Eurasian Musical Journeys
Five Tales

The circulation of musical instruments, practices, and thought in pre-modern Eurasia at the crossroads of empires and nomadic cultures.

Gabriela Currie (Author), Lars Christensen (Author)

9781108823296, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 5 May 2022

75 pages
22.8 x 15.2 x 0.7 cm, 0.17 kg

This Element explores the circulation of musical instruments, practices, and thought in premodern Eurasia at the crossroads of empires and nomadic cultures. It takes into consideration mechanisms of transmission, appropriation, adaptation, and integration that helped shape musical traditions that are perceived as culturally and geographically distinct yet are historically linked. The five stories featured here range from the geographically diverse performing groups during the Sui and Tang era, to the elusive musical world of Kucha in the Tarim Basin; from the fragmentary history of a single instrument linked to the Turkic peoples across Eurasia, to the transcontinental circulation of sound-making automata, including the organ, on both east-west and north-south axes. Within the conceptual background of cultural encounter and exchange, this Element provides possible strategies for integrating such information into the historical tapestry of Eurasian transcontinental networks as explored in other Elements in the series.

1. Prologue
2. The Cosmopolitan Chang'an
3. Dancing 'Sogdian Style': the Huxuanwu and the Hutengwu
4. The Western Regions: Kucha
5. Tracking the Qopuz: from Qocho to Herat
6. Sound-Making Mechanical Marvels
7. Epilogue.

Subject Areas: Medieval history [HBLC1], Early history: c 500 to c 1450/1500 [HBLC], Asian history [HBJF], European history [HBJD], General & world history [HBG], Non-Western music: traditional & "classical" [AVGE], Medieval & Renaissance music [c 1000 to c 1600 AVGC2]