẗ fī ālaẗ al-ʻūd from the book Kitāb al-mūsīqá al-kabīr (The grand book of music) presents al-Fārābī’s approach to intervals as applied to the ʻūd.
al-Fārābī, Abū Naṣr Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad. La musique Arabe. Tome premier: Al-Fārābī–Grand traité de la musique: Kitābu l-musīqī al-kabīr–Livres I et II, trans. by Baron Rodolphe d’Erlanger (Paris: Paul Geuthner, 1930). [RILM Abstracts of Music Literature, 1930-2273; IMA catalogue reference].
Presents a French translation of and commentary on al-Fārābī’s book Kitāb al-mūsīqá al-kabīr (The grand book of music).
al-Fārābī, Abū Naṣr Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad. كتاب الموسيقي الكبير (Kitāb al-mūsīqá al-kabīr [The grand book of music]), ed. by Ġaṭṭās ʻAbd al-Malik H̱ašabaẗ and Maḥmūd Aḥmad al-Ḥifnī (al-Qāhiraẗ: Dār al-Kitāb al-ʻArabī, n.d.). [RILM Abstracts of Music Literature, 1967-32301; IMA catalogue reference].
According to al-Fārābī, music is best approached through two branches: the science of theoretical music and the science of practical music. Drawing on Aristotelian logic, issues related to the philosophy of music, such as the first principles of music theory and musical experience, the origin of music and instruments, and the effects of music on the self, among others, are discussed. Aspects of music theory and practice, such as types of intervals, scale systems, elements of rhythm, description and construction of musical instruments, composition, and the types and effects of melodies are analyzed.
al-Fārābī, Abū Naṣr Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad and Abū ʻAlī al-Ḥusayn ibn ʻAbd Allāh Ibn Sīnā. La musique Arabe. Tome deuxième: Al-Fārābī–Livre III du kitābu l-musīqī al-kabīr; Avicenne: Kitābu š-šifāʾ(mathématiques, chap. XII), trans. by Baron Rodolphe d’Erlanger (Paris: Paul Geuthner, 1935). [RILM Abstracts of Music Literature, 1935-2863; IMA catalogue reference]
Presents a French translation of and commentary on al-Fārābī’s book Kitāb al-mūsīqá al-kabīr (The grand book of music) and Ibn Sīnā’s book Kitāb al-šifāʾ (The book of healing).
Farmer, Henry George. تاريخ الموسيقى العربية حتى القرن الثالث عشر الميلادي (A history of Arabian music to the 13th century), trans. by Ğurğis Fatḥ Allāh (Bayrūt: Manšūrāt Dār Maktabaẗ al-Ḥayāẗ, 1980). [RILM Abstracts of Music Literature, 1980-21512; IMA catalogue reference]
Musical life in pre-Islamic Arabia (1st–6th century), the early Islamic period (632–661), the Umayyad Caliphate (661–750), the golden age of the Abbasid Caliphate (750–847), and the periods of decline (847–945) and fall (945–1258) provided a window into the social and cultural contexts of those periods. Political events and the opinion of Islamic jurisprudence scholars on music making and listening shaped the musical life and writings on music of each period. The biographies of famous musicians, singers, instrumentalists, theorists, scientists, and literary scholars are included.
al-Ḥifnī, Maḥmūd Aḥmad. الموسيقى العربية وأعلامها من الجاهلية إلى الأندلس (Arabic music and its masters from pre-Islamic Arabia to al-Andalus) (al-Qāhiraẗ: Maṭbaʻaẗ Aḥmad ʻAlī Muḥaymar, 1951).[RILM Abstracts of Music Literature, 1951-7427; IMA catalogue reference]
Music making flourished under the civilizational conditions brought by Islam and through the cross-cultural influence of peoples across the Muslim world in the Middle Ages. The biographies and stories about master musicians from the early Islamic period (610–661), the Umayyad Caliphate (661–750), the Abbasid Caliphate (750–1258), and al-Andalus (711–1492) reflect aspects of the cultural and musical life of the periods.
Ibn H̱urdāḏubaẗ, ʽUbayd Allāh ibn ʽAbd Allāh. مختار من كتاب اللهو والملاهي (Selections from the book Kitāb al-lahū wa-al-malāhī [The book on entertainment and instruments]), ed. by Aġnāṭiyūs ʽAbduh H̱alīfaẗ (2nd ed., rev. and enl.; Bayrūt: Dār al-Mašriq, 1969). [RILM Abstracts of Music Literature, 1969-18160; IMA catalogue reference]
The permissibility of singing, music making, and the effect of music and singing on the self was a subject of debate and controversy among Muslim religious scholars. Short biographies and stories about select singers, musicians, and women slave singers (qiyān and ğawārī) from the early Islamic era (632–661), the Umayyad Caliphate (661–750), the early period of the Abbasid Caliphate (750–847) reflect aspects of the musical and cultural life of the periods. Analysis of singing, samāʻ, poetic meters, and rhythmic cycles reveals their rules and aesthetics.
Ibn al-Qaysarānī, Muḥammad ibn Ṭāhir. كتاب السماع (The book of samāʻ), ed. by Abū al-Wafā al-Marāġī (al-Qāhiraẗ: Lağnaẗ Iḥyāʼ al-Turāṯ al-Islāmī, 1994). [RILM Abstracts of Music Literature, 1994-35747; IMA catalogue reference]
Prophet Muḥammad’s sayings, stories from the lives of prophets and their companions, and statements by religious scholars provide evidence for the permissibility of singing, listening to music, and samāʻ, thus refuting the arguments of those who opposed permissibility. These opinions are categorized based on different types of samāʻ, including singing, and listening to string instruments, wind instruments, and percussion instruments.
Ibn al-Munaǧǧim, Yaḥyá ibn ʻAlī. رسالة يحيى بن المنجم في الموسيقى (The epistle on music of Yaḥyá ibn ʻAlī ibn al-Munaǧǧim), ed. by Zakariyyā Yūsuf (al-Qāhiraẗ: Dār al-Qalam, 1964). [RILM Abstracts of Music Literature, 1964-11109; IMA catalogue reference]
The theory on tones, their types, and intervals as discussed by court musician and music theorist Isḥāq al-Mawṣilī (767–850) provides materials for comparison with ancient Greek philosophers’ theories on the same topics. Al-Mawṣilī’s view on the application of frets on the ʻūd and scales is also a rich addition to music theory. Arabic singing and the construction of melodies reflect the aesthetics and the musical culture of that period.
