Timothy Rice, professor of ethnomusicology and director of the department of music at the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music, has published a new book, “Ethnomusicology: A Very Short Introduction.”
Rice's book concisely defines and explores this growing field. Though ethnomusicology focuses on music created by different cultures, mostly by declared musicians, the field recognizes a central belief that all people are musical and that this experience of music is central to the human experience. Rice explains the methods of ethnomusicological research, which usually involve living within a community and participating in, observing and recording that community’s musical events. Rice also ties the data from these observations to other social sciences when he discusses patterns in musical traditions and the ways they reflect cultural practices.
Rice has previously written about the research themes of musical cognition, politics and music, meaning and music, mass media, music teaching and learning and theory and method in ethnomusicology. He specializes in the traditional music of the Balkans, especially from the Slavic-speaking nations of Bulgaria and Macedonia; his writings in that field include the books “May it Fill Your Soul: Experiencing Bulgarian Music” and “Music in Bulgaria: Experiencing Music, Expressing Culture” in that field, as well as numerous articles in major journals.