This shorter version of the best-selling WORLDS OF MUSIC is based on the 4th edition and provides much of the authoritative coverage of the comprehensive version in a format that's accessible to students without any background or training in music. Using the case-study approach, the text presents in-depth explorations of music of several cultures from around the world. The authors all ethnomusicologists working in their fields of expertise base their discussions of music-cultures on their own fieldwork and give students a true sense of both the music and culture that created it. General editor, Jeff Todd Titon, has written the text's opening chapter, that introduces students to ethnomusicology and relates each chapter's music heard on the accompanying CDs to the fundamentals of music in a worldwide context. The text concludes with a chapter that invites students to participate by undertaking a fieldwork research project that increases a student's understanding of music in daily life. Two CDs accompany every copy of the book on the inside back cover. The selected recordings cover a wide range of music-cultures and include authentic recordings from the authors' fieldwork. Leading off is the long-standing jewel in the Worlds of Music crown - James Koetting's magnificent recording of postal workers canceling stamps at the University of Ghana post office. A Western-sounding hymn tune performed against African rhythms, this piece, more that any other, lets the student hear contrasting music-cultures. Packaged with the text, the CDs make this book the best value available for the course.