lamdha books -
Catalogue of books on traditional and folk music

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39104 [All India Radio] Aspects of Indian Music A series of special articles and papers read at the music symposia arranged by All India Radio Publications Division, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, 1976. Stapled paperback, octavo, 103pp. Minimal foxing, minor wear. Very good. Fifteen contributions on general and specialised aspects. Click here to order $8

204896 Anoyanakis, Fivos (Christopher N.W. Klint, trans.; Anna Vafia, illus.) Greek Folk Musical Instruments The National Bank of Greece, Athens Greece, 1979. Quarto; hardcover, with gilt spine titles, a blind-stamped upper board decoration and illustrated endpapers; 415pp., with many monochrome and colour illustrations. Minor wear; some minor marks to the boards; offset to the endpapers. Dustwrapper lightly edgeworn; some faint sunning along the spine panel; now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. Very good. Click here to order $75

217853 Blacking, John How Musical is Man? Faber & Faber, London, 1976. Octavo hardcover; brown cloth boards with gilt spine titling; 120pp., b&w plates. Minor wear; slightly scraped upper board edges; mild toning to text block and endpapers. Ochre illustrated dustwrapper mildly faded on front panel and spine with tiny chip on lower spine edge; wrapper now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. Very good. This important study in ethnomusicology is an attempt by the author -- a musician who has become a social anthropologist -- to compare his experiences of music-making in different cultures. He is here presenting new information resulting from his research into African music, especially among the Venda. Venda music, he discovered is in its way no less complex in structure than European music. Literacy and the invention of nation may generate extended musical structures, but they express differences of degree, and not the difference in kind that is implied by the distinction between 'art' and 'folk' music. Many, if not all, of music's essential processes may be found in the constitution of the human body and in patterns of interaction of human bodies in society. Thus all music is structurally, as well as functionally, 'folk' music in the sense that music cannot be transmitted of have meaning without associations between people. If John Blacking's guess about the biological and social origins of music is correct, or even only partly correct, it would generate new ideas about the nature of musicality, the role of music in education and its general role in societies which (like the Venda in the context of their traditional economy) will have more leisure time as automation increases. Click here to order $20

8555 Bret, David The Piaf Legend Robson Books, London, 1988. Hardcover, octavo; grey boards with gilt spine titling; 188pp., monochrome plates. Minor wear; slightly toned text block edges with one or two spots on upper edge. Very good in like dustwrapper now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. Click here to order $20

215118 Burke, David Singing Out: A Folk Narrative of Maddy Prior, June Tabor & Linda Thompson Soundcheck Books, London, 2015 Octavo paperback; 198pp., colour & b&w plates. Remainder. New. The 1960s was a time of countercultural revolution, a time when mainstream mores were rejected by a generation tuned into and turned on by psychedelic rock, pop art, the Beatles and alternative spiritualities. But the 1960s was also a time of renewal on both sides of the Atlantic. A parallel folk music renaissance paid homage to tradition while making the old new again. In Britain, the profusion of folk clubs that emerged as part of the so-called second folk revival, helped to launch the enduring careers of artists such as Donovan, Martin Carthy, and Richard Thompson. It was also the proving ground for three of the genre's most pre-eminent singers, June Tabor, Linda Thompson and Maddy Prior, each of whom drew inspiration from the archives of indigenous song, to forge their own singular paths over five decades. Singing Out follows their respective journeys, exploring different facets of their lives and their art. The text features original interviews with all three, as well as the perspectives of contemporaries and collaborators, to provide an illuminating and very British folk tale that will also resonate in North America, as there was much exchange of music and ideas with the Seeger's, Dylan, Joan Baez and Paul Simon all influencing, and being influenced by what was happening on the other side of the pond. In additions to the three subjects, there are interviews from the likes of Christy Moore, Ian Anderson, Rufus Wainwright and Martin Carthy. Click here to order $16