Iḫwān al-Ṣafā’. رسائل إخوان الصفاء وخلان الوفاء: القسم الرياضي (Epistles of the Brethren of Purity. I: Mathematics) (Bayrūt: Dār Ṣādir, n.d.). [RILM Abstracts of Music Literature, 2008-53176; IMA catalogue reference]
Includes the Risālaẗ fī al-mūsīqá (Epistle on music), the fifth epistle of 14 from the first volume on mathematics by Iẖwān al-Ṣafāʼ.
al-Iṣbahānī, Abū al-Faraǧ ʻAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn. أغاني الأغاني: مختصر أغاني الأصفهاني (The songs of songs: An abridged version of Abū al-Faraǧ al-Iṣbahānī’s Kitab al-aġānī [The book of songs]), ed. by Yūsuf ʿAwn and ʿAbd Allāh Al-ʿAlāylī (Dimašq: Dār Ṭalās, n.d., 3 vols.). [RILM Abstracts of Music Literature, 2008-53176; IMA catalogue reference]
Presents an abridged version of al-Iṣbahānī’s Kitāb al-aġānī (The book of songs).
al-Iṣbahānī, Abū al-Faraǧ ʻAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn. كتاب الأغاني (The book of songs), ed. by ʻAbd al-Sattār Aḥmad Farrāğ (4th ed.; Bayrūt: Dār al-Ṯaqāfaẗ, 1978, 25 vols.). [RILM Abstracts of Music Literature, 1978-23410; IMA catalogue reference]
The transcription and compilation of songs of the courts of the Abbasid caliphs up to Aḥmad al-Muʻtaḍid bi-Allāh (857–902), the courts of the Umayyad caliphs (661–750), and songs from the early Islamic period (610–661), and pre-Islamic Arabia are a way to document the literary, cultural, and political life of those periods. The songs’ texts are accompanied by information about poets, singers, and composers, and analysis and critical commentary of poetic meter, rhythmic cycles, and performance styles. Popular stories and chronicles about caliphs, viziers, rulers, and various people, along with narrations of lineage and tribes supplement the context of the songs. Biographies and chronicles of musicians, poets, singers, and slave women singers served as a rich reference for the entertainment, musical, and literary life during the first three centuries of the medieval Muslim world.
al-Kindī, Abū Yūsuf Yaʻqūb ibn Isḥāq. رسالة الكندي في خبر صناعة التأليف (The epistle of al-Kindī Risālaẗ fī ẖabar ṣināʽaẗ al-taʼlīf [The epistle on the craft of composition]), ed. by Yūsuf Šawqī (al-Qāhiraẗ: Dār al-Kutub al-Miṣriyyaẗ, 1996). [RILM Abstracts of Music Literature, 1996-42433; IMA catalogue reference]
Intervals, tuning, scales, octaves, tetrachords, types of tonal structures and construction of modes, modulation and transition, and the relationship between rhythmic cycles, poetic meter, and music are analyzed.
al-Kindī, Abū Yūsuf Yaʻqūb ibn Isḥāq. مؤلفات الكندي الموسيقية (The musical writings of al-Kindī), ed. by Zakariyyā Yūsuf (Baġdād: Maṭbaʽaẗ Šafīq, 1962). [RILM Abstracts of Music Literature, 1962-9228; IMA catalogue reference]
Introduces editions of five epistles on music written by al-Kindī: Risālaẗ fī ẖabar ṣināʻat al-taʼlīf, Kitāb al-muṣawwitāt al-watariyyaẗ min ḏāt al-watar al-waḥīd ʻilá ḏāt al-ʻašarat awtār, Risālaẗ fī ağzāʼ ẖabariyyaẗ fī al-mūsīqá, Muẖtaṣar al-mūsīqá fī taʼlīf al-naġam wa-sunʻaẗ al-ʻūd, and al-Risālaẗ al-kubraẗ fī al-taʼlīf.
al-Nağmī, Kamāl. يوميات المغنين والجواري: حكايات من الأغاني (Chronicles of singers and women slave singers: Stories from Kitāb al-aġānī [The book of songs] of Abū al-Farağ al-Isbahānī) (al-Qāhiraẗ: Dār al-Hilāl, 1986). [RILM Abstracts of Music Literature, 1986-30654; IMA catalogue reference]
A selection of 27 stories from Kitāb al-aġānī (The book of songs) about the lives of women and men musicians and singers.
Naṣīr al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī. رسالة نصير الدين الطوسي في علم الموسيقى (The epistle of Naṣīr al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī on music theory), ed. by Zakariyyā Yūsuf (al-Qāhiraẗ: Dār al-Qalam, 1962). [RILM Abstracts of Music Literature, 1964-11108; IMA catalogue reference]
Music should be studied as two branches: the science of composition (taʼlīf) and the science of rhythm (īqāʻ). Intervals and their types, and what makes plausible intervals and tones, are important topics in music theory.
Nielson, Lisa. Music and musicians in the medieval Islamicate world: A social history (London: I.B. Tauris, 2021). [RILM Abstracts of Music Literature, 2021-96979; IMA catalogue reference]
During the early medieval Islamicate period (800–1400), discourses concerned with music and musicians were wide-ranging and contentious, and were expressed in works on music theory and philosophy as well as literature and poetry. In spite of attempts by influential scholars and political leaders to limit or control musical expression, music and sound permeated all layers of the social structure. A social history of music, musicianship, and the role of musicians in the early Islamicate era is presented. Focusing primarily on Damascus, Baghdad, and Jerusalem, it draws on a wide variety of textual sources–including chronicles, literary sources, memoirs, and musical treatises–written for and about musicians and their professional and private environments. The status of slavery, gender, social class, and religion intersected with music in courtly life and reflected the dynamics of medieval Islamicate courts. [Adapted from the book synopsis]
Saʿīd, H̱ayr Allāh. مغنيات بغداد في عصر الرشيد وأولاده من “كتاب الأغاني” و غيره (Women singers in Baghdad during the reign of the caliph Hārūn al-Rašīd and his sons as depicted in Kitāb al-aġānī [The book of songs] and other books) (Dimašq: Wizāraẗ al-Ṯaqāfaẗ wa-al-Iršād al-Qawmī, 1991). [RILM Abstracts of Music Literature, 1991-37910; IMA catalogue reference]
Musical life in the first period of the Abbasid Caliphate was vibrant. During this period, singing and music making became a profession. Under the rule of Hārūn al-Rašīd and his sons (8th–9th century), some women slaves, known as the qiyān, were acquired, trained, and encouraged to be professional singers at the palace. The music scene of the qiyān musical activity was not limited to the Abbasid court as they also performed at taverns and homes of elite circles in Baghdad. Stories about the qiyān narrated by various scholars reflect the social norms in Abbasid Baghdad and attest to the qiyān’s mastery of poetry, wit, and talent. The biographies of five qiyān are included.
