Contents: Foreword; Prelude; Part 1 Lives of Shawm Band Musicians: Musics of Shanxi province; Musics of Yanggao county; Shawm bands in China; Yinyang and gujiang traditions in north Yanggao; The Hua band; The Hua brothers; Other gujiang; A comparison; The Cultural Revolution; The reform era; Following fashion; Local goes national?; Yanggao pop; Sexism; The learning process; Tiantian; Fees and 'black talk'; The current scene; Scholarship; Our visits and the role of cultural officials; Washington 2002; UK and Holland 2005; Conclusion: lives and livelihood. Part 2 Shawm Bands and Daoists in Performance: Funerals and Temple Fairs: Introduction; Funerals; The 1st day; Inviting relatives and burning the treasuries; Transferring offerings; The burial procession; Temple fairs; Xujiayuan; Gushan; Lower Liangyuan; Conclusion: ritual and musical impoverishment. Part 3 Don't Mean a Thing If It Ain't Got That Swing: Instrumentation; Instruments and makers; Pitch, scales, and gongche; Learning heterophony and idiom; Melodic styles; Ostinato sections and cadences; Metre and percussion patterns; Repetition and variability; Repertories; Processional pieces; The 8 great suites; Vocal-derived 'small pieces'; Conclusion: ritual sound; Bibliography; Glossary-Index.