This book is wonder and a treasure trove of musical ideas from around the planet. For example, how many music historians are aware of how the Native Amercians used song to identify each of their tribes?
Mr. Titon has provided very interesting facts about music making from many world cultures. He has also produced a 3 CD sound compilation of musical examples for this book that is indispensible.
If you're tired of today's bland market of music that has sadly squashed historical music making of any kind, this book is an excellent journey into the world's most basic roots of song and music.

David Reck's "Music of the Whole Earth" remains one of the great staples for learning about how and why the world's peoples make music. Originally published in the 1970's, Da Capo Press has now intelligently elected to reprint this gem. Richly accompanied by Carol Reck's photographs, "Music of the Whole Earth" may at first appear to be a coffee table book. Don't let this style (in pictures and prose) fool you. There is a tremendous quantity of meat here. In fact, I highly suggest this text for required adoption on the undergraduate General Education university level. Be advised: if you are an instructor, there are no safety nets; you must know your music culture areas. David Reck will not help you with the grand world tour: he starts with musical universals and moves to worldwide examples. You must be prepared to fill in the gaps of cultural relativity. However, students may well love the lack of stuffy syntax and the inclusion of ecstatic prose. Just one caveat: this text is not without mistakes and even a few errors. Be on guard for 'golly gee, it's just wonderful' descriptions, and the tendency to infer that there are more musical universals than we have a right to take for granted. Overall, this is an A+ classic for learning about the elements of music as they are practised on our shrinking globe.dw