Book Description

Revivals - movements that revitalize, resuscitate, or re-indigenize traditions perceived as threatened or moribund into new temporal, spatial, or cultural contexts - have been well-documented in Western Europe and Euro-North America. Less documented are the revival processes that have been occurring and recurring elsewhere in the world. And particularly under-analyzed are the aftermaths of revivals: the new infrastructures, musical styles, performance practices, subcultural communities, and value systems that have grown out of revival movements. The Oxford Handbook of Music Revival helps us achieve a deeper understanding of the role and development of traditional, folk, roots, world, classical, and early music in modern-day postindustrial, postcolonial, and postwar contexts. The book's thirty chapters present innovative theoretical perspectives illustrated through new ethnographic case studies on diverse music cultures around the world. Together these essays reveal the potency of acts of revival, resurgence, restoration, and renewal in shaping musical landscapes and transforming social experience. The contributors present research from Euro-America, Native America, Latin America and the Caribbean, Africa, Europe, the former Soviet bloc, Asia, Australia, and the Pacific. They enrich the field by applying approaches and insights from across the disciplines of ethnomusicology, ethnochoreology, historical musicology, folklore studies, anthropology, ethnology, sociology, and cultural studies. The book makes a powerful argument for the untapped potential of revival as a productive analytical tool in contemporary, global contexts-one that is crucial for understanding manifestations of musical heritage in postmodern, cosmopolitan societies. With its detailed treatment of authenticity, recontextualization, transmission, institutionalization, globalization, and other key concerns, the collection makes a significant impact far beyond the field of revival studies and is crucial for understanding contemporary manifestations of folk, traditional, and heritage music in today's postmodern cosmopolitan societies.