Thinking Musically Experiencing Music Expressing Culture - Global Music Series, 1 Author:Bonnie C. Wade Thinking Musically, the central book in the series, incorporates music from many diverse cultures--including the Americas, Asia, Africa, and Europe--and establishes the framework for exploring the practice of music around the world. It sets the stage for a variety of accompanying single-volume case studies, each of which focuses on a single area... more » of the world. Each case study uses the contemporary musical situation as a point of departure, covering historical information and traditions as they relate to the present. Thinking Musically discusses the importance of musical instruments and describes their significance in a culture's folklore, religion, and history. It also defines basic musical terms and concepts including rhythm, pitch, sound, scale, and melody, exploring ways that they have been conceived and used by people around the globe. Considering the effects of cultural influences such as gender and ethnicity on the perception, interpretation, and performance of music, the book also looks at how the forces of nationalism, acculturation, and westernization can affect musical traditions. The book concludes with a chapter on how to conduct fieldwork in ethnomusicology. Many of the musical examples are coordinated with material in the case studies. Thinking Musically is packaged with a 70-minute CD that features selections from the wide variety of musical cultures discussed in the book.« less