David Reck's "Music of the Whole Earth" remains one of the great staples for learning about how and why the world's peoples make music. Originally published in the 1970's, Da Capo Press has now intelligently elected to reprint this gem. Richly accompanied by Carol Reck's photographs, "Music of the Whole Earth" may at first appear to be a coffee table book. Don't let this style (in pictures and prose) fool you. There is a tremendous quantity of meat here. In fact, I highly suggest this text for required adoption on the undergraduate General Education university level. Be advised: if you are an instructor, there are no safety nets; you must know your music culture areas. David Reck will not help you with the grand world tour: he starts with musical universals and moves to worldwide examples. You must be prepared to fill in the gaps of cultural relativity. However, students may well love the lack of stuffy syntax and the inclusion of ecstatic prose. Just one caveat: this text is not without mistakes and even a few errors. Be on guard for 'golly gee, it's just wonderful' descriptions, and the tendency to infer that there are more musical universals than we have a right to take for granted. Overall, this is an A+ classic for learning about the elements of music as they are practised on our shrinking globe.dw
