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2 books match the query 'Merriam, Alan P.'

cover of African Music on LP: An Annotated Discography

African Music on LP

An Annotated Discography

Alan P. Merriam

Northwestern University Press, 1972

Containing details of 390 L.P. and E.P. recordings, African Music on LP: An Annotated Discography contributed to the scholarship of African music at a time when very little had been written. Organized by record label and arranged in alphabetical order, Allen P. Merriam assesses the stylistic characteristics of each recording, providing new insights on the subject and the recording industry at the time of publication.  African Music on LP also contains 18 indexes cross-referencing each of the records. 
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cover of The Anthropology of Music

The Anthropology of Music

Alan P. Merriam

Northwestern University Press, 1964

 
In this highly praised and seminal work, Alan Merriam demonstrates that music is a social behavior—one worthy and available to study through the methods of anthropology. In it, he convincingly argues that ethnomusicology, by definition, cannot separate the sound-analysis of music from its cultural context of people thinking, acting, and creating.

The study begins with a review of the various approaches in ethnomusicology. He then suggests a useful and simple research model: ideas about music lead to behavior related to music and this behavior results in musical sound. He explains many aspects and outcomes of this model, and the methods and techniques he suggests are useful to anyone doing field work. Further chapters provide a cross-cultural round-up of concepts about music, physical and verbal behavior related to music, the role of the musician, and the learning and composing of music.

The Anthropology of Music illuminates much of interest to musicologists but to social scientists in general as well.
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