The book, derived from the Balzan musicology project ‘Towards a global history of music’, describes cultural traditions and communication patterns of music, dance and theatre in the world region between India and the Mediterranean in the last 2000 years. The new metaphor of the ‘Music Road’—the western half of the ‘Silk Road’—refers to the travels of musical songs, instruments and ideas across both space and time. The book has an introduction and 16 chapters, each by a different author. Highlighted are the following cultural traditions: ancient Gandhāra (first centuries ce); traditions of the ... More

The book, derived from the Balzan musicology project ‘Towards a global history of music’, describes cultural traditions and communication patterns of music, dance and theatre in the world region between India and the Mediterranean in the last 2000 years. The new metaphor of the ‘Music Road’—the western half of the ‘Silk Road’—refers to the travels of musical songs, instruments and ideas across both space and time. The book has an introduction and 16 chapters, each by a different author. Highlighted are the following cultural traditions: ancient Gandhāra (first centuries ce); traditions of the Alexander legend; the musical philosophy and practice of Muslim societies; colonial India and the West; Greek music and nationalism (19th–20th centuries); travelling music-theatre companies in the Eastern Mediterranean; the ‘Gypsy rhapsody’ in European art music. The keynote chapter by Martin Stokes reviews the work of Villoteau and Lachmann, advocating a fusion of historical thought and ethnomusicology. The book offers case studies not only on music per se, but also on fine art, dance, musical theatre, on the theology, philosophy, historiography and literature of music, and on East–West relations in the musical practice of colonial and modern times. It is argued in the introduction and implied elsewhere that the musical culture of this world region, and its interactions with the West, have always been on the move, that its diversities and disruptions are counterbalanced by numerous internal and external linkages, and that the reifying term of ‘orientalism’ might be replaced by ‘the East–West imagination’.