Music, Modernity, and the Global Imagination

South Africa and the West

Veit Erlmann author

Format:Hardback

Publisher:Oxford University Press Inc

Published:29th Jul '99

Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back

Music, Modernity, and the Global Imagination cover

How do Western images of Africa and African representations of the West mirror each other? In this study, Veit Erlmann seeks to illuminate the complex issues involved in the making of modern identities in Africa, Europe, and the United States, through an examination of two striking episodes in the history of black South African music: the tours of two black South African choirs in England and America in the 1890s, and a series of engagements with the international music industry by South Africa's premier choral group Ladysmith Black Mambazo after the release of Paul Simon's Graceland album in 1986.

Erlmann's singular achievement lies in his ability to bring various cultural signs (such as microscopic details) into contact with international phenomena (such as the flows of global capital) and to examine their interaction critically ... offers fascinating historical accounts of various specific cultural phenomena ... Erlmann's capacity to sustain numerous methodological dimensions is impressive and wide-ranging. This alone makes Music, Modernity and the Global Imagination and exemplary contribution to the field of ethnomusicology. * Martib Scherzinger, Journal of the Royal Musical Association, 126, 2001 *

ISBN: 9780195123678

Dimensions: 231mm x 157mm x 31mm

Weight: 658g

320 pages