In this highly praised and seminal work, Alan Merriam demonstrates that musicis asocial behavior one worthy and available to study through the methods of anthropology. In it, he convincingly arguesthat ethnomusicology, by definition, cannot separatethe sound-analysis of music from its cultural context of people thinking, acting, and creating.
The study begins with a review of the various approaches in ethnomusicology. He then suggests a useful and simple research model: ideas about music lead to behavior related to music and this behavior results in musical sound. He explains many...