Excursions in World Music is a comprehensive introductory textbook to the musics of the world, creating a panoramic experience for students by engaging the many cultures around the globe, and highlighting the sheer diversity to be experienced in the world of music. At the same time, the text illustrates the often profound ways through which a deeper exploration of these many different communities can reveal overlaps, shared horizons, and common concerns in spite of, and because of, this very diversity. The new eighth edition features six brand new chapters, including chapters on Japan, Sub-Saharan Africa, China and Taiwan, Europe, Maritime Southeast Asia, and Indigenous Peoples. General updates have been made to other chapters, replacing visuals and updating charts/statistics.
Another major addition to the eighth edition is the publication of a companion reader, entitled Critical Issues in World Music. Each chapter in the reader is designed to introduce students to a theoretical concept or thematic area within ethnomusicology and illustrate its possibilities by pointing to case studies drawn from at least three chapters in Excursions in World Music. Chapters include the following topics: Music and Ritual; Music and Technology; Music and Power; Music and Space; Gender and Sexuality; Coloniality/Decoloniality; Diaspora, Migration, and Exile; and Indigeneity. Instructors can use this resource as a primary or secondary path through the materials, either assigning chapters from the textbook and then digging deeper by exploring a chapter from the reader, or starting with a reader chapter and then moving into the musical specifics offered in the textbook chapters. Having available both an area studies and a thematic approach to the materials offers important flexibility to instructors and also provides students with additional means of engaging with the musics of the world.
A companion website with a new test bank and fully updated instructor's manual is available for instructors. Numerous resources are posted for students, including streamed audio listening, additional resources (such as links to YouTube videos or websites), a musical fundamentals essay (introducing concepts such as meter, melody, harmony, form, etc.), interactive quizzes, and flashcards.
About the Author: Timothy Rommen is the Davidson Kennedy Professor in the College and Professor of Music and Africana Studies at the University of Pennsylvania.
Bruno Nettl was Professor Emeritus of Musicology at the University of Illinois School of Music, and recipient of the Charles Homer Haskins Prize (by the American Council of Learned Societies) as a distinguished humanist.
