Introduction: Why it all began -- From broadsides to Child ballads: Songs of the British people -- Orientalists from France; Jesuit priests in Beijing; Salvador-Daniel in Algiers -- Going native in Constantinople; Dimitrie Cantemir, the happy hostage -- The birth of ethnomusicology: The song of approach, the pipes of friendship: Alice Fletcher and the Omaha Indians -- 'I am now a true Eskimo': Franz Boas and first principles -- Voice of Armenia: The tragedy of Komitas -- Britain's folk-song revivals, and the contentious Cecil Sharp -- 'I in seventh heaven; Perks': The ineffable Percy Grainger -- Carrying the torch: Collectors in Northern and Eastern Europe: 'And what does the gentleman want': Béla Bartók as song detective -- Girdling the globe: The empire of the Lomaxes -- 'I am a white-skinned Aranda man': Theodore Strehlow's divided self -- The stirring of a thousand bells: Jaap Kunst, Colin McPhee, and gamelan -- Hot mint tea and a few pipes of kif: Paul Bowles in Morocco -- A voice for Greece: Domna Samiou's crusade --Things that are made to cry: John Blacking and the Venda -- Record companies as collectors: Folkways, Smithsonian, Nonesuch, IMA, Ocora, World Circuit, Topic, Pan, Muziekpublique --
Musical snapshots: The importance of sound archives: Magic in two strings: Central Asia awakes -- Red badge of courage: Musicians in Afghanistan -- Out of the womb of Russia: Riches awaiting rediscovery -- Three-in-one: The Georgian way -- Small is beautiful: Pygmy polyphony -- It's a physical thing: A Persian musician relocates the radif -- Plucking the winds: Chinese village music today -- Voice, handkerchief, fan: New life for Korea's p'ansori -- 'My whole body was singing': Kodo and the taiko drum -- 'Intangible cultural heritage': UNESCO's lengthening list -- Going, going: disappearing musics.

Historical account of song collecting in various parts of the world.