Saʿīd, H̱ayr Allāh. “مجتمع بغداد الغنائي في العصر العباسي” (Musical life in Abbasid Baghdad), al-Mawqif al-adabī 264 (Nīsān 1993) 59–67. [RILM Abstracts of Music Literature, 1993-31671; IMA catalog reference]
Musical life in Abbasid Baghdad flourished both in the political court and the city. Singers and musicians lived under the patronage of caliphs and were organized into ranks. Notable musicians of that era included Isḥāq al-Mawsilī, Ibrahīm al-Mawsilī, Manṣūr Zalzal al-Ḍārib, and Ibn Ǧāmiʻ. This period also saw the development of elaborate performance styles and etiquette. The residents of Baghdad also engaged in music and singing on various occasions, with performances occurring in taverns and in domestic and public spaces throughout the city.
Shehadi, Fadlou. Philosophies of music in medieval Islam (Leiden: Brill, 1995). [RILM Abstracts of Music Literature, 1995-9473; IMA catalogue reference]
The philosophies of music and music theory in the medieval Muslim world were formulated in works by al-Kindī, al-Fārābī, Iẖwān al-Ṣafāʼ, Ibn Sīnā, al-Ḥasan ibn Aḥmad ibn `Alī al-Kātib, and Ibn ʻArabī. In the same period, various perspectives on the permissibility of music making, listening, and samāʻ were advanced by Muslim religious scholars such as Ibn Taymiyyaẗ, al-Ġazālī, Ibn ʿAbd Rabbih, and Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad al-Ġazālī.
Šihāb, Ġādaẗ Anwar. موسوعة الموسيقى والغناء في العصر العباسي مع أشهر الموسقيين والمؤلفين والمغنين والمغنيات (Encyclopedia of music, singing, composers, musicians and men and women singers in the Abbasid period) (Bayrūt: al-Dār al-ʽArabiyyaẗ li-l-Mawsūʽāt, 2012). [RILM Abstracts of Music Literature, 2012-50363; IMA catalogue reference]
During the rule of the Abbasids in Baghdad, music making was significantly influenced by the Abbasid caliphs’ positive attitudes towards music. Their encouragement and financial support for musicians and singers led to the specialization of musical arts and the emergence of a musician class within the Abbasid palace and society. The popular music and singing genres of the time were performed in various contexts, from the palace to private homes and taverns. Slave markets played a pivotal role as sources of women slave singers, who underwent rigorous training to master singing or instrument playing. These women gained empowerment as a social class, influencing the social and political life of the caliphate. The period was also marked by the evolution of musical instruments, with significant refinements in the making and performance of wind, percussion, and string instruments. Biographies and chronicles of women and men musicians and singers highlight their contributions and the social life of the time. The genres of poetry and their forms were closely linked to rhythmic cycles, with Persian poetry notably influencing Arabic poetry. Muslim scholars and jurists contributed to the discourse on the permissibility of singing and music within samāʻ. The practice of samāʻ by the Sufis played a crucial role in the spiritual life of the community, leaving a lasting impact on the consolidation of Sufi samāʻ forms that influenced centuries of practice across the Muslim world.
Sawa, George Dimitri. Music performance practice in the early ʿAbbāsid era 132–320 AH/750–932 AD (Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies, 1989). [RILM Abstracts of Music Literature, 1989-35195; IMA catalogue reference]
Two medieval writers with access to extant repertoire and practices, and to written and oral information on music literature and theory, critically and thoroughly covered the subject of music making and music theory in the medieval Middle East. Al-Fārābī (872?–950?), a performer and theorist, systematized musical practices according to Greek models in Kitāb al-mūsīqá al-kabīr (The grand book of music), and the recently discovered Kitāb iḥşā’ al-īqāʿāt (The book for the basic comprehension of rhythms). The historian, poet, and storyteller al-Iṣbahānī (897–967) compiled anecdotes on musical practices in Kitāb al-aġānī (The book of songs). Analysis of specific performances reveals the physical, verbal, and social behaviour of both musicians and audience; the textual and modal relationship between songs; and the textual, musical, and extra-musical criteria for performance excellence. (synopsis by the author)
al-Urmawī, Ṣafī al-Dīn ʻAbd al-Muʼmin ibn Yūsuf ibn Fāẖir. La musique Arabe. Tome troisième: Ṣafiyu-d-Dīn al-Urmawī–I. Aš-šarafiyyah ou épître à šarafu-d-dīn. II. Kitāb al-adwār ou livre des cycles musicaux, ed. by Christian Poché and trans. by Baron Rodolphe d’Erlanger (Paris: Paul Geuthner, 1938). [RILM Abstracts of Music Literature, 1938-2680; IMA catalogue reference]
Presents a French translation of and commentary on Ṣafī al-Dīn al-Urmawī’s epistle on music al-Risālaẗ al-šarafiyyaẗ fī al-nisab al-taʼlīfiyyaẗ (The epistle on musical proportions) and his book Kitāb al-adwār (The book of cycles).
al-Urmawī, Ṣafī al-Dīn ʻAbd al-Mu’min ibn Yūsuf ibn Fāẖir. كتاب الأدوار في الموسيقى (Kitāb al-adwār fī al-mūsīqá {The book of cycles]), ed. by Ġaṭṭās ʻAbd al-Malik H̱ašabaẗ (al-Qāhiraẗ: al-Hayʼaẗ al-Maṣriyyaẗ al-ʽĀmmaẗ li-l-Kitāb, 1986). [RILM Abstracts of Music Literature, 1986-30625; IMA catalogue reference]
Topics of music theory analyzed include: the explanation of tones and their types, the division of frets, the relationship of intervals, the causes of dissonance and consonant combinations, the relationships between cycles, the arrangement of two strings, accompaniment and performance of modes on the ‘ūd, the most common modes, the similarities between notes, transposed cycles, scordatura, rhythmic cycles, and the effects of the modes.
Yūsuf, Zakariyyā. “موسيقى الكندي: ملحق لكتاب “مؤلفات الكندي الموسيقية (Music of al-Kindī: An annotation to the book Muʼallafāt al-Kindī al-mūsīqiyyaẗ [al-Kindī’s writings on music]) (Baġdād: Maṭbaʽaẗ Šafīq, 1962). [RILM Abstracts of Music Literature, 1962-9227; IMA catalogue reference]
Al-Kindī’s nine epistles in music approached music from five perspectives: sonic and structural, temporal and rhythmic, psychological, medical, and astronomical. It is an appendix to the book Muʼallafāt al-Kindī al-mūsīqiyyaẗ (al-Kindī’s writings on music) on al-Kindī’s theoretical writings, abstracted as RILM 1962-9315.
