Music in Japan: Experiencing Music, Expressing Culture Book

A volume in the Global Music series. I didn't like this as well as some of the other volumes. Japanese music tradition is complex, derived from many foreign influences, as this book documents. Unfortunately, the book did not seem well organized, and moved back in forth in time, which is especially difficult for someone not familiar with the periods of Japanese history to keep track of. The CD was especially disappointing; because of economic and copyright issues, presumably, it was composed of short fragments, which made it difficult to really get into any of the styles presented. (It was also poorly bound; the cover fell off before I was finished reading it.)