Roma Music and Emotion

Roma Music and Emotion is an important work of scholarship at the intersection of ethnomusicology and anthropology, combining long-term field research with hypotheses from the cognitive sciences to illustrate the musical world of the Roma of Transylvania and, in so doing, propose a groundbreaking anthropological theory on the emotional power of music

In Roma Music and Emotion, author Filippo Bonini Baraldi forges a much-needed theory of music, emotion, and empathy from an anthropological perspective, addressing the failure of the prevailing psychological theories on music and emotion to account for non-western musical cultures.Bonini Baraldi, having spent years among the Hungarian Roma of rural Transylvania, presents compelling ethnographic descriptions of their weddings, funerals, community celebrations, and intimate family gatherings. Based on extensive field research and informed by hypotheses drawn from the cognitive sciences, the anthropology of art, and aesthetics, Roma Music and Emotion analyzes why Roma musicians cry along with music and how they arouse specific feelings in their audiences.Translated by Margaret Rigaud and written in clear prose, Roma Music and Emotion makes an important ethnomusicological contribution to theoretical discussions of the relationship between music and emotion.