"The field of ethnomusicology has undergone tremendous growth and expansion since World War II. Many American institutions of higher learning have begun to offer courses in this discipline and its various aspects and subdivisions. Many publications devoted entirely to ethnomusicology have appeared; most of these are devoted to the music of non-Western and folk cultures, individually or in groups, which is the basic subject matter of ethnomusicology, but there have been few attempts .to bring together the methods which ethnomusicologists use and the theories on which their work has been based. There is a need, I believe, for the specialist in African music, in Finnish folk song, and in pre-Colombian instruments to have some common backgrolmd of method and of theoretical orientation. The purpose of the present attempt is to show what ethnomusicologists try to do and what they are actually doing, and to provide some theoretical background for the beginning ethnomusicologist, whatever area of the world is to be his specialty. (As a result there is little information, except by way of illustration, about the music of non-Western and folk cultures per se in this book, or about the cultural context of this music)."

USA 1964