Preface

In this book I aim to work out some of the ways in which human connections made through migration and media have shaped music-making. Arjun Appadurai has observed that “any book about globalization is a mild exercise in megalomania,” and I am well aware that this project can never be complete.1 I do not have a “god’s-eye view” of the world or its music; I have not even been to all the places discussed in these pages. Yet in an age where the movement of people and music is evident all around us, it seems important to try to think about music in a connected way, tracking not only music that stays in one place but also music that moves.

Although this book undoubtedly reflects my perspective as a college teacher from the United States, I have tried to make the viewpoint inclusive—to frame the discussion so that people who come from many backgrounds will find something here they might relate to. The broad scope of this book means that no topic is treated in full: there is always more to the story than I can tell here.

My training in the United States and Europe concentrated on concert music and, to a lesser extent, jazz. My subsequent growth has been shaped by engagement with many friends and scholars and the music they love and study. This is personal work: I have drawn on the enthusiasm of my colleagues as well as their expertise. The National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Institute on Ethnomusicology and Global Culture, led by Eric Charry, Mark Slobin, Sumarsam, and Su Zheng in June 2011, taught me a great deal and helped me begin to turn my Music on the Move course into this book. When Emily Erken, Alison Furlong, and Austin McCabe Juhnke taught the course, they too made improvements, as did guest lecturers Tracie Parker and Nicholas Poss. The undergraduate students who took the course between 2005 and the present have also assisted in the development of this project—most of all, by bringing me music they cared about and asking me to listen.

I owe a great deal to generous people who have shared their perspectives Page viii →and corrected many errors along the way. Nathaniel Lew, Marianne Lipson, Joanne Lussier, Benjamin Tausig, and one anonymous reader offered valuable criticism on the whole manuscript. Hyun Kyong (Hannah) Chang, Brigid Cohen, Eric Drott, Luis-Manuel Garcia, Petra Gelbart, K. E. Goldschmitt, Sandra J. Graham, Jeremy Grimshaw, Lynn Hooker, Mark Katz, Ryan Thomas Skinner, Kendra Salois, and Henry Spiller kindly offered their extensive subject matter expertise and vastly improved various sections of the book. To Lynn Hooker I owe particular thanks: without her research and teaching, chapter 2 could not have been written, and her willingness to use this book with her students helped me refine it. Courtney Bryan, Samantha Ege, and Asha Srinivasan were generous in sharing insights, scores, and recordings with me; Soojin Kim allowed me to use a photograph from her research. Louis Epstein’s innovative thinking and technical knowledge about digital mapping has shaped this work. Jane Harrison, Dan Jurafsky, Lijuan Qian, Ali Sait Sadıkoğlu, Johanna Sellman, Henry Spiller, and Janet Yu graciously helped with selection, translation, and interpretation of sources. I appreciate Julian Halliday’s assistance with the images. And conversations with Gabriel Solis and Olivia Bloechl, who are bringing a global music history into being, helped me adjust my frame of reference.

For partnership in this work I am deeply grateful to Eric Fosler-Lussier, who not only authored the digital maps but also urged me to think about my data in new ways and helped me secure the practical conditions necessary for a phase of intensive writing. His confidence and his sacrifices of time and energy made this book possible. My writing and teaching are further sustained by a network of wonderful colleagues, many more than I can name here. In addition to those listed above, they include Carolyn Abbate, Emily Abrams Ansari, Harmony Bench, Joy Haslam Calico, Maribeth Clark, Daniel Goldmark, Anna Gawboy, David Hedgecoth, Erika Supria Honisch, Lisa Jakelski, Jennifer Johnson, Marian Wilson Kimber, Hannah Kosstrin, Beth Levy, Morgan Liu, Dorothy Noyes, Hye-jung Park, Chris Reynolds, Peter Schmelz, Anne Shreffler, Leslie Sprout, Steve Swayne, Juliet White-Smith, and Reba Wissner.

Funding from the College of Arts and Sciences at Ohio State University helped me acquire the rights to images and audiovisual materials, and a sabbatical in 2017–18 allowed me to finish writing the text. For a subvention that allowed the University of Michigan Press to publish this as an open-access book, I am grateful to the Ohio State University Libraries and the TOME initiative (Toward an Open Access Monograph Ecosystem), a collaboration of the Association of American Universities, the Association of University Presses, Page ix →and the Association of Research Libraries. A Course Enhancement Grant from the Ohio State University Libraries also supported early development of these materials. Many thanks to Sara Cohen, Susan Cronin, Jon McGlone, Kevin Rennells, Charles Watkinson, and Lanell White for shepherding the book to publication; Joe Abbott for copyediting; and Mary Francis for believing in the possibilities for this book on the Press’s digital platform.