Music in mainland Southeast Asia

Mainland Southeast Asia is a culturally diverse and musically intriguing area, yet the ethnomusicological record lacks coverage of many of its musical and cultural traditions. Placing the music of this region within a social, cultural, and historical context, Music in Mainland Southeast Asia is the first brief, stand-alone volume to profile the under-represented musical traditions of Burma, Cambodia, Thailand, and Vietnam. It also contains the first introduction to Burmese music ever presented in a music textbook. Drawing on his extensive fieldwork, author Gavin Douglas frames this survey of Southeast Asian music within three key themes: music and diversity, music and political turmoil, and music and globalization. Each theme lends itself to a discussion of the region's classical musical traditions, folk traditions, and contemporary developments. Uniquely focusing on the people who practice these musical traditions--rather than the locales from which the traditions originate--the text also follows individuals out of their native lands and into diasporic communities throughout the world [Publisher description].

Beyond its central premise, the book can be read through the connected lenses of Nonfiction. Those themes offer useful points of attention as the characters, ideas, or world develop, especially where the book complicates the expectations of its primary category.