ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book introduces the frameworks of study in the areas of world musics and ethnomusicology at universities in the UK and Germany, followed by a classification of courses in world musics and ethnomusicology at undergraduate and postgraduate level. It explores ethnomusicology’s anthropological orientation and the study of 'music in and as culture'. The book examines the relationship between students' experiences of listening to the world's musics and the impact of these experiences on students' sociocultural identities, reflected by students' expressions of musical taste. It considers the impact of listening on musical experiencing of moves away from canonising—the institutionalisation of certain music cultures for study over others—and towards expressing a form of global democracy, a belief in equality between all people and their musics.
