The Cambridge Companion to Music in Australia

Explores the breadth of musical practice in Australia with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander musics at its very heart.

Highlighting the diversity of musical practice that flows though Australia, this book places the music of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people at its heart. It presents the latest research alongside perspectives of current creative artists, whilst acknowledging the fluid nature of music, and the complexity inherent in the term 'Australia'.As a companion to 'music in Australia', rather than 'Australian music', this book acknowledges the complexity and contestation inherent in the term 'Australia', whilst placing the music of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people at its very heart. This companion emphasizes a diversity of musical experiences in the breadth of musical practice that flows though Australia, including Indigenous song, art music, children's music, jazz, country, popular music forms and music that blurs genre boundaries. Organised in four themed sections, the chapters present the latest research alongside perspectives of current creative artists to explore communities of practice and music's ongoing entanglements between Indigenous and non-Indigenous cultural practices, the influence of places near and far, of continuity, tradition, adaptation, and change. In the final chapter, we pick up where these chapters have taken us, asking what is next for music in Australia for the future.