''We have in this book a Rosetta stone for mediating,
or translating, African musical behavior and
aesthetics.''--Andrew Tracey, ''African Music'' ''John
Miller Chernoff, who spent 10 years studying African
drumming, has a flair for descriptive writing, and his
first-person narratives should be easily understood by
any reader, while ringing unmistakably true for the
reader who has also been to West Africa.''--Roderick
Knight, ''Washington Post Book World''
''Ethnomusicologists must be proud that their discipline
has produced a book that will, beyond doubt, rank as a
classic of African studies.''--Peter Fryer, ''Research
in Literatures'' ''A marvelous book. . . . Not many
scholars will ever be able to achieve the kind of
synthesis of 'doing' and 'writing about' their subject
matter that Chernoff has achieved, but he has given us
an excellent illustration of what is possible.''--Chet
Creider, ''Culture'' ''Chernoff develops a brilliant and
penetrating musicological essay that is, at the same
time, an intensely personal and even touching account of
musical and cultural discovery that anyone with an
interest in Africa can and should read. . . . No other
writing comes close to approaching Chernoff's ability to
convey a feeling of how African music 'works'''--James
Koetting, ''Africana Journal'' ''Four stars. One of the
few books I know of that talks of the political, social,
and spiritual meanings of music. I was moved. It was so
nice I read it twice.''--David Byrne of ''Talking
Heads'' The companion cassette tape has 44 examples of
the music discussed in the book. It consists of field
recordings illustrating cross-rhythms, multiple meters,
call and response forms, etc. |
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