218 Pages
by
Routledge
The Musical Ear: Oral Tradition in the USA provides a wide-ranging look at the role played by music that is passed on orally without the use of notation, in the folk, popular and art musics of North America. Professor McLucas argues that without the broad underlying oral repertoire of folk music, many musical styles - from that of the eighteenth-century singing schools to the minstrel tunes of... Read more
Contents: Introduction; The oral process and 'roots' music; Interlude 1: the brain, memory, and oral tradition; Oral tradition in American popular music; Interlude 2: oral tradition, and creativity; The interaction of oral and written in American music history; Interlude 3: interactions of written and oral/aural traditions in the human brain; Oral tradition in the lives of ordinary people; Interlude 4: the mental musical capacities of ordinary humans and the intersection of meaning, emotion, and memory; Conclusions; Appendixes; Selected bibliography; Index
Biography
Anne Dhu McLucas, was Professor of Music and Dean Emerita of the School of Music and Dance, University of Oregon, USA.
Award: Shortlisted for the Katharine Briggs Award 2010 'In The Musical Ear Professor McLucas follows scholars like Albert Lord, John Blacking, and Christopher Small in the project of validating orally-transmitted "folk" and "popular" musical traditions in contrast to the "classical" traditions of Western art music transmitted in written notation. She goes beyond her predecessors first in addressing the impact of recorded sound on musical transmission, second in attempting to base her arguments on psychological and neurological research into musical memory and musical creation. It is an ambitious undertaking that sheds light not just on oral vs. written traditions but on human aptitudes, capacities and need for music in general.' John Spitzer, San Francisco Conservatory of Music, USA 'This book contains a magisterial compilation of all the ways in which non-notated (and in many cases non-notatable) activities lie at the heart of American music, past and present. It is enlivened by case studies and interviews with living musicians, and also by an ambitious juxtaposition of historical musicology, ethnomusicology, and psychology. ' John Sloboda, University of Keele, UK and Royal Holloway, University of London, UK ’Anne Dhu McLucas taps into a vast repertoire to illustrate the profound impact of the unwritten ... The accompanying CD enhances the reading of passages on both melody and neurons... academics won’t be the only ones harvesting titles from the glorious bibliography.’ 4 stars, Songlines '[McLucas] has produced an excellent introduction to this topic, which will be of great value to those studying all varieties of American music and those interested in the psychology of music.' Notes 'This book opens readers' eyes to the realization that oral traditions played (and still play) a vital role in American music's development, performance, and continuance.' Journal of Historical Research in Music Education 'This is a pioneering effort, one that in decad
