The Concise Garland Encyclopedia of World Music

When Edison discovered sound, little did he know what he was letting us in for. Whilst Johann Sebastian Bach travelled throughout the part of Europe we now know as Germany, he was not familiar with music from any other tradition than that he met during his own lifetime and from his own culture. Nowadays, thanks to the invention of radio and, in particular, of recorded sound, people throughout the world can learn about musical traditions of other cultures – we can even hear easily, though not understand, the call of whales and many other creatures. Thanks to the internet, such...