Sounding the Depths: March 2011

Inspired by many years of research on world music, and drawing upon dramatic new developments in genetic anthropology and archaeology, this book will take the reader "on a journey through some of the deepest recesses of human culture and history, suggesting solutions to mysteries that, until recently, were thought to be completely beyond the reach of systematic investigation."

Sounding the Depths may be the first truly interactive book ever published. Thanks to the blog format, musical examples and video clips will be easily accessible via Internet links, and readers will be able to post comments on a chapter by chapter basis, offering their thoughts and any suggestions for improvement that may come to mind. I will try to respond to all comments and will seriously consider making revisions on the basis of valid criticisms, corrections or other suggestions.
Readers who wish to contact me directly may do so at: victorag at verizon.net.

Dr. Victor Grauer, based in Pittsburgh, PA, is a composer, musicologist, film‑maker, media artist, poet and dramatist. He holds a Masters Degree in Ethnomusicology from Wesleyan University (1961), with additional studies in that field at UCLA (1961-62), and a Ph. D. in Music Composition from SUNY Buffalo (1972). He was co-creator, with Alan Lomax, of the Cantometric coding system in 1961 and worked on the Cantometrics Project as Research Associate, under Lomax’s supervision, from 1963 through 1966. His creative work has been presented in many venues worldwide, including Lincoln Center (the New York Film Festival), Carnegie Institute (Pittsburgh), The Kitchen (New York), The Mattress Factory (Pittsburgh), the Barbicon Center (London), etc. His writings on musicology and the arts have been published in journals such as Ethnomusicology, Semiotica, Art Criticism, Music Theory Online, Other Voices, Millennium Film Journal, The World of Music and Before Farming. In 1998 he received the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust's Creative Achievement Award. Grauer has taught at the University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh Filmmakers, the Pittsburgh High School of the Creative and Performing Arts and Chatham College. He is presently engaged in research linking his work with Lomax on Cantometrics with current developments in genetic anthropology and archaeology.