How does sound ecology—an acoustic connective tissue among communities—also become a basis for a healthy economy and a just community?

Jeff Todd Titon's lived experiences shed light on the power of song, the ecology of musical cultures, and even cultural sustainability and resilience. In Toward a Sound Ecology, Titon's collected essays address his growing concerns with people making music, holistic ecological approaches to music, and sacred transformations of sound. Titon also demonstrates how to conduct socially responsible fieldwork and compose engaging and accessible ethnography that speaks to a diverse readership. Toward a Sound Ecology is an anthology of Titon's key writings, which are situated chronologically within three particular areas of interest: fieldwork, cultural and musical sustainability, and sound ecology. According to Titon—a foundational figure in folklore and ethnomusicology—a re-orientation away from a world of texts and objects and toward a world of sound connections will reveal the basis of a universal kinship.

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Toward a Sound Ecology offers not only a retrospective on shifting thought in ethnomusicology throughout the length of Titon's career but also suggestions about where it may go in the future. Titon's book is a fascinating character study that shows the evolution of his thinking, situated within real-world ethnographic and biographical specifics, and proposes future expansions for the field in its current state. Each of the essays can be excerpted and used out of context for a variety of purposes, but the book as a whole serves as an excellent refresher on the field as a whole, as well as a suggestion of what it may soon become.