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Musical Encounters at the 1889 Paris World's Fair.

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Musical Encounters at the 1889 Paris World's Fair. By Annegret Fauser. Rochester, NY: The University of Rochester Press, 2005. [xviii, 391 p. ISBN 1-58046-185-9. $75.] Music examples, illustrations, index, bibliography, appendices.

Annegret Fauser's fascinating study brings to life the 1889 Paris World's Fair as a complex "sonic landscape" far more intriguing than simply the site where Debussy and Ravel, among others, came upon the Javanese gamelan and recent music of the Russian Mighty Five. By exploring how music from Western and non-Western traditions was exhibited, understood, listened to, and written about, she illuminates the complexities of cultural production and reception in late nineteenth-century France and even Europe. The research is accurate, detailed, and thorough (among her primary sources, for example, the author has scanned fifty-seven periodicals and newspapers). The translations from the French are impeccable, the control of the secondary literature in several disciplines impressive, and the flowing narrative replete with well-chosen quotations, long-forgotten information, thought-provoking footnotes, and perceptive comments galore. "Thick history" in the very best sense, this beautifully produced volume entertains, informs, and stimulates the reader throughout its length.

A concise introductory chapter informs us that between 6 May and 6 November 1889, in the shadow of the newly erected Eiffel Tower, some thirty-million people attended this World's Fair. The enterprise, celebrating the centennial of the French Revolution, was advertised as a gigantic encyclopedia that showed and explained everything. Sounds of all types (whether...

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