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On March 1, 1954, the U.S. military detonated Castle Bravo, its most powerful nuclear bomb, at Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands. Marshallese residents were evacuated to a nearby atoll two days later without their consent. For the next 75 years, Marshallese music has responded to the profound impacts of U.S. nuclear militarism on their homeland. This music reflects their religious, cultural, and political struggles to make visible the devastating consequences of nuclear violence. Marshallese singing in particular has become a powerful means of addressing the literal silencing of their voices, affected by radiation, as well as the broader suppression of information about the human radiation study.
U.S. Navy building new homes for Marshall Islands residents on Rongerik in 1946.
Composed during and after the nuclear testing era, Marshallese radiation songs offer insight into the processes of imperial ruination, rupture, and fragmentation by reflecting the pervasive impact of radioactive decay. Radiation songs reveal how radiation can be made sensible, illuminating the ways in which the U.S. nuclear project can be considered in terms of imperial ruination. U.S. geopolitical strategies have relied on systematically displacing the Marshallese from their indigenous agency, which is deeply rooted in their matrilineal culture. The performances of women from the Rongelapese community embody the presence of radiation, both in the lyrical content and the affective resonance of their music. These performances trace vocalized moments of decay, conveying how the physical and emotional aftermath of nuclear devastation is embodied and shared within their community.
This according to Radiation sounds: Marshallese music and nuclear silences by Jessica A. Schwartz (Durham: Duke University Press, 2021; RILM Abstracts of Music Literature 2021-4549) and “Listening to radioactive rubble: Vocal decay, gender, and nuclear ruination in the Marshall Islands” by Jessica A. Schwartz (Twentieth-century music 19/2 [2022] 200–208; RILM Abstracts of Music Literature, 2022-3395).
August 29 is the International Day against Nuclear Tests. The image at the beginning of the post is of the Baker explosion, a nuclear explosion test conducted by the U.S. at the Bikini Atoll, Marshall Islands in 1946.
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Throughout her life, ethnomusicologist Helen Myers dedicated herself to exploring the connections between local East Indian music genres in Trinidad and their counterparts in northern India. Her research produced invaluable documentation of traditional songs and shed light on the rich musical heritage of these communities. In the 1970s, Myers focused on the music of elderly women of Indian descent in Felicity, central Trinidad, leaving a lasting impact on the descendants of those she interviewed. Her commitment to the Indo-Trinidadian community endured over the decades, culminating in a notable tour of India in 2005 with local chutney singers. Her work continues to be fondly remembered by those she engaged with and the broader community she studied. Myers once described herself on social media as a “Democrat, grandmother of 6 and mother of 3 sons, author of 5 books, and lover of reading. 7 cats.”
Helen Myers, the renowned American ethnomusicologist, passed away at the age of 78 on 24 June 2024.
– written and compiled by Mu Qian, Editor, RILM
As a tribute to Myers, a selection of her research from RILM Abstracts of Music Literature is presented below.
Myers, Helen, ed. Ethnomusicology. I: An introduction (United Kingdom: Macmillan, 1992). [RILM Abstracts of Music Literature, 1992-38948]
Abstract: This guide to ethnomusicology provides a comprehensive overview of the discipline, encompassing its history, scope, theory, and methodology. The guide is structured in two parts: one focusing on developments before World War II and the other on advancements since the war. It includes up-to-date reports and covers key areas such as ethnography, transcription, musical style analysis, and organology. Helen Myers contributed significantly to this work, authoring three chapters on ethnomusicology, fieldwork, and field technology. Other contributors include John Blacking, Bruno Nettl, Anthony Seeger, Mark Slobin, and Stephen Blum.
Myers, Helen, ed. Ethnomusicology. II: Historical and regional studies (United Kingdom: Macmillan, 1993). [RILM Abstracts of Music Literature, 1992-38948]
Abstract: This sister volume to the previous guide focuses on historical and regional studies within ethnomusicology. It features an introduction and includes seven chapters written by Helen Myers, covering a diverse range of topics, including British American music, Native American music, African American music, Latin American music, British American folk music, European American and Asian American music, and music of the West Indies. The volume provides an in-depth exploration of musical traditions and influences across these regions, representing an expanded field of ethnomusicological research. Other contributors include Max Peter Baumann, Theodore Levin, and David W. Hughes.
Myers, Helen. Music of Hindu Trinidad: Songs from the India diaspora (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998). [RILM Abstracts of Music Literature, 1998-51243]
Abstract: In the early 19th century, Indian residents who were sent into slavery or indentured servitude in the West Indies brought their native songs with them to the sugar plantations of Trinidad. Through these songs and dances, they managed to preserve their Hindu culture and socioreligious identity. Today, these traditional songs continue to be performed at festivals and weddings, even though many of the participants no longer understand the literal meanings of the lyrics. The ongoing transformation of these songs becomes evident when researchers try to locate the original versions in India, where they sometimes no longer exist.
Myers, Helen and Umesh Chandra Pandey. Storytime in India: Wedding songs, Victorian tales, and the ethnographic experience (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2019). [RILM Abstracts of Music Literature, 2019-32038]
Abstract: This exploration into the narratives that emerge from ethnographic fieldwork focuses on how the authors’ research into Bhojpuri wedding songs intertweaves with their personal stories, collaborative work, and shared experience of reading Anthony Trollope’s The Eustace diamonds. As the narrative weaves through these interconnected stories, readers gain insight into the Bhojpuri wedding tradition through songs performed by Gangajali, along with access to the original song recordings and their translations. Interspersed with these musical explorations, Pandey reads and interprets The Eustace Diamonds, engaging with themes of colonialism and its pervasive influence on India and ethnographic research. The study combines everyday experiences with the highs and lows of fieldwork, blending the stylistic features of Victorian novels with the narrative structure of traditional Indian village tales, where stories unfold within stories. It challenges how ethnography is presented and what we learn in the field. Ultimately, the authors argue that scholarly writing is itself a form of storytelling and art, like the traditions it seeks to document.
Myers, Helen. “Indian, East Indian, and West Indian music in Felicity, Trinidad”, Ethnomusicology and modern music history, ed. by Stephen Blum, Philip Bohlman, and Daniel M. Neuman (Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 1991) 231–241. [RILM Abstracts of Music Literature, 1991-3053]
Abstract: The East Indian community in Felicity, Trinidad, has actively sought to reconnect with Indian musical traditions of their homeland, deliberately choosing to maintain their cultural heritage rather than borrowing from local styles. Their goal has been to revitalize Indian musical traditions in response to Western influences. The evolution of such musical practices in the community is traced from 1845 to 1991.
