1. Introduction. Martin Clayton Part I. Words and music 2. The first voices, Jean Jacques Rousseau 3. The beginnings of music, Charles S. Myers 4. The boundaries of speech and song, George List 5. The separation of speech and song, Jacques Derrida 6. Poetry and music, Richard Wagner 7. Oral mnemonics for the Japanese noh flute, David Hughes 8. Drum signalling in a West African tribe, George Herzog Part II. Song, text and voice 9. The voice as a musical instrument, Simon Frith 10. Working class 'country', Steven Feld, Aaron A. Fox, Thomas Porcello and David Samuels 11. Music, voice, language, Roland Barthes 12. 'Hey Jude', Tim Riley 13. The voice of Egypt, Virginia Danielson 14. Siddheshwari Devi sings Sheila Dhar 15. Text and performance in thumri, Peter Manuel Part III. Song performance and society 16. The meaning of song, Victor Zuckerkandl 17. Hazara lullabies, Hiromi Lorraine Sakata 18. Race, class and gender in Carmen, Susan McClary 19. Oh Brother where art thou? and the blues, Richard Middleton 20. Juju live, Christopher Waterman 21. Rhythm, rhyme, and rhetoric in the music of Public Enemy, Robert Walse 22. The Maori haka, Jan Bolwell and Keri Kaa Part IV. Song and ritual 23. Wassailing in Somerset, Kingsley Palmer and Bob Patten 24. The carol revival, Frank Howes 25. Papal legislation on sacred music, Robert F. Hayburn 26. Jungle paths and spirit songs, Marina Roseman 27. The Karelian lament, Elizabeth Tolbert 28. Russian wedding rituals and Stravinsky, Richard Taruskin 29. Lamenting in Stravinsky's Les Noces, Pieter C. Van den Toorn Part V. Words, music and narrative 30. The Sicilian cantastorie, Mauro Geraci 31. Song and performance, Edward Cone 32. The 'Bell Song', Carolyn Abbate 33. The little blueprint - an amplification of the meaning of 'libretto', Gordon Kalton Williams 34. Sondheim's technique, Stephen Sondheim and Trevor Herbert 35. Writing lyrics, Oscar Hammerstein 36. Afternoon Raag, Amit Chaudhuri 37. The Vinteuil Sonata, Marcel Proust List of illustrations List of sources