Folk Music: A Very Short Introduction

When we think of folk music, most of us picture Pete Seeger singing This Land is My Land or Joan Baez singing Barbara Allen. But this stimulating Very Short Introduction throws open the doors on a remarkably diverse musical genre, in a wide-ranging portrait that goes far beyond America's shores to discuss folk music of every possible kind and in every corner of the globe. Written by award-winning musicologist Mark Slobin, this is the first compact introduction to folk music that offers a truly global perspective. Slobin offers an extraordinarily generous portrait of folk music, one that embraces a Russian wedding near the Arctic Circle, a group song in a small rainforest village in Brazil, and an Uzbek dance tune in Afghanistan. He looks in detail at three poignant songs from three widely separated regions--northern Afghanistan, Jewish Eastern Europe, and the Anglo-American world--with musical notation and lyrics included. And he also describes the efforts of scholars who fanned out across the globe, to find and document this ever-changing music.


Author: Mark Slobin
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Published: 01/13/2011
Pages: 160
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.26lbs
Size: 6.70h x 4.40w x 0.50d
ISBN13: 9780195395020
ISBN10: 0195395026
BISAC Categories:
- Music | Genres & Styles | Folk & Traditional

About the Author

Mark Slobin is Professor of Music at Wesleyan University, a two-time winner of the ASCAP-Deems Taylor Award, and a finalist for the National Book Award.