Myers, Helen. “The remembered rhythms of Trinidad: Bhojpuri chutney 2005 and its antecedents”, Remembered rhythms: Essays on diaspora and the music of India, ed. by Shubha Chaudhuri and Anthony Seeger (Kolkata: Seagull Books, 2010) 197–237. [RILM Abstracts of Music Literature, 2010-23417]
Abstract: Many Trinidadians of Indian descent maintain a nostalgic connection to their distant homeland. Chutney, a lively musical genre that originated in the West Indies with roots in South Asian culture, gained popularity in the 1980s by blending musical elements of various Trinidadian communities in innovative ways. Despite English being the primary language of the younger East Indian Trinidadians, chutney songs are predominantly performed in Hindi or Bhojpuri. The musical history of chutney in Trinidad highlights several key issues. Firstly, musical change was intentional and deliberate, with villagers actively discussing their musical choices. Secondly, different repertoires within a musical tradition evolve in distinct ways. In this context, the pace of change can be swift, especially with the emergence of new forms. Furthermore, terminology for describing music changed and became a topic of local debate. Some traditions, like certain wedding songs, did disappear entirely. Finally, living traditions are continually being reformed and reformulated.
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Chicago, the third largest in the United States, was not always the bustling metropolis it is today. It was originally a pristine prairie inhabited by Indigenous peoples, including the Potawatomi people, who referred to the area in their native language as Chigagou (or “wild garlic place”). The city’s modern history began in the 1780s when Jean Baptiste Point du Sable, a trader of African descent, established a trading post along the Chicago River at the southern end of Lake Michigan.
A drawing of Chicago from 1868.
Located at the crossroads of major railroads, Great Lakes shipping routes, and more recently, air travel, Chicago’s unique musical heritage reflects its role as a central hub in the United States. The city, often seen as the unofficial capital of the Midwest, which is considered the nation’s heartland due to its agricultural and industrial history, has a rich and diverse musical landscape. While Chicago’s affluent communities have long supported a vibrant array of orchestral, choral, and operatic institutions, the city is perhaps best known for its pivotal role in the development of blues, jazz, and house music.
Sones de México Ensemble
Additionally, Chicago’s immigrant communities have contributed a variety of folk and traditional music genres, adding to the city’s rich and multifaceted musical identity. The diverse folk and traditional music genres of Chicago are significant for two main reasons: first, they reflect the vibrant cultural practices of the city’s many immigrant communities, and second, Chicago played a crucial role in formalizing and preserving these traditions. Throughout much of the 19th century, a substantial portion of the city’s population (between 40 and 50 percent) was foreign-born, predominantly from European countries. Many folk music performances and events by immigrants took place at the Hull House, a major settlement house on the near west side of Chicago, founded in 1889 by Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Starr.
Hull House (circa 1905)
Chicago also has long been home to residents of Asian and Latino descent, with the first Chinese immigrants arriving in the 1870s following the completion of the transcontinental railroad. The foundations of today’s Chinatown can be traced back to the 1910s. Additionally, a vibrant Mexican community has been present since the early 20th century. An example of this cultural exchange is found in Silvano Ramos and Daniel Ramirez’s 1929 recording of El corrido de Texas in Chicago, which narrates the story of a migrant worker leaving his girlfriend in Texas to seek employment in Chicago and Indiana. The city’s Asian and Latino populations saw significant growth after the liberalization of U.S. immigration policy in 1965, leading to a flourishing of musical activities rooted in various cultural traditions. The Chinese Fine Arts Society, established in 1984, plays a key role in promoting Chinese music and dance, while the Sones de México ensemble, founded in 1994, has emerged as a leading performer of Mexican music in the United States.
A young Chuck Berry performing in Chicago (April 1956).
Chicago’s greatest contribution to rock ‘n’ roll lies in the influence of Chicago blues on early rock musicians. Additionally, the city played a significant role in shaping the genre through its prominent record labels. In 1955, Chuck Berry, inspired by Muddy Waters, recorded his breakthrough hit Maybellene at Chess Records in Chicago. Bo Diddley, another product of the Chicago blues scene, made a substantial impact on rock music in the 1950s with his innovative sound. Vee-Jay Records, a notable Black-owned label, emerged as a major competitor to Chess Records, achieving success with a diverse array of R&B, doo wop, blues, jazz, and rock records.
Read the full featured article on Chicago and its rich musical history in MGG Online.
Below, Muddy Waters performs at the 1981 Chicago Fest.
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The steel drum, or steelpan, developed in Trinidad in the late 1930s, is not a drum but a tuned idiophone, akin to a tuned gong. Unlike membranophones, the steel pan does not have a vibrating membrane. Its creation process involves hammering the lid of an oil drum into a concave shape and denting different sections to produce various pitches. While tuned gongs have a long history, this innovative technique of converting an oil drum into a musical instrument is a relatively recent development.
During British colonial rule, the steel drum was banned throughout Trinidad because the colonial government believed that Africans living on the island would communicate secretly using the drums and create an uprising. This led musicians to seek alternative instruments. They created tamboo-bamboo bands by beating bamboo tubes with mallets and supplemented their ensembles with bottles, tin pots, garbage can lids, and car brake drums. The steel drum’s development can’t be attributed to a single individual, but Trinidadian drummers such as Ellie Manette, Winston Spree, and Neville Jules made significant contributions to its musical development in the 1940s.
Building a steel drum involves several precise steps: cutting a barrel to a specific length, hammering the lid into a concave shape, marking the positions for each note, hardening the metal, and then carefully tuning and shaping each section. Steel drums are played using rubber-headed mallets of various thicknesses and lengths. While the arrangement of the individual notes is not standardized, tuning typically involves intervals of thirds, fourths, fifths, and sixths, with major or minor seconds being less common. Performers of the steel drum are known as panmen, though by the 1990s, women comprised about 15 percent of steel drum musicians.
Steel bands first gained popularity in the 1930s and 1940s in the slums of Port of Spain, the capital of Trinidad and Tobago. During this time, rival gangs often clashed in the streets, which negatively affected the reputation of steel bands. The calypso musician Mighty Sparrow famously captured this sentiment in a song, highlighting the stigma associated with steel band musicians:
“If your sister talk to a steel-band man The family want to break she hand Throw she out, lick out every tooth in she mouth, Pass! You outcast!”
Despite these early challenges with the image of steel bands, they were eventually embraced during carnival celebrations and came to symbolize national identity, especially during the independence movement of the 1950s.
Celebrate World Steelpan (Steel drum) Day on August 11 by reading the entry on steel drums in MGG Online.
Watch an energetic live performance by the captivating BP Renegades Steel Orchestra from Trinidad below.
As pioneers of electropunk and techno, Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft (DAF, which means German-American Friendship) are regarded as one of the more innovative bands in new German music. Their song lyrics were provocative and minimal, featuring unusual synthesizer sounds set to cool drum beats and rejecting common song structures. The duo was founded in Düsseldorf in 1978 by Robert Görl and the Spanish-born Gabi Delgado-Lopez. The two had met a year earlier through the local punk scene. Together with three other musicians, they released their first LP Ein produkt der DAF in 1979. The album featured the sound that DAF became known for: electronic minimalism, which led the group to be associated with contemporary acts like the U.K.’s Throbbing Gristle and New York City’s Suicide.
