Produktdetaljer
Om bidragsyterne
Dr Stephen Jones has carried out fieldwork on local traditions of Chinese music since 1986. He is author of Folk Music of China: Living Instrumental Traditions (1995/1998) and Plucking the Winds: Lives of Village Musicians in Old and New China (2004). His book Ritual and Music of North China: Shawm Bands in Shanxi (2007) is published by Ashgate. A Research Associate in the Department of Music at SOAS, University of London, Stephen Jones is also a violinist in London early music ensembles.<p>‘… (a) fascinating book …breaks new ground by bringing us the real lives of real musicians’ </p><p>John Gittings, Songlines (5 star rating)</p><p>‘This volume is another major contribution from Jones to our understanding of the ritual and expressive culture of northern China … strong points include Jones’s careful attention to local dialectal usages and terminology; the presence in the index of Chinese characters for almost all names and terms in the text; the detailed description of ritual actions; in-depth discussion of financial aspects of the bards’ and shawm bands’ activities; serious consideration of "cassette culture"; and the liberal use of direct quotes from interviews. One gets a real sense of what the musicians think and how they express their views, as well as of individual life stories. This is a unique introduction to the ritual and music of a part of China we would never otherwise encounter, and provides invaluable comparative material.’ </p><p>Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies</p><p>‘It portrays the manipulation of Shaanbei music in two distinct waves: the propaganda of the 1940s and 50s, and the commercialization of the 1980s. With a familiarity that few others could approach, Jones shows how the actual performers viewed these as attempts by outsiders to expropriate their traditions. … The book eschews simple answers and ideal types, but instead shows the performers, their histories and decisions, in all their human complexity. … The DVD is beautifully produced and narrated … The DVD makes the book especially useful for undergraduate teaching, where it would make a fine accompaniment to films such as Yellow Earth, or to more theoretical but less empirically rich works on the interaction getween state and culture in modern China.’ </p><p>The China Journal</p><p>'Jones gives his readers a fascinating glimpse of the complicated relationships between ritual and music, between the state and the folk, and between the traditional and the modern in Shaanbei.'</p><p>Asian Music</p>