Music is often thought of as an aural medium used to convey a message. It is less frequently thought of as a tool for conflict resolution or solidarity among a single group. John Morgan O'Connell and Salwa El-Shawan-Castelo-Branco's collection of essays, Music and Conflict, describes the range of issues in this oft-neglected area, as well as the ways in which ethnomusicologists can find themselves as mediators in such situations. The essays in this volume, written by established scholars in the field of ethnomusicology, were originally the product of conference presentations at the 2004 International Council for Traditional Music Conference in Limerick, for which the conference topic was ‘Discord: Identifying Conflict in Music, Resolving Conflict Through Music’. Unlike many essay collections, there are two essays per subtopic, and each subtopic is introduced by a short overview by John O'Connell. In addition to these six short overviews, the volume contains a total of 12 essays, plus an introduction and epilogue by each of the editors. The topics that the book addresses include the uses of music in war, across boundaries, after displacement, in ideology, in application, and as conflict.

The discussions in each essay centre around understudied music in localities in which there is social discontent. The book creates a wide geographical scope spanning from the Americas through the Middle East and Eastern Europe as well as other geographic regions. It is this aspect of contemporary music and culture that this important book seeks to explain and examine. Rather than simply studying the music and culture of a given group of people, the essays here seek to explore new uses of music and how it serves to participate in conflict resolution and both indicate and repair tension among various ethnic groups. Unlike many other books where it is useful for the author to maintain some distance from the topic, the essays in this book thrive because of the authors’ interaction in the ways music is being used.

The goal of the essays in this volume can be summed up by John O'Connell: ‘While language as prose tends to delimit interpretation according to the partial dictates of authorial intention, music as practice seems to liberate interpretation according to the multiple views of audience reception’ (p. 2). Likewise, Castelo-Branco notes that ‘the essays in this volume demonstrate how music is a powerful discursive tool; conflict is identified and stimulated and conflict resolution enacted or imagined through musical discourse’ (p. 245). As a result, the essays discuss the use of music in practical terms rather than simply by interpretation. The result of this approach is not trying to uncover the composer's authorial intention, but one that is more pragmatic and tangible and, in my opinion, an approach that should be undertaken far more often, where applicable. As O'Connell points out, the study of music as a conflict mediator as well as the role of the ethnomusicologist in this area have been highly neglected. Here the succession of essays throughout the book create a both a continuum and a conversation among one another on the different ways that music can be used to express both discord and concord.

At its most broad, many of the essays explore the use of music in both ethnic differentiation and cultural solidarity and the ways that normative values constrain or spawn musical activities. The most successful essays in this book place the musical behaviours of one or more groups into their cultural and historical context while simultaneously discussing the author as participant. Most, if not all, of the essays were results of fieldwork in the given region, but not all of them maintain any sort of distance from their subjects, and it is the essays of Anthony Seeger, Svanibor Pettan and Britta Sweer that are most effective in this respect. Likewise, essays of those such as Adelaida Reyes, William O. Beeman, David Cooper and Anne K. Rasmussen show that we have much to learn about the ways in which music can be used and applied to contemporary situations by examining its use in the various capacities in which it is currently being used for that purpose. Music's use in recent history, in essays such as those by Stephen Blum, Jane Sugarman, Inna Naroditskaya and Keith Howard, show how a trajectory from the historical use of music in the capacity of conflict resolution, identity and solidarity can be drawn to its use today. As a whole, each of the volume's essays takes specific issues into consideration and relates them to the specific regions and situations that concern them. By doing so, the authors assure the reader that, while the use of music may or may not be unique in that culture, it also stems from its own unique history and cultural past.

While this book does not intend to be exhaustive in its approach to studying music and conflict, its theoretical implications are far reaching. What is most compelling about it is the way that it diverges from previous models of cultural analysis. In its variety, the essays create a sampling of the many opportunities for the study of this subject throughout various geographic regions. This volume addresses the potential of ethnomusicologists to not only study and maintain the musical cultures of these countries, but also to serve as peacemakers and mediators in these sometimes hostile environments. Each of the essays makes a good starting point for more involved and focused work on the area of music and conflict and the greater role of the scholar. Scholars interested in the role of any of the arts in conflict and peacemaking will find much of interest in this study, especially those who do not specifically study music's role in this area. This book deserves a central location on the map of the burgeoning fields of the arts and conflict, the arts and peacemaking, and the arts and crisis and can easily contribute to a conversation about the role of the various arts in these areas.

Editors' Note

Any opinions expressed in the Reviews section remain those of the reviewers, who are also responsible for the factual accuracy of their reviews. We regret that we are unable to enter into correspondence about reviews.