DAF’s music became even more rhythmic on their second album Die kleinen und die bösen (1980). This was followed by the provocative single Der Mussolini (probably DAF’s best-known work to date) featuring lyrics that emphasized confrontation and minimalist beats that reduced the stiff marching style and thundering speech of reviled fascist dictators to a novelty dancefloor craze. Visually, their homoerotic leather outfits fit in well with the early synthpop duos of the day (OMD, Soft Cell, Blancmange, Cabaret Voltaire, Wham!) even though they never belonged to that scene. Overall, DAF’s style proved to immensely popular and made them one of the five biggest-selling acts in Germany in 1981.
By 1982, the group was finished. DAF’s final album Für immer was released after they disbanded–although today both Delgado-Lopez and Görl claim they never formally disbanded. The reason for ending the group was musical, explained Gabi-Delgado in an interview, and in his estimation the minimalist concept for the band had run its course. In the mid-1980s, however, the electronic music scene came to be dominated by DAF epigones. Their influence outlived their existence and inspired entire electronic (sub)genres like Detroit techno, Chicago house, German techno, industrial, and electronic body music (EBM).
This according to Das ist DAF: Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft: Die autorisierte biografie by Miriam Spies and Rüdiger Esch (Berlin: Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, 2017; RILM Abstracts of Music Literature 2017-46785). Also find the entry on Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft in Das Gothic- und Dark Wave-Lexikon: Das Lexikon der schwarzen Szene (2003) in RILM Music Encyclopedias.
The Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos is considered one of the foremost Latin American composers of the 20th century. He was deeply interested in Brazil’s folk music traditions and was instrumental in setting up the country’s music education system, emphasizing native songs. His interest in Brazilian folk music resulted from visiting with different communities and listening to their music during his travels to various regions of Brazil as a young cellist. While living in Rio de Janeiro, Villa-Lobos began playing guitar and performing with popular musicians around the city. His mother disapproved of the company he kept, and as a result, he left home to pursue an itinerant life traveling around Brazil while supporting himself by playing cello and guitar. He also continued to learn about the folk music of the areas he visited.
Villa-Lobos later distinguished himself as a conductor, bringing several modern works to the attention of his audiences and consistently composing. His output of over 2,000 works includes everything from chamber music to the larger forms. His lack of formal academic training, far from hampering his development, compelled him to create a truly distinct and original technique.
Villa-Lobos’s prolific output includes the Bachianas brasileiras suites, a group of pieces based on original melodies patterned after the folk songs and Brazilian Indigenous tribal chants treated in a Bach-like fashion on Latin American instruments. The aria is arranged in an AABA form, with the first and last sections performed by a soloist and the repeated first section by the wind instruments followed by the chant:
“Lo, at midnight clouds slowly pass by, rosy and lustrous,
O’er the spacious heaven with loveliness laden,
From the boundless deep the moon arises wondrous,
Glorifying the evening like a beautiful maiden.
Now she adorns herself in half unconscious duty,
Eager, anxious that we recognize her beauty,
While sky and earth, yes, all nature with applause salute her,
All the birds have ceased their sad and mournful complaining:
Now appears on the sea in a silver reflection, Moonlight softly waking
The soul and constraining hearts to cruel tears and bitter dejection.”
Read the entry on Heitor Villa-Lobos in Band music notes (1979). Find it in RILM Music Encyclopedias.
Below is a performance of Villa-Lobos’s Bachianas brasileiras, no. 5 by the Spanish cellist Antonio Martín Acevedo and the Argentinian guitarist Marisa Gómez.
Amidst a summer break flying by all too quickly, RILM presents another installment of its Instant Classics series—posts comprising annotated bibliographies of books, indexed in RILM Abstracts of Music Literature, that have received the most reviews in academic literature across a given time span. The content of these books exemplifies RILM’s commitment to disseminating publications that are truly international in scope, with coverage that embraces a diversity of languages, nations, subject matter, and approaches to music research. This 2022—23 list contains a little something for everyone, and we hope it will inspire some welcomed additions to your summer reading list.
As always, this collection should be approached with a critical eye. As reviews continue to be written, the order of the books included here will continuously be in flux and, over time, some could be replaced by others. Further, access to resources, familiarity with conventions of proposal writing that are attractive to publishers, and innumerable other factors vary considerably across music research communities around the world. Indeed, closing the gap in such disparities, particularly regarding publications coming from the Global South, is an essential component of RILM’s mission. Despite the inherent limitations, collecting these texts in this way is valuable, as it generates an archive of the topics, methodologies, and perspectives that earned the attention of music scholars, writers, and journalists during a brief period in time. We can appreciate these texts’ contributions to musical knowledge while simultaneously being aware of the powers held and challenges faced by the publishing firms and university presses that sell them. As we zoom out, patterns may emerge that provide insight into the topical trends that have contributed to music discourse in the early decades of the 21st century.
And finally, do keep in mind that RILM can only disseminate the writings on music to which it has access. You are invited to help make RILM Abstracts be as complete as it can be by visiting our submissions page, making sure records of your publications appear there, and adding abstracts and reviews to them as necessary. We thank you in advance and wish you a happy summer of reading!
P.S.: Sympathies to Arnold Schoenberg, the book on whom, either predictably, eerily, coincidentally, or uncannily, placed at number 13, the one number he avoided more than any other while he was alive.
– Written, compiled, and edited by Michael Lupo, Assistant Editor/Marketing & Media, RILM
________________________________
#13. Sachs, Harvey. Schoenberg: Why he matters (New York: Liveright, 2023). [RILM Abstracts of Music Literature, 2023-4761]
Abstract: In his time, Arnold Schoenberg (1874–1951) was an international icon. His twelve-tone system was considered the future of music itself. Today, however, leading orchestras rarely play his works, and his name is met with apathy, if not antipathy. Within the context of this interpretative account, Schoenberg’s reputation is restored to his rightful place in the canon, revealing him as one of the 20th century’s most influential composers and teachers. Schoenberg, a thorny character who composed thorny works, raged against the “Procrustean bed” of tradition. Defying his critics—among them the Nazis, who described his music as “degenerate”—he constantly battled the antisemitism that eventually precipitated his flight from Europe to Los Angeles. Yet Schoenberg, synthesizing Wagnerian excess with Brahmsian restraint, created a shock wave that never quite subsided, and his compositions must be confronted by anyone interested in the past, present, or future of Western music.