99404 Cohen, John The High & Lonesome Sound The Legacy of Roscoe Holcomb Steidl, Gottingen Germany, 2012 Quarto; hardcover; illustrated boards; 261pp., monochrome illustrations. Includes CD & DVD in rear pockets. Remainder. New. "The music of Roscoe Holcomb transcended daily life. Although it was grounded in Appalachia, in East Kentucky, in his little town of Dais, his music travelled like it was on a path towards a distant star." In 1959 John Cohen travelled to East Kentucky looking for what he calls "old music". Cohen asked for names at local gas stations but soon ran out of leads, and drove off the highway onto the next dirt road. Here he stumbled across Roscoe Holcomb playing the banjo and singing on his front porch in a way says Cohen, "that made the hairs on my neck stand up on end". And so by pure chance began the life-long friendship that is the background for The High and Lonesome Sound. Cohen visited Holcomb frequently over the next three decades, and made many photographs, films and records of his music. In time Holcomb, a poor coal miner by trade, became a regular feature on the American concert and festival circuits. The "strange beauty and discomfort" of his music - a mixture of blues, ballads and Baptist hymns, and unique through his high strained voice - was exposed to a larger audience. Nevertheless Holcomb died alone in a nursing home in 1981. The High and Lonesome Sound combines Cohen's vintage photos, film and musical recordings as well as an anecdotal text into a multimedia tribute to this underappreciated legend of American music whose every performance was in Cohen's words "not just a rendition of music, but a test of something to be overcome". Click here to order $32

40630 DeWoskin, Kenneth J A Song for One or Two Music and the Concept of Art in Early China Michigan University, 1982. Paperback, octavo, 202pp. Owner's name stamp on half-title page. Minor spotting to text block edges. Covers a bit worn at edges with a little creasing down spine edges and corners. Very good. Click here to order $18

73599 Gudnason, Jessica Tan & Gong Li Chinese Opera Abbeville Press, New York, 2001. Folio hardcover, not paginated, mainly colour illustrations. Fine in lightly worn dustwrapper. This collection of photographic portraits was taken over a ten-year period and seeks to capture and present the many different actors who perform in the fabled Peking and Cantonese operas. Supplementing the plates is an insightful introduction by Gong Li, who comments on these powerful images and provides an overview of the history of Chinese Opera, the main character types and the significance of the costumes and makeup. Click here to order $45

215492 Guthrie Edgmon, Mary Jo, & Guy Logsdon Woody's Road Woody's Letters Home, Drawings, Photos, and Other Unburied Treasures Paradigm Publishers/Birkenkamp & Company LLC., Boulder CO, 2012. Quarto; hardcover, with gilt spine and upper board titles; 168pp., with many full-colour and monochrome illustrations. Minor wear. Dustwrapper a little edgeworn. Near fine. Click here to order $25

216015 Holroyde, Peggy (Foreword by Ravi Shankar) The Music of India Praeger, New York, 1972. Hardcover, octavo; red boards with gilt spine titling; 290pp., monochrome plates. Minor wear; mildly toned and spotted text block and page edges. Red illustrated dustwrapper mildly edgeworn, now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. Very good. Non-technical introduction for the general listener. Ravi Shankar writes: "Although several people have written about Indian music recently, there is a continuing need to initiate people, especially if they have not had the opportunity of hearing our music in its proper setting in India.... What I specially like about this book is that it does not go into dogmatic assertions or deal only with the dry, theoretical aspect, but has a much more human approach. This comes out beautifully because of Peggy Holroyde's love for the country, its people, its art forms and many other facets of Indian culture. I knew, when she was in India, what great pains she took in travelling round the country... listening to all kinds of music... experiencing it for herself and collecting information during the five years she was there. I know, also, how much care she has taken in selecting and checking her material for this book, and as a result it reveals the great love she has for the task of trying to help understand the past and present of Indian music, as well as the enduring background of India itself." Click here to order $20

