SOAS Studies in Music is today one of the world’s leading series in the discipline of ethnomusicology. Our core mission is to produce high-quality, ethnographically rich studies of music-making in the world’s diverse musical cultures. We publish monographs and edited volumes that explore musical repertories and performance practice, critical issues in ethnomusicology, sound studies, historical and analytical approaches to music across the globe. We recognize the value of applied, interdisciplinary and collaborative research, and our authors draw on current approaches in musicology and anthropology, psychology, media and gender studies. We welcome monographs that investigate global contemporary, classical and popular musics, the effects of digital mediation and transnational flows.
Editorial Board
Professor Kwasi Ampene
University of Michigan, USA
Professor Linda Barwick
University of Sydney, AU
Dr. Angela Impey
SOAS University of London, UK
Professor Travis A. Jackson
University of Chicago, USA
Professor Noriko Manabe
Temple University, USA
Dr. Moshe Morad
Tel Aviv University, IL
Professor Suzel Reily
Universidade Estadual de Campinas, BR
Professor Henry Spiller
University California - Davis, USA
Professor Martin Stokes
Kings College London, UK
Professor Richard Widdess
SOAS University of London, UK
By Lizzie Ogle
June 01, 2024
Rhythm, Ancestrality and Spirit in Maracatu de Nação and Candomblé: Repercussions examines how the highly percussive carnival practice of Maracatu de nação - an Afro-Brazilian musical and spiritual tradition originating in the north-eastern state of Pernambuco - has evolved in relation to the ...
Edited
By Christopher Yohmei Blasdel
May 09, 2024
'Jiuta Sōkyoku Lyrics and Explanations' is a compendium of seventy-three representative songs from the well-known genre of traditional Japanese Edo-period sankyoku ensemble music. Including extensive annotations along with commentaries and notes on their musical and performative aspects, the ...
By Reuben Brown
April 04, 2024
The Gift of Song: Performing Exchange in Western Arnhem Land tells the story of the return of physical and digital cultural materials through song and dance. Drawing on extensive, first-person ethnographic fieldwork in western Arnhem Land, Australia, the book examines how Bininj/Arrarrkpi (...
By Edwin Seroussi
January 29, 2024
Sonic Ruins of Modernity shows how social, cultural and cognitive phenomena interact in the making and distribution of folksongs beyond their time. Through Judeo-Spanish (or Ladino) folksongs, the author illustrates a methodology for the interplay of individual memories, artistic initiatives, ...
Edited
By Julian Fifer, Angela Impey, Peter G. Kirchschlaeger, Manfred Nowak, George Ulrich
January 29, 2024
The Routledge Companion to Music and Human Rights is a collection of case studies spanning a wide range of concerns about music and human rights in response to intensifying challenges to the well-being of individuals, peoples, and the planet. It brings forward the expertise of academic researchers,...
By Sara McGuinness
December 31, 2023
There is a longstanding historical and cultural relationship between Congo and Cuba via the slave trade and the ’return’ of Cuban music to Africa, a relationship that has apparently been very scantily documented. It is acknowledged that Congolese roots are present in Cuban music but there is little...
By Lea Hagmann
September 25, 2023
Focusing on the Cornish Music and Dance Revival, this book investigates the revivalists’ claims about Cornwall’s cultural distinctiveness and Celtic heritage, both which are presently used as arguments to promote the English county’s political status as an independent Celtic nation. The author ...
By David Verbuč
September 25, 2023
DIY House Shows and Music Venues in the US is an interdisciplinary study of house concerts and other types of DIY ("do- it- yourself") music venues and events in the United States, such as warehouses, all- ages clubs, and guerrilla shows, with its primary focus on West Coast American DIY locales. ...
By Jonathan P.J. Stock, Chou Chiener
September 25, 2023
Everyday Musical Life among the Indigenous Bunun, Taiwan contributes to multidisciplinary research on music in everyday human life by pushing beyond the urbanized Western populations routinely featured in such writing. Based on ethnographic study in Buklavu, a village in southern Taiwan mostly ...
By Barbara Alge
September 25, 2023
Gold, Festivals, and Music in Southeast Brazil: Sounding Portugueseness is a study of the musical legacy of the eighteenth century Brazilian gold rush that integrates ethnographic research of the main genres of former mining communities in Brazil – from liturgical music in the style of European art...
By Dwight Reynolds
September 25, 2023
The Musical Heritage of Al-Andalus is a critical account of the history of Andalusian music in Iberia from the Islamic conquest of 711 to the final expulsion of the Moriscos (Spanish Muslims converted to Christianity) in the early 17th century. This volume presents the documentation that has come ...
By Hyelim Kim
September 25, 2023
Tradition and Creativity in Korean Taegŭm Flute Performance describes the taegŭm as a representation of Korean culture in the contemporary world. Through the development and performance of creative works, this horizontal bamboo flute reflects both tradition and contemporary creativity. The first ...