Musical Argonauts of Central Asia
The Aga Khan Music Programme's Quest to Revitalize Cultural Heritage
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Indiana University Press
Publishing:2nd Dec '25
£32.00
This title is due to be published on 2nd December, and will be despatched as soon as possible.
Musical Argonauts of Central Asia tells the story of the Aga Khan Music Programme (AKMP) and its sustained efforts to revitalize Central Asian musical heritage in the wake of seven decades of Soviet rule.
Theodore Levin, who worked with the program since its inception, offers an insider's account of how the AKMP's development tactics and strategies were formulated and their outcomes assessed. In doing so, Levin addresses fundamental questions about the power of music and what NGOs can do to help shape music's social impact: In what sense are music, musicians, and musical life amenable to interventions by a development organization? What do such interventions contribute to the quality of life of their beneficiaries? And what does an ethical development intervention in music look like? In chronicling the work of the AKMP, Levin establishes the bona fides of a type of institutional cultural activism that isn't captured by rubrics such as applied ethnomusicology, public folklore, and safeguarding intangible cultural heritage.
Featuring case studies of country-specific interventions in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, Musical Argonauts of Central Asia provides a practical roadmap for aspiring activist ethnomusicologists and folklorists that models best practices, analyzes failures, and advocates for the role that ethnographers can and should play in international development organizations.
"This unique book spans personal memoir, ethnomusicology, development studies, and the cultural history of Central Asia. Levin's description of the Aga Khan Music Programme is as absorbing and moving as the musicking worlds that are the book's subject." - Shahzad Bashir, Dean, Institute for the Study of Muslim Civilisations, Aga Khan University
"With his brilliantly produced concerts and wonderful recordings, Ted Levin has long been my guide to the music of Central Asia. Levin's new book provides a fascinating account of how he and colleagues at the Aga Khan Foundation triggered a revival of the teaching, performing and appreciation of the region's traditional music. Filled with anecdote and vivid characters, including villainous ex-Soviet bureaucrats and heroic virtuosi, Musical Argonauts of Central Asia is an inspiring and illuminating read." - Joe Boyd, author of And the Roots of Rhythm Remain: A Journey through Global Music
"Musical Argonauts of Central Asia is a truly unique and uniquely valuable contribution to ethnomusicology and development studies. It addresses deep theoretical dilemmas without pedantry; to the contrary, it carries the reader along with the momentum of a page-turner. The story is gripping, with many fascinating twists and turns, and it raises the most important issues in marvelously vivid ways." - Marc A. Perlman, author of Unplayed Melodies: Javanese Gamelan and the Genesis of Music Theory
"Musical Argonauts of Central Asia grapples with fundamental questions regarding the potential for music to contribute to the well-being of people, particularly in the context of cultural development projects." - Richard K. Wolf, author of The Voice in the Drum: Music, Language and Emotion in Islamicate South Asia
ISBN: 9780253074430
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: unknown
314 pages