8578 Holst, Gail Road to Rembetika Music of a Greek Sub-Culture, Songs of Love, Sorrow and Hashish Denise Harvey, Limni, 1989. Paperback, octavo; 181pp., monochrome illustrations. Inscription. Minor wear; faint spotting and one or two marks to text block edges. Brown dustwrapper with monochrome illustration and black titling, glued down on spine; slight wear to edges. Very good. Click here to order $17

218046 Kartomi, Margaret Musical Journeys in Sumatra University of Illinois and Monash University, Urbana, 2012. Royal octavo hardcover; blue cloth boards with silver gilt spine titling; 478pp., b&w illustrations, line-drawings and musical score. Minor wear only. Near fine in like dustwrapper now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. In Musical Journeys in Sumatra, Margaret Kartomi provides a fascinating ethnographic record of vanishing musical genres, traditions, and practices that have become deeply compromised by the pressures of urbanization, rural poverty, and government policy. This deeply informed collection showcases the complex diversity of Sumatra's and Indonesian music and includes field observations from six different provinces: Aceh, North Sumatra, Riau, West Sumatra, South Sumatra, and Bangka-Belitung. Featuring photographs and original drawings from Kartomi's field observations of instruments and performances, Musical Journeys in Sumatra provides a comprehensive musical introduction to this neglected, very large island, with its hundreds of ethno-lingual musical groups. Click here to order $40

210797 Kaufman, Will Woodie Guthrie American Rebel University of Illinois Press, Urbana IL, 2011. Octavo; hardcover; 278pp., with many monochrome illustrations. Minor wear. Dustwrapper. Near fine. Woody Guthrie, American Radical reclaims the politically radical profile of America's greatest balladeer. Although he achieved a host of national honors and adorns U.S. postage stamps, and although his song "This Land Is Your Land" is often considered the nation's second national anthem, Woody Guthrie committed his life to the radical struggle. Will Kaufman traces Guthrie's political awakening and activism throughout the Great Depression, World War II, the Cold War, the Korean War, the Civil Rights struggle, and the poison of McCarthyism. He examines Guthrie's role in the development of a workers' culture in the context of radical activism spearheaded by the Communist Party of the USA, the Popular Front, and the Congress of Industrial Organizations. Kaufman also establishes Guthrie's significance in the perpetuation of cultural front objectives into the era of the "New Left" and beyond, particularly through his influence on the American and international protest song movement. Utilizing a wealth of previously unseen archival materials such as letters, song lyrics, essays, personal reflections, photos, and other manuscripts, Woody Guthrie, American Radical introduces a heretofore unknown Woody Guthrie: the canny political strategist, fitful thinker, and cultural front activist practically buried in the general public's romantic celebration of the "Dust Bowl Troubadour." Click here to order $25

94112 May, Elizabeth (ed.) Musics of Many Cultures: An Introduction University of California Press, Berkeley, 1980. Quarto hardcover; dark beige cloth boards with black spine titling and illustrated endpapers; 431pp., monochrome plates and illustrations with three seven-inch 33-1/3 monaural soundsheets in rear pocket. Owner's name. Minor wear; mild toning and spotting to text block edges. Near fine in like dustwrapper with slightly sunned spine and small crease on lower front corner; now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. Twenty essays on music from around the world are included here. Only European musics have been omitted, except insofar as they affect other musics discussed; North American music is represented by the musics of the Native Americans and the Alaskan Eskimos. The essays are profusely illustrated with maps, drawings, diagrams, photographs and music examples, some of which are recorded on the soundsheets. Extensive glossaries, bibliographies and annotated film lists. Click here to order $55