#12. Broad, Leah. Quartet: How four women changed the musical world (London: Faber & Faber, 2023). [RILM Abstracts of Music Literature, 2023-1400]
Abstract: A group biography of four women composers who changed the modern musical landscape: Ethel Smyth (1858–1944), famous for her operas, was a trailblazing queer Victorian composer and a larger-than-life socialite, intrepid traveller, and committed Suffragette. Rebecca Clarke (1886–1979) was a talented violist and Pre-Raphaelite beauty, and one of the first women ever hired by a professional orchestra, later celebrated for her modernist experimentation. Dorothy Howell (1898–1982) was a prodigy who shot to fame at the 1919 Proms. She earned a reputation as the “English Strauss”, and after retiring she tended Elgar’s grave alone. Doreen Carwithen (1922–2003) was one of Britain’s first woman film composers, who scored Elizabeth II’s coronation film; her success hid a 20-year affair with her married composition tutor. In their time, these women were celebrities. They composed some of the century’s most popular music and pioneered creative careers; but today, they are ghostly presences, surviving only as muses and footnotes to male contemporaries like Elgar, Vaughan Williams, and Britten.
#11. Proksch, Bryan. The golden age of American bands: A document history (1835–1935) (Chicago: GIA Publications, 2022). [RILM Abstracts of Music Literature, 2022-10133]
Abstract: The story of the American wind band, told chronologically by those who experienced it in real time from 1835 to 1935. The volume explores how bands became bands, how they rose in popularity, and which figures had insights and specific impacts on the development of the genre. Through source documents and articles, the volume surveys the ensemble’s history from the time of the first brass bands in the 1830s, through the Civil War and the golden ages of Patrick S. Gilmore and John Philip Sousa, to the cusp of the wind ensemble just before World War II. Musicians such as Frederick Fennell, Allessandro Liberati, Karl L. King, Patrick Conway, Fredrick Neil Innes, Jules Levy, Alan Dodworth, and Herbert L. Clarke are included. Numerous rare and unknown illustrations show the places where band history happened. Documents include rare periodical excerpts, handwritten letters, and other writings taken from archives throughout the United States.
#10. Bonnette-Bailey, Lakeyta Moninque and Adolphus G. Belk, Jr., eds. For the culture: Hip-hop and the fight for social justice. Music and social justice (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2022). [RILM Abstracts of Music Literature, 2022-4800]
Abstract: Documents and analyzes the ways in which hip hop music, artists, scholars, and activists have discussed, promoted, and supported social justice challenges worldwide. Drawing from diverse approaches and methods, the contributors in this volume demonstrate that rap music can positively influence political behavior and fight to change social injustices, and then zoom in on artists whose work has accomplished these ends. The volume explores topics including education and pedagogy; the Black Lives Matter movement; the politics of crime, punishment, and mass incarceration; electoral politics; gender and sexuality; and the global struggle for social justice. Ultimately, the book argues that hip hop is much more than a musical genre or cultural form: hip hop is a resistance mechanism.
#9. Vera Aguilera, Alejandro and David Andrés Fernández. Los cantorales de la Catedral de Lima: Estudio, reconstrucción, catálogo (Madrid: Sociedad Española de Musicología, 2022). [RILM Abstracts of Music Literature, 2022-1557]
Resumen: Los cantorales de la Catedral de Lima estudia, por primera vez, la colección de libros de coro de la Catedral Metropolitana de Lima, que está formada por cuarenta volúmenes manuscritos copiados en su mayor parte en el siglo XVII. En el estudio inicial, se aborda su historia, confección y escribas responsables. Seguidamente, se indaga sobre su forma de interpretación en la época colonial a través de la reconstrucción de un servicio litúrgico de suma importancia en su contexto. Finalmente, se ofrece un catálogo crítico de la colección que incluye sus contenidos íntegros en forma de índices analíticos y alfabéticos que facilitan su localización. En suma, este trabajo constituye un estudio integral sobre una colección de libros de canto llano conservada en Sudamérica. Además, representa una útil herramienta de investigación en la que se exhuman numerosos documentos históricos y se presentan transcripciones de repertorio tanto monódico como polifónico, razón por la que será de interés para musicólogos, historiadores e intérpretes, entre otros.
Abstract: Studies, for the first time, the collection of choir books of the Catedral Metropolitana de Lima, which consists of 40 manuscript volumes copied mostly in the 17th century. The history, physical features, and scribes who worked on the manuscripts are discussed. The way this collection was used in colonial times is examined through the reconstruction of a liturgical service from its context. An annotated catalogue of the collection is offered, which includes its complete contents in the form of analytical and alphabetical indexes that facilitate its location.
#8. Marissen, Michael. Bach against modernity (New York: Oxford University Press, 2023). [RILM Abstracts of Music Literature, 2023-3999]
Abstract: Many scholars and music lovers hold that Bach is a modern figure, as his music seems to speak directly to the aesthetic, spiritual, or emotional concerns of today’s listeners. But, by 18th-century standards, Bach and his music in fact reflected and forcefully promoted a premodern world and life view. A new look at Bach is presented that considers problems of inattentiveness to historical considerations in academic and popular writing about Bach’s relation to the present. Also put forward are interpretive reassessments of key individual works by Bach, examining problems in modern comprehension of the partly archaic German texts that Bach set to music. Lastly, Bach’s music is explored in relation to premodern versus enlightened attitudes toward Jews and Judaism, and the theological character of Bach’s secular instrumental music is examined. Overlooked or misunderstood evidence is provided of Bach’s private engagement with religious and social issues that he also addressed in his public vocal compositions. While we are free to make use of Bach and his music in whatever ways we find fitting, we ought also to guard against miscasting Bach in our own ideological image and proclaiming the authenticity of that image, and therefore its prestige value, in support of our own agendas.
#7. Goodman, Karen D., ed. Developing issues in world music therapy education and training: A plurality of views (Springfield: Charles C. Thomas, 2023). [RILM Abstracts of Music Literature, 2023-7332]
Abstract: Reflects on current or necessary changes in music therapy training that come about because of history, society, economy, generational shifts, and the workplace. The subject matter questions the nature of music therapy itself; examines challenges to education and training; suggests critical thinking (vs. repetition or repackaging of information) for students, educators, clinicians, researchers and supervisors in the field of music therapy; respects the past but looks to the future; and offers perspectives from others in the field through such vehicles as surveys, interviews, and reviews of literature.
