Ritual and Music of North China

Dr Stephen Jones has carried out fieldwork on local traditions of Chinese music since 1986. He is author of Folk Music of China: Living Instrumental Traditions (1995/1998) and Plucking the Winds: Lives of Village Musicians in Old and New China (2004). His book Ritual and Music of North China: Shawm Bands in Shanxi (2007) is published by Ashgate. A Research Associate in the Department of Music at SOAS, University of London, Stephen Jones is also a violinist in London early music ensembles.

• Contents: Foreword; Preface: perspectives and sources; Part 1 Introduction: Shaanbei society and its musics. Part 2 Turning a Blind Ear: Bards of Shaanbei: Prelude; The tradition; The Yan'an period; The bards afyer liberation; The reform era; Conclusion: narrative-singing and healing. Part 3 Lives of Shaanbei Blowers: Prelude; Chuishou before Maoism; Chishou under Mao; The early reform era; Modernization and the 'big band'; Chuishou around 2000; Chuishou in action; Conclusion: ritual and order. Part 4 Urban Music in Shaanbei: Musics of Yulin city; Conclusion: local ritual cultures; Bibliography; Glossary; Index.

‘… (a) fascinating book …breaks new ground by bringing us the real lives of real musicians’ John Gittings, Songlines (5 star rating)‘This volume is another major contribution from Jones to our understanding of the ritual and expressive culture of northern China … strong points include Jones’s careful attention to local dialectal usages and terminology; the presence in the index of Chinese characters for almost all names and terms in the text; the detailed description of ritual actions; in-depth discussion of financial aspects of the bards’ and shawm bands’ activities; serious consideration of "cassette culture"; and the liberal use of direct quotes from interviews. One gets a real sense of what the musicians think and how they express their views, as well as of individual life stories. This is a unique introduction to the ritual and music of a part of China we would never otherwise encounter, and provides invaluable comparative material.’ Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies‘It portrays the manipulation of Shaanbei music in two distinct waves: the propaganda of the 1940s and 50s, and the commercialization of the 1980s. With a familiarity that few others could approach, Jones shows how the actual performers viewed these as attempts by outsiders to expropriate their traditions. … The book eschews simple answers and ideal types, but instead shows the performers, their histories and decisions, in all their human complexity. … The DVD is beautifully produced and narrated … The DVD makes the book especially useful for undergraduate teaching, where it would make a fine accompaniment to films such as Yellow Earth, or to more theoretical but less empirically rich works on the interaction getween state and culture in modern China.’ The China Journal'Jones gives his readers a fascinating glimpse of the complicated relationships between ritual and music, between the state and the folk, and between the traditional and the modern in Shaanbei.'Asian Music