The growing popularity of world music, and the enormous choice now available under that heading in record shops, has not, alas, been matched by an explosion in the number of reference books devoted to the subject; which makes Otto Karolyi's informative study a welcome addition to the shelves of anyone who wants to know their goblet drums from their gamelans. He offers five chapters - Africa, Islam, India, China and Tibet and the Far East, each subdivided into matching sections so that, for example, if rhythm is your particular interest, you'll know instantly where to find it, whether you seek it in Zimbabwe or Japan. His explanations are comprehensive, yet lucid - he's the only Western writer who has ever made sense of the Arabic maqam, for which (don't ask) this reviewer, for one, is deeply grateful - and his occasional interpolations of bits and pieces of folklore are entertaining and insightful.
