American Musical Traditions, Volumes 1-5.

edited by Jeff Todd Titon and Bob Carlin. Schirmer Reference/Gale Group/Thompson Learning (300 Park Ave. S., New York, NY 10010), published in collaboration with Smithsonian Folkways Recordings, 2001. 1,064 pp. in five volumes, $450 for five-volume set.

Consisting of five volumes and covering six topic areas: Native American Music, African American Music, British Isles Music, European American Music, Latino American Music and Asian American Music, this scholarly and professionally produced set of hard-back volumes is a deep source of sociologically related musical information about some of the peoples who have contributed to American culture. This is a new addition to an extensive collection of excellent ethnomusicological materials generated under the auspices of the Smithsonian Institution.

The first thing to be said of this set is that it is about folk music and nothing else. Beethoven and Copland are never mentioned. Neither is jazz. If you wish to know if Japanese Americans still perform Kabuki theater in the new world, you won't find it here. Likewise, there is no printed music in these volumes, not even transcriptions. Anything that smacks of classical culture, no matter whose, is omitted here.

Editors Jeff Todd Titon and Bob Carlin generally exclude popular culture as well, focusing primarily on surviving examples of old folk music, although there are exceptions: Tejano, break dancing and rap are included and presented as contemporary manifestations of old folk traditions.

That having been said, this is an excellent reference set. There is a wealth of ...