93869 Merriam, Alan P. The Anthropology of Music Northwestern University Press, 1964. Octavo hardcover; yellow cloth boards with black spine titling and upper board black illustrations; 358pp. Owner's name. Spotting to text block edges. Minor wear otherwise. Lacks dustwrapper. Very good. "Music sound cannot be produced except by people for other people, and although we can separate the two aspects conceptually, one is not really complete without the other. Human behavior produces music, but the process is one of continuity; the behavior itself is shaped to produce music sound, and thus the study of one flows into the other". Ethnomusicology, Merriam posits, "has most often been made in terms of what [musicology] encompasses," being that the realms of musicology and ethnomusicology are exclusive to one another, and ethnomusicology has simply been relayed as being what musicology is not. Moving towards a clearer definition of ethnomusicology, Merriam writes that ethnomusicology "makes its unique contribution in welding together aspects of the social sciences and aspects of the humanities in such a way that each complements the other and leads to a fuller understanding of both. Neither should be considered as an end in itself; the two must be joined into a wider understanding." Click here to order $25

217983 Mishra, Yatindra (trans. Mahdu B Joshi) Girija: A Journey Through Thumri: signed copy Rupa & Co., New Delhi, 2006. Square quarto hardcover; dark red boards no titling; 115pp., colour & b&w illustrations. Inscription. Signed by the author on title page. Slightly rubbed illustrated black dustwrapper, mildly worn along the edges. Very good to near fine. Wrapper now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. This book is not about the Benaras gharana, or Girija Devi the reigning queen of Thumri or Purab Anggayaki; it is the portrait of an artiste and a journey in music, as seen by a poet. Girija Devi has a symbiotic relationship with Kashi. She and her music draw sustenance from the hoary tradition of the eternal city. They also sustain the tradition. It would be inconceivable to think of one without thinking of the other. In keeping with the tradition of Kashi, Girija Devi imparts spiritual depth to even the most erotic compositions. In her singing, the world of the spirit goes hand-in-hand with the world of the flesh. An adventurous venture, this book is the result of an interface between two closely related art forms: music and poetry. The poetic sensibilities of the author provide for rare glimpses into the mind of a great artiste and the influences that shape her art. Click here to order $35

207999 Ranade, G.H. Hindusthani Music Its Physics and Aesthetics Popular Prakashan, Bombay India, 1971. Octavo; hardcover, with gilt spine titling; 204pp. Minor wear; retailer's stamp; mild offsetting to endpapers; browned text block and page edges with some light spotting on top edge. Mildly rubbed and spotted dustwrapper with wear and chipping to edges; now backed by archival-quality white paper and professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. Very good. Click here to order $20

68527 Sakata, Hiromi Lorraine Music in the Mind The Concepts of Music and Musician in Afghanistan Smithsonian Institute, 2002. Hardcover, octavo, 246pp., monochrome illustrations. Dustwrapper. Remainder. New. Music is central to many important events in the Islamic world. Yet many members of Islamic society who follow the teachings of the Qur'an hold music and musicians in very little regard. Hiromi Lorraine Sakata examined this paradox during her research in Afghanistan in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and produced this insightful book. Through case studies in the city of Herat (western Afghanistan), the remote provincial capital Faizabad (northeastern Afghanistan), and the village of Khadir (central Afghanistan), Sakata discusses traditional Islamic concepts of music and musician and interprets modern attitudes towards them both. She pays particular attention to the term musiqi (which can be generally translated as "secular music") and how misinterpretations of this construct may be the root of Western misunderstandings about music and musicians in Muslim societies. Sakata collaborated with Smithsonian Folkways Recordings to produce a CD of Afghan music, which is included with the book. Click here to order $24

99515 Santelli, Robert (Foreword by Nora Guthrie) This Land is Your Land Woody Guthrie and the Journey of an American Folksong Running Press, Philadelphia PA, 2012. Quarto hardcover, 252pp., monochrome illustrations. Dustwrapper. Poster at rear. New, remainder. "This Land Is Your Land" is the most iconic folk song in American history, and is the masterwork of one of America's greatest artists, Woody Guthrie. Written in 1940 and first recorded in 1944, the song became an instant hit, and then a point of controversy, and finally a cross-generation anthem. It's been co-opted and rewritten in many other countries. Praised for its heartfelt lyrics and accompanying pride and spirit, no folk song has made such a lasting impression on American culture or stirred as much controversy. This book was published to coincide with "Woody at 100" a partnership between the Grammy Museum and the Guthrie Archives to stage numerous celebratory events throughout 2012 nationwide and beyond. It is a remarkably detailed account of the journey of America's most celebrated folk song. It also details Guthrie's legendary journey from Oklahoma across the Heartland to New York City, where he wrote many of his works including "This Land Is Your Land."With more than forty rare black-and-white photographs from the Woody Guthrie archives, a removable poster, plus original interviews with Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Willie Nelson, Pete Seeger, John Mellencamp, and more, "This Land Is Your Land" delivers a revealing portrait of an American treasure. " Click here to order $23

41734 Sapoznik, Henry Klezmer! Jewish Music from Old World to Our World Schirmer, New York, 1999. Hardcover, octavo, 340pp., with monochrome illustrations. Minor edge wear to dustwrapper. Very good to near fine. This book is a fascinating story of survival against all odds, of a musical legacy so potent it can still be heard, despite assimilation and near annihilation. The scratchy, distant sound of early recordings bursts forth with such power that they have formed the soundtrack for an entirely new generation of performers, Jew and non-Jew alike, who have embraced and expanded the klezmer tradition. Through stories, pictures and a companion CD, "Klezmer!" reintroduces this most vital musical form to new and old fans alike. Click here to order $22

210794 Seeger, Pete (Rob & Sam Rosenthal, eds.; Foreword by David Amram) Pete Seeger In His Own Words Paradigm Publishers, Boulder CO, 2012. Octavo; hardcover, with gilt spine titles; 356pp., with 8pp. of monochrome plates. Minor wear; some minor marks to the upper board. Dustwrapper a little rubbed. Near fine. Click here to order $25

66686 Sen, Mimlu The Honey Gatherers Travels with the Bauls: The Wandering Minstrels of Rural India Rider/Ebury Publishing/Random House Group Co., London, 2010. Octavo; hardcover, with gilt spine titles; 250pp., with a map and some monochrome decorations. Minor wear; text block edges lightly toned. Dustwrapper lightly rubbed. Near fine. Mimlu Sen is living a bohemian life in Paris when she witnesses an electrifying performance by three wandering minstrels from rural India. They wear flowing, multicoloured robes and play frenetic rhythms on strange instruments made of wood and clay, capturing the many moods of nature and passion. After her turbulent past, including a year in a Calcutta jail, Mimlu instantly knows it is time to set off on the journey of her life. One of the minstrels, Paban Das Baul, is a gifted young musician with a growing international reputation. Mimlu defies prejudice to travel with him deep into the heart of Bengal, the rural hinterland behind Calcutta where few tourists ever go. In this fascinating and unusual book, she describes how they make their way across country, from shanty town to village, from monastery to festival, perched on the roofs of buses and squeezed inside trains, encountering tantrics and sages, exorcisms and witch sightings, catfish that climb trees and esoteric secrets - and fall in love. With Paban's encouragement, Mimlu too performs for alms - 'gathering honey' in the traditional Baul way - and is initiated into a hidden world of song, sensuality and adventure as wild and unpredictable as the landscape itself. Click here to order $20

33603 Shankar, Ravi Raga Mala An Autobiography Welcome Rain, New York, 1999. Large octavo hardcover; brown cloth boards with gilt spine titling, decorated endpapers; 336pp.Many plates in black and white and colour. Mild spotting to upper text block edges. Very good to near fine in like dustwrapper now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. Features a stunning collection of photographs and documents drawn almost entirely from personal archives and contributions from a wide circle of friends. Click here to order $28

