Soundscapes: Exploring Music in a Changing World

by Kay Kaufman Shelemay

The innovative music textbook, available here as a book without audio CDs. Soundscapes breaks new ground by organizing the study of world music according to its cultural significance, rather than by geography alone. The Second Edition provides even better coverage of the cultures surrounding the music and focuses more closely on honing students’ listening skills. The Second Edition also features a striking new design, new chapter organization, and expanded listening guides.

This edition contains only the Soundscapes textbook. The textbook with the CDs (ISBN 978-0-393-16713-9), and the CDs alone (ISBN 978-0-393-10684-8) are each available separately.

Genres: Textbooks, Music, Nonfiction, School

471 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 2000

Reviews

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

For my World Music class I’m teaching this semester.

[Edie Walls · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really loved this class, and the book was useful during it!

[mylee · Rating 3 out of 5]

read for my Music 101 class, so of course this is on on the totally opposite side of the spectrum from “reading for enjoyment.” the course was only six weeks so I had to rush through the book, but what I did get from it was fascinating. I guess I’d never thought of music on a broad scale such as this, or maybe I never really paid attention. I enjoyed many of the listening guides that were presented in the eBook

[Carlos · Rating 2 out of 5]

This books offered quite an broad introduction to world music and used marvelous examples. It didn't underestimate the reader and was thorough enough to really give a sense of the complexity and interconnections of the music world. I'd recommend it to anyone interested in world music, or who is open to finding new music genres for their own listening pleasure.

[Aaron · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good introduction to enthnomusicology, the anthropology of music. Shelemay does a good job explaining various music traditions in terms or the cultures and cultural forces that shape them. This book at the same time serves as a good introduction to anthropology as a whole.

[Keira Mc · Rating 1 out of 5]

I read this book for one of my classes.
Did not like this textbook at all. I found it overly long and not very meaningful. It had a tendency to have a bit of a eurocentric view as well, spending disproportionate amounts of text on western music forms and just giving glances into other music.

[Jesse Booth · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed learning about the origins of music and how they influence each other across the world. Probably the the most fascinating textbook I've read for any college course.