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* Palestinian Arab Music: A Maqam Tradition in Practice. By Dalia Cohen and Ruth Katz. University of Chicago Press, 1427 E. 60th St., Chicago, IL 60637; 773-702-7700; fax, 773-702-9756; www.press .uchicago.edu. 2006. 416 pp. Figures, tables, map, musical examples, notes, appendix, bibliography, index, CD. Hardcover, $125.00; paperback, $50.00.
Learning about and sharing with students a variety of musical cultures is a central joy in teaching music. Palestinian Arab Music is a wonderful, if voluminous, source for music educators who wish to take this music and make it familiar.
This book is the culmination of research that started in the late 1950s, when the authors began researching and recording the oral and improvised folk music of Palestinian Arabs. Using surveys, recordings, and analysis via a melograph (an instrument...