Songcatchers: In Search of the World's Music|old unused book |World Music, Music History book

Title: Songcatchers: In Search of the World’s Music

Author: Mickey Hart

With: K. M. Kostyal

Publisher: National Geographic⁠

Publication year: 2003

Format: Hardcover

Language: English

Pages: 192

ISBN-10: 079224107X

ISBN-13: 9780792241072

Genre: Music history, ethnomusicology, world music, cultural preservation

Songcatchers explores the history of recording, collecting, and preserving music from cultures around the world. Mickey Hart combines his own experiences as a musician and music researcher with stories of early “songcatchers”—people who travelled to remote places to document traditional songs, chants, folk music, and instruments before they disappeared.

The book discusses pioneers of field recording, including Jesse Walter Fewkes and the Lomax family, while also looking at how recording technology helped make global musical traditions available to wider audiences. It is richly illustrated with historical photographs and includes a timeline of sound-recording development.