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Locating East Asia in Western Art Music.

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Locating East Asia in Western Art Music. Edited by Yayoi Uno Everett and Frederick Lau. (Music / Culture.) Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 2004. [xx, 321 p. ISBN 0-8195-6661-6. $70 (hbk.); ISBN 0-8195-6662-4. $27.95.] Music examples, illustrations, glossary, bibliography, index.

The prominence of Asian composers in recent decades is evidenced by the awards and prizes that they have received, along with regular performances of their works at music festivals worldwide, commissions from renowned orchestras, ensembles, and soloists, as well as rising sales of recordings featuring their music. East Asia has nurtured some of the most well-known contemporary composers in the world: Toru Takemitsu, Isang Yun, Chinese-American composer and Varese scholar Chou Wenchung, and a newer generation including Tan Dun and Bright Sheng, among others. Their works have often been labeled "East-meets-West" or "East-West Confection" (introduction, p. xv). The most direct explanation for these descriptive terms combines aspects of the composers' Asian ethnicity, their adaptation of Asian philosophies and aesthetics with musical elements, and their use of the Western musical language as their predominant medium of expression. There is yet another dimension to "East-meets-West" in music. Some Western composers have been influenced by Asian philosophies and aesthetics,...

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