#6. Mathew, Nicholas. The Haydn economy: Music, aesthetics, and commerce in the late eighteenth century. New material histories of music (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2022). [RILM Abstracts of Music Literature, 2022-10831]
Abstract: Reimagines the world of Joseph Haydn and his contemporaries, with its catastrophic upheavals and thrilling sense of potential. Critical questions are addressed, such as how we tell the history of the European Enlightenment and Romanticism; the relation of late 18th-century culture to incipient capitalism and European colonialism; and how the modern market and modern aesthetic values were—and remain—inextricably entwined. The study weaves a vibrant material history of Haydn’s career, extending from the sphere of the ancient Esterházy court to his frenetic years as an entrepreneur plying between London and Vienna to his final decade as a venerable musical celebrity, during which he witnessed the transformation of his legacy by a new generation of students and acolytes, Beethoven foremost among them. Ultimately, Haydn’s historical trajectory compels us to ask what we might retain from the cultural and political practices of European modernity—whether we can extract and preserve its moral promise from its moral failures. And it demands that we confront the deep histories of capitalism that continue to shape our beliefs about music, sound, and material culture.
#5. Dylan, Bob. The philosophy of modern song (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2022). [RILM Abstracts of Music Literature, 2022-9712]
Abstract: Comprises over 60 essays written by the Pulitzer Prize winning songwriter, focusing on songs by other artists spanning from Stephen Foster to Elvis Costello, from Hank Williams to Nina Simone. Among many other subjects, the trap of easy rhymes is analyzed, breaking down how the addition of a single syllable can diminish a song, while also explaining how bluegrass relates to heavy metal. Over 100 photos are included, as well as a series of dream-like riffs that, taken together, resemble an epic poem—characteristic of the author’s own work in the field of songwriting—adding to the work’s transcendence.
#4. Denk, Jeremy. Every good boy does fine: A love story, in music lessons (New York: Random House, 2022). [RILM Abstracts of Music Literature, 2022-954]
Abstract: Pianist Jeremy Denk traces an implausible journey. His life is already a little tough as a precocious, temperamental six-year-old piano prodigy in New Jersey, and then a family meltdown forces a move to New Mexico. There, Denk must please a new taskmaster, an embittered but devoted professor, while navigating junior high school. At 16 he escapes to college in Ohio, only to encounter a bewildering new cast of music teachers, both kind and cruel. After many humiliations and a few triumphs, he ultimately finds his way as a world-touring pianist, a MacArthur genius, and a frequent performer at Carnegie Hall. But under all this struggle is a love letter to the act of teaching. Denk dives deeply into the pieces and composers that have shaped him—Bach, Mozart, and Brahms, among others—and offers lessons on melody, harmony, and rhythm. How do melodies work? Why is harmony such a mystery to most people? Why are teachers so obsessed with the metronome? Denk shares the most meaningful lessons of his life, and tries to repay a debt to his teachers. He also reminds us that we must never stop asking questions about music and its purposes: consolation, an armor against disillusionment, pure pleasure, a diversion, a refuge, and a vehicle for empathy.
#3. Cypess, Rebecca. Women and musical salons in the Enlightenment (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2022). [RILM Abstracts of Music Literature, 2022-4905]
Abstract: A broad overview of musical salons between 1760 and 1800, placing the figure of the salonnière at its center. The author presents a series of in-depth case studies that meet the salonnière on her own terms. Women such as Anne-Louise Brillon de Jouy in Paris, Marianne von Martínez in Vienna, Sara Levy in Berlin, Angelica Kauffman in Rome, and Elizabeth Graeme in Philadelphia come to life in multidimensional ways. Crucially, the author uses performance as a tool for research, and her interpretations draw on her experience with the instruments and performance practices used in 18th-century salons. The book explores women’s agency and authorship, reason and sentiment, and the roles of performing, collecting, listening, and conversing in the formation of 18th-century musical life.
#2. Vela González, Marta. La jota, aragonesa y cosmopolita: De San Petersburgo a Nueva York (Zaragoza: Pregunta, 2022). [RILM Abstracts of Music Literature, 2022-14921]
Resumen: En este libro, la pianista, escritora y docente Marta Vela nos lleva tras los pasos de renombrados compositores (Liszt, Mahler, Debussy, Ravel, Satie?) que, a lo largo del siglo XIX, visitaron España, descubrieron la jota aragonesa y, fascinados, la integraron en sus obras, desde óperas hasta sinfonías, pasando por ballets y música de salón. Un libro lleno de curiosidades, erudición, anécdotas y hallazgos inéditos, narrado de forma amena y precisa.
Abstract: In this book, the pianist, writer, and teacher Marta Vela takes us in the footsteps of renowned composers (Liszt, Mahler, Debussy, Ravel, Satie?) who, throughout the 19th century, visited Spain, discovered the Aragonese jota and, fascinated, integrated it into their works, from operas to symphonies, including ballets and salon music. A book full of curiosities, erudition, anecdotes, and unpublished discoveries, narrated in a pleasant and precise way.
#1. Simon, Andrew. Media of the masses: Cassette culture in modern Egypt. Studies in Middle Eastern and Islamic societies and cultures (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2022). [RILM Abstracts of Music Literature, 2022-3929]
Abstract: Investigates the social life of an everyday technology—the cassette tape—to offer a multisensory history of modern Egypt. Over the 1970s and 1980s, cassettes became a ubiquitous presence in Egyptian homes and stores. Audiocassette technology gave an opening to ordinary individuals, from singers to smugglers, to challenge state-controlled Egyptian media. Enabling an unprecedented number of people to participate in the creation of culture and circulation of content, cassette players and tapes soon informed broader cultural, political, and economic developments and defined modern Egyptian households. Drawing on a wide array of audio, visual, and textual sources that exist outside the Egyptian national archives, it provides a new entry point into understanding everyday life and culture. Cassettes and cassette players did not simply join other 20th century mass media, like records and radio; they were the media of the masses. Comprised of little more than magnetic reels in plastic cases, cassettes empowered cultural consumers to become cultural producers long before the advent of the Internet. Positioned at the productive crossroads of social history, cultural anthropology, and media and sound studies, it ultimately shows how the most ordinary things may yield the most surprising insights.
Comments Off on Instant Classics: RILM’s Top 13 Reviewed Texts, 2022–23
The main entrance to the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts’s exhibition Lou Reed: Caught between the twisted stars opens up on Lincoln Plaza, directly adjacent to the The Metropolitan Opera house. On a sunny day, the Met’s … Continue reading →
Seven strings/Сім струн (dedicated to Uncle Michael)* For thee, O Ukraine, O our mother unfortunate, bound, The first string I touch is for thee. The string will vibrate with a quiet yet deep solemn sound, The song from my heart … Continue reading →
Introduction: Dr. Philip Ewell, Associate Professor of Music at Hunter College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, posted a series of daily tweets during Black History Month (February 2021) providing information on some under-researched Black … Continue reading →
For it [the Walkman] permits the possibility…of imposing your soundscape on the surrounding aural environment and thereby domesticating the external world: for a moment, it can all be brought under the STOP/START, FAST FOWARD, PAUSE and REWIND buttons. –Iain Chambers, “The … Continue reading →
