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Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.

This innovative musical ethnography describes the history, social structure, and modernization of musical life in the mountain villages of Podhale, a small district in Poland directly south of Krakow and ethnically closer to Slovak culture than to the Polish mainstream. Cooley (Univ. of California, Santa Barbara) emphasizes not the remnants of isolated folk tradition but instead the way outside forces--mass media, travel, political realignments, contact with the American diaspora, and, most important, tourism--have affected and shaped the music and its social contexts. This book joins a substantial body of literature relating music to cultural milieu. It is more comprehensible than some studies on eastern Europe, e.g., Anna Czekanowska's Polish Folk Music (CH, May'92, 29-5030); comparable in quality and scope to Tina Ramnarine's Ilmatar's Inspirations (2003), which contemplates Finnish folk music; and, in its treatment of tourism, similar to but more extensive than Margaret Sarkissian's D'Albuquerque's Children (2000), which treats Malaysia. Based on extensive field experience as well as historical sources, the book includes accounts of personal experiences and provides musical and pictorial illustrations; in addition, the author refers frequently to works on the included CD. ^BSumming Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty. B. Nettl University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign