People around the world and throughout history have used music to express their inner emotions, reach out to the divine, woo lovers, celebrate weddings, inspire political movements, and lull babies to sleep. In "Music as Social Life", Thomas Turino explores why it is that music and dance are so often at the center of our most profound personal and social experiences.Turino begins by developing tools to think about the special properties of music and dance that make them fundamental resources for connecting with our own lives, our communities, and the environment. These concepts are then put into practice as he analyzes various musical examples among indigenous Peruvians, rural and urban Zimbabweans, and American old-time musicians and dancers. To examine the divergent ways that music can fuel social and political movements, Turino looks at its use by the Nazi Party and by the American civil rights movement. Wide-ranging, accessible to anyone with an interest in music's role in society, and accompanied by a compact disc, "Music as Social Life" is an illuminating initiation into the power of music.

About the Author
Thomas Turino is professor of musicology and anthropology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is the author of Music in the Andes: Experiencing Music, Expressing Culture; Moving Away from Silence: Music of the Peruvian Altiplano and the Experience of Urban Migration; and Nationalists, Cosmopolitans, and Popular Music in Zimbabwe.

Reviews
"Politically and musically passionate, intellectually sophisticated, and thought-provoking - this is a brave and extremely original book, one that will play a role in this century akin to such seminal works as The Anthropology of Music and How Musical Is Man?" - Anthony Seeger, University of California, Los Angeles"



Book Information
ISBN 9780226816982
Author Thomas Turino
Format Paperback
Page Count 280
Imprint University of Chicago Press
Publisher The University of Chicago Press
Weight(grams) 397g
Dimensions(mm) 23mm * 16mm * 2mm