ABSTRACT
Moving east toward India, one traces the longest trade route of the ancient world. Usually called the Silk Road, in its broadest expanse this route linked the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific, moving goods, people, and ideas from China to Europe and back, and connecting all the points along the way. It is impossible to make neat cultural divisions along this route. The separation of the world's largest landmass into Europe and Asia is a fiction that conceals as much history as it preserves, and any listener tracing musical styles will find infinite areas of overlap and few clear lines of demarcation.
