This stimulating Very Short Introduction throws open the doors on a remarkably diverse musical genre, with a world-wide reach that goes far beyond America's shores to discuss folk music of every possible kind and in every corner of the globe.

When we think of folk music, most of us picture Pete Seeger singing “This Land is My Land” or Joan Baez singing “Barbara Allen.” But this stimulating Very Short Introduction throws open the doors on a remarkably diverse musical genre, in a wide-ranging portrait that goes far beyond America's shores to discuss folk music of every possible kind and in every corner of the globe. Written by award-winning musicologist Mark Slobin, this is the first compact introduction to folk music that offers a truly global perspective. Slobin offers an extraordinarily generous portrait of folk music, one that embraces a Russian wedding near the Arctic Circle, a group song in a small rainforest village in Brazil, and an Uzbek dance tune in Afghanistan. He looks in detail at three poignant songs from three widely separated regions—northern Afghanistan, Jewish Eastern Europe, and the Anglo-American world—with musical notation and lyrics included. And he also describes the efforts of scholars who fanned out across the globe, to find and document this ever-changing music.

Review

“A masterful survey of the many manifestations of folk music in the cultures of the world, by one of America's most eminent and most widely experienced ethnomusicologists. Contemplating the varied sounds of folk music, Slobin explains how it has been perceived, distributed, researched, and exploited, in the world's nations and by scholars past and present.”—Bruno Nettl, author of Nettl's Elephant: On the History of Ethnomusicology

“Professor Mark Slobin is one of the leading experts in the world on different aspects of folk music. In this short introduction he presents the world of folk music from a number of expected and unexpected angles. This book is very informative but also provides exciting food for thought.”—Krister Malm, past president, International Council for Traditional Music

Mark Slobin is Professor of Music at Wesleyan University and author of several books on Jewish and Central European music, including “Tenement Songs: Popular Music of the Jewish Immigrants” (1992) and “Exploring the Klezmer World”