From Library Journal
A drummer herself who has taught and performed on the frame drum for many years, Redmond has written an engaging work on the history and meaning of female drumming in ancient spiritual traditions. She bases her work on her travels to ancient sites and other research, tracing the role of sacred drumming from as far back as the Paleolithic era (in the worship of the "Great Mother" or "Great Goddess") and in ancient civilizations in the Near East, India, Greece, and Rome. Along the way, she unearths the first representation of a framed drum at Catal Huyuk (in present-day Turkey), ca. 5600 B.C.E. Redmond even takes us through the rise of Christianity, which silenced both women and drumming in worship, then concludes with the reappearance of drumming in the modern age and its importance as a medium for transformation. Well documented, with an excellent bibliography, this multifaceted study will have great appeal for all readers and especially for music and women's studies collections.?Joan W. Gartland, Detroit P.L.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Booklist
Women's spirituality circles have taken to drumming in a big way. Redmond has been a leader in reintroducing the frame drum, which, she persuasively argues, has been an instrument of spiritual transformation for millennia. Her marvelous book brings together mythology, history and prehistory, personal experience, musical lore, and scientific information on the healthful effects of drumming. Scores of illustrations show stately goddesses holding frame drums, wild maenads tossing their heads as they pound, and priestesses sanctifying space with the rhythms they beat. Redmond's own story of learning drumming in a society in which women are still actively discouraged from taking up the drums is a paradigm of female experience. Wise and passionate, Redmond's book will find a ready audience, made up not only of those who have attended her popular workshops but also of other women drawn to the ecstatic pulse of the drum. Patricia Monaghan
