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Along the Silk Road
Yo-Yo Ma et al.
Edited by Elizabeth ten Grotenhuis
In 1998 renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma founded the Silk Road Project, Inc., a nonprofit organization devoted to the living arts of peoples of traditional Silk Road lands. One of the major components of this exciting, multi-year venture has been the commissioning of new works by composers from Silk Road regions to be played in concerts and festivals throughout the world. An equally fascinating part of the project is the exploration of ways that traditional cultural expression can help revitalize contemporary culture, a goal exemplified by this volume, itself part of the Silk Road Project activities.
The greater Silk Road encompassed certain sea routes and the loose system of trails that crossed the mountains and deserts of Central Asia to connect East Asia and the Mediterranean. This historical network, at its height from the second century B.C.E. until the fourteenth century, was the most cosmopolitan area on earth. Merchants carrying fine silks and lacquers westward from China would mingle with traders bringing fragile Roman glass to the east or with Indians seeking markets for carved ivory cosmetic boxes and gold ornaments for fashionable women. It was by these routes, too, that the religions of Buddhism and Islam, among others, spread throughout Asia.
This richly illustrated, lively book is keynoted by Yo-Yo Ma's candid insights into contemporary music and the Silk Road. Distinguished contributors who explore the present-day Silk road and its absorbing history include a composer, an ethnomusicologist, an archaeologist, a photographer, a scientist, a film critic, and two art historians.
Elizabeth ten Grotenhuis is associate professor of Asian/Japanese art history at Boston University and associate in research at the Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies at Harvard University. Contributors include Yo-Yo Ma, Theodore Levin, Bright Sheng, Elizabeth Barber, Kenro Izu, Debra Diamond, Merton C. Flemings, and Hamid Naficy.
Series: Asian Art and Culture
Reviews:
"The material is fascinating, and the presentation is clear and accessible to nonscholars." - Library Journal
"Blessed with one of the most fascinating, cosmopolitan histories on Earth, the region of the route manifests the closest thing to a culture of East-West synthesis that can be found. The book's perceptive essays on topics ranging from astrology to technological evolution come alive in the stunning accompanying pictures, which convey the tremendous vitality and the haunting isolation found along the Silk Road." - Booklist
"This illustrated volume explores the ways that traditional modes of cultural expression along the Silk Road . . . inform, and can help to revitalize, contemporary culture. The contributors include the distinguished classical cellist Yo-Yo Ma (Founder of the Silk Road Project, Inc., a nonprofit foundation devoted to the living arts) who discusses whether music has 'an East and West.' " - Middle East Journal
"This book is a visually beautiful introduction to the region's artistic traditions and landscapes. It is also a lively and accessible introduction to the contemporary connections that are emerging between scholars and artists along this ever-vibrant corridor." - Asian Perspectives
Table of Contents:
Foreword
Acknowledgments
Terms Used in This Book
Map of Silk Road Lands
Introduction: The Silk Road, Ancient and Contemporary
A Conversation with Yo-Yo Ma
Melodic Migration in Northwest China
Fashioned From Fiber
Astrology and a Japanese Star Mandala
Sacred Sites along the Silk Road
Traveling Technologies
Iranian Cinema: A Brief Take on a Long History
Further Reading
Index
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Pub Date:
2002
ISBN:
PAPER:
0-295-98182-2
978-0-295-98182-6
Price:
Paper: $24.95
Subject Listing:
Asian Art and Culture
Bibliographic information:
144 pp., 90 illus., 65 in color, 7.75" x 11.25"
Published with:
Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution and the Silk Road Project, Inc.
Territorial rights:
world
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