89117 Stanley, Dr. Ralph, with Eddie Dean Man of Constant Sorrow My Life and Times Gotham Books/Penguin Books (Aust.) Ltd., Camberwell Vic., 2010. Octavo; paperback; 453pp. Remainder. New. Ralph Stanley was born in 1927 in a corner of Virginia known as Big Spraddle Creek, a place where music echoed from the ridge tops, was belted out by workers in the fields, and resonated in the one-room country church where Ralph first found his voice. For his eleventh birthday, Ralph was given five dollars, and had to chose between buying a sow or a banjo. He chose the banjo, which his mother taught him to play in the clawhammer style. In 1946, he combined his banjo with his brother Carter's guitar, and the two blended their voices into one as the Stanley Brothers. For twenty years the Stanleys chased the dream through good times and hard times, until the hard times caught up to Carter and he succumbed to liver disease at age 41. In the four decades since his brother's passing, Ralph has brought his music from the hills and hollows of southwest Virginia to the wide world. Now in his eighties and still touring, Ralph has at last grown into his voice and is ready to tell his story. In Man of Constant Sorrow, Ralph looks back on his career in what most call bluegrass but what he prefers to call "old time mountain music." He recounts the creation of hundreds of classic tracks, including 'White Dove,' 'Rank Stranger,' and his signature song, 'Man of Constant Sorrow.' He tells tales from a life spent on road with his band the Clinch Mountain Boys, explains his distinctive 'Stanley style' of banjo-playing, crosses paths with everyone from Bill Monroe to Bob Dylan, and reflects on his late-career resurgence sparked by an unlikely Grammy win in 2002 for his song 'O Death.' He also raises a dirge for Appalachia, his mountain home that is quickly disappearing. Click here to order $16

46753 Starkie, Walter Spain: A Musician's Journey Through Time and Space: two volumes Edisli, Geneva, 1958. Original yellow cloth boards with gilt centre board decoration and titling. Quarto. Two volumes: 192pp and 192pp. Both volumes extensively illustrated with tipped-in coloured plates, b/w photograghs as well as numerous illustrations. Minor wear; spotting along board spines, spine panel edges and upper edges; faint spotting to upper text block edges. No dustwrappers. Very good. Starkie's remarkable musicological review still dazzles. Volume one starts the story of Spain's musical heritage with the Phoenicians and Greeks, before establishing the first Spanish musician of note as Saint Isidore of Seville. Following chapters include studies on the Gregorian chant, Alfonso the Wise, the minstrels, the Song of the Sibyl, music at the court of Ferdinand and Isabel, Valencia, Charles V, Philip II, and Madrid of Ramon de la Cruz. The second volume "Spain from Coast to Coast" begins with a study of the music of the Basques, after which various chapters deal with the Asturias, Galicia, Estremadura, Navarre, Catalonia, Valencia, the Balearic Islands, La Mancha the land of Don Quixote, and Seville in Holy Week. The final section deals with the music of the gypsy natives, and the resurgence of Spanish music in the twentieth century. An exhaustive masterpiece. Click here to order $60

83282 Wade, Bonnie C. Music in India - Prentice-Hall History of Music series The Classical Traditions Prentice Hall Inc., Englewood Cliffs NJ, 1979. Octavo; paperback; 252pp., with maps and many monochrome illustrations. Mild wear; covers rubbed and edgeworn; faint spotting to text block edges. Very good. Click here to order $18

51569 Wilentz, Sean and Greil Marcus (eds.) The Rose and the Briar Death, Love and Liberty in the American Ballad Norton & Co., New York, 2004. Hardcover, small quarto, 405pp. Dustwrapper. Remainder. New. For this devastatingly original work that goes to the heart of the American psyche, editors Sean Wilentz and Greil Marcus have invited a broad swath of writers to sing their own versions of the songs that changed their lives and the life of their country. "The Rose and the Briar" takes up the music of the ballad and the worlds from which it sprang as no other book has ever done, while calling out the demons that called the tune. In essays and fiction, poetry and collage, the editors have produced a book that both echoes and sustains the voice of the American ballad as it has been performed and heard for more than three hundred years. The result is a stunning collection of reflections about America's history and culture. Click here to order $17