Speaking for Ourselves, Michael B. Bakan
Speaking for Ourselves, Michael B. Bakan
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Speaking for Ourselves
Conversations on Life, Music, and Autism

Author: Michael B. Bakan

Narrator: Kaleo Griffith

Unabridged: 10 hr 22 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 08/21/2018


Synopsis

Since the advent of autism as a diagnosed condition in the 1940s, the importance of music in the lives of autistic people has been widely observed and studied. Articles on musical savants, extraordinary feats of musical memory, unusually high rates of absolute or "perfect" pitch, and the effectiveness of music-based therapies abound in the autism literature. Meanwhile, music scholars and historians have posited autism-centered explanatory models to account for the unique musical artistry of everyone from Béla Bartók and Glenn Gould to "Blind Tom" Wiggins.

Given the great deal of attention paid to music and autism, it is surprising to discover that autistic people have rarely been asked to account for how they themselves make and experience music or why it matters to them that they do. In Speaking for Ourselves, renowned ethnomusicologist Michael Bakan does just that, engaging in deep conversations—some spanning the course of years—with ten fascinating and very different individuals who share two basic things in common: an autism spectrum diagnosis and a life in which music plays a central part.

About Michael B. Bakan

Michael B. Bakan is Professor of Ethnomusicology at Florida State University. His more than fifty publications include the books World Music: Traditions and Transformations and Music of Death and New Creation, as well as articles and book chapters on topics ranging from the ethnomusicology of autism to cinematic music and postmodernism. Bakan serves on the Board of Directors of the Society for Ethnomusicology and as series editor for the Routledge Focus on World Music book series. As a percussionist, he has performed with John Cage, Tito Puente, Rudolf Serkin, George Clinton and Parliament-Funkadelic, and several leading gamelan groups in Bali, Indonesia.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Kara on June 03, 2019

I appreciated the twist of learning about how individuals with autism perceive their own musical journeys - autism from the inside as it were. I had hoped to receive deeper insight to shape how I approach teaching autistic students, yet the subjects of the book were primarily experts - concert piani......more

Goodreads review by Aruna on January 22, 2020

This book is fascinating to me on many levels and, in the week it took me to read it, has already impacted my life in many ways. My son is 13, diagnosed with HFA, and lives his life through music. The conversations in the book - with adults who are able to reflect upon the ways in which music has sh......more

Goodreads review by J on December 02, 2023

Some good info like when they explain why functioning labels are irrelevant but it was very very dated since the whole book they talk about Asperger’s etc. since this was published in 2018 and the Asperger’s diagnosis was erased in 2013 I expected a bit more up to date info. I did like all the diffe......more