• Foreword-- Prelude--
• Part 1 Lives of Shawm Band Musicians: Musics of Shanxi province-- Musics of Yanggao county-- Shawm bands in China-- Yinyang and guijiang traditions in north Yanggao-- The Hua band-- The Hua brothers-- Other guijiang-- A comparison-- The Cultural revolution-- The reform era-- Following fashion-- Local goes national?-- Yanggao pop-- Sexism-- The learning process-- Tiantian-- Fees and 'black talk'-- The current scene-- Scholarship-- Our visits and the role of cultural officials-- Washington 2002-- UK and Holland 2005-- Conclusion: lives and livelihood.
• Part 2 Shawm Bands and Daoists in Performance: Funerals and Temple Fairs: Introduction-- Funerals-- The 1st day-- Inviting relatives and burning the treasuries-- Transferring offerings-- The burial procession-- Temple fairs-- Xujiayuan-- Gushan-- Lower Liangyuan-- Conclusion: ritual and musical impoverishment--.
• Part 3 Don't Mean a Thing If It Ain't Got That Swing: Instrumentation-- Instruments and makers-- Pitch, scales, and gongche-- Learning heterophony and idiom-- Melodic styles-- Ostinato sections and cadences-- Metre and percussion patterns-- Repetition and variability-- Repertories-- Processional pieces-- The 8 great suites-- Shang qiaolou-- Jiangjun ling-- Shuilongyin-- Baiheyan and Da Yanluo-- The 3 missing suites-- Vocal-derived 'small pieces'-- Conclusion: ritual sound-- References-- Glossary-- Index.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

• Foreword-- Preface--
• Part 1 Introduction: Shaanbei society and its musics.--
• Part 2 Turning a Blind Ear: Bards of Shaanbei: Prelude-- The tradition-- The Yan'an period-- The Maoist period-- The reform era.--
• Part 3 Lives of Shaanbei Blowers: Prelude-- Chuishou before Maoism-- Chishou under Mao-- The early reform era-- Modernization and the 'big band'-- Chuishou aropund 2000-- Chuishou in action.--
• Part 4 Urban Music in Shaanbei: Musics of Yulin city-- Conclusion: local ritual cultures-- Bibliography-- Glossary-index.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

The rich local traditions of musical life of rural China are still little known. Music-making in village society is largely ceremonial, and shawm bands account for a major part of such music. This is the first major ethnographic study of Chinese shawm bands in their ceremonial and social context. Based in a poor county in Shanxi province in northwestern China, Stephen Jones describes the painful maintenance of ceremonial and its music there under Maoism, its revival with the market reforms of the 1980s and its modification under the assault of pop music since the 1990s. Part One of the text explains the social and historical background by outlining the lives of shawm band musicians in modern times. Part Two looks at the main performing contexts of funerals and temple fairs, whilst Part Three discusses musical features such as instruments, scales and repertories. The book is accompanied by a 50-minute DVD also in three parts. The first two parts show excerpts from funerals and temple fairs (complementing Part Two of the text), while the third part contains a magnificent 1992 funerary performance of a complete suite. As a package, the book and DVD illuminate the whole ceremonial context of music-making in rural China, illustrating the total ritual-music experience of villagers, with lay Daoist priests, opera troupes, and beggars also making cameo appearances. Indeed, while the modern stage repertories of urban professionals remain our main exposure to Chinesemusic, this publication is all the more valuable in showing the daily musical experiences of the majority of people in China. It will appeal to ethnomusicologists, anthropologists and all those interested in modern Chinese history and society.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)
This book, with its accompanying DVD, gives an impression of music-making in daily life in the poor mountainous region of Shaanbei, northwest China. It conveys some of the diverse musical activities there around 2000, from the barrage of pop music blaring from speakers in the bustling county-towns to the life-cycle and calendrical ceremonies of poor mountain villages. Based on the practice of grass-roots music-making in daily life, not merely on official images, the main theme is the painful maintenance of ritual and its music under Maoism, its revival with the market reforms of the 1980s, and its modification under the assaults of TV, pop music, and migration since the 1990s.The text is in four parts. Part One gives background to the area and music-making in society. Parts Two and Three discuss the lives of bards and shawm bands respectively, describing modifications in their ceremonial activities through the twentieth century. Part Four acclimatizes us to the modern world with glimpses of various types of musical life in Yulin city, the regional capital, illustrating the contrast with the surrounding countryside.The DVD is intended both to illuminate the text and stand on its own. It shows bards performing at a temple fair and to bless a family in distress, and shawn bands performing at a wedding, at funerals, and a shop opening - including their pop repertory with the 'big band'. Also featuring as part of these events are opera troupes, geomancers, and performing beggars; by contrast, the film shows a glimpse of the official image of Shaanbei culture as presented by a state ensemble in the regional capital.The publication will appeal to ethnomusicologists, anthropologists, and all those interested in modern Chinese history and society.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)