Javanese Gamelan and the West
Title Details

220 Pages

22.8 x 15.2 cm

6 b/w, 3 line illus.

Series: Eastman/Rochester Studies Ethnomusicology

Series Vol. Number: 3

Imprint: University of Rochester Press

Javanese Gamelan and the West

by Sumarsam

  • Description
  • Contents
  • Reviews
Preeminant gamelan performer and scholar Sumarsam explores the concept of hybridity in performance traditions that have developed in the context of Javanese encounters with the West.

Javanese Gamelan and the West studies the meaning, forms, and traditions of the Javanese performing arts as they developed and changed through their contact with Western culture. Authored by a gamelan performer, teacher, and scholar, the book traces the adaptations in gamelan art as a result of Western colonialism in nineteenth-century Java, showing how Western musical and dramatic practices were domesticated by Javanese performers creating hybrid Javanese-Western art forms, such as with the introduction of brass bands in gendhing mares court music and West Javanese tanjidor, and Western theatrical idioms in contemporary wayang puppet plays. The book also examines the presentation of Javanese gamelan to the West, detailing performances in World's Fairs and American academia and considering its influence on Western performing arts and musical and performance studies. The end result is a comprehensive treatment of the formation of modern Javanese gamelan and a fascinating look at how an art form dramatizes changes and developments in a culture.

Sumarsam is a University Professor of Music at Wesleyan University. He is the author of Gamelan: Cultural Interaction and Musical Development in Central Java (University of Chicago Press, 1995) and numerous articles in English and Indonesian. As a gamelan musician and a keenamateur dhalang (puppeteer) of Javanese wayang puppet play, he performs, conducts workshops, and lectures throughout the US, Australia, Europe, and Asia.
Introduction
Performing Colonialism
Performing the Nation-State
Opera Diponegoro
Deterritorializing and Appropriating Gamelan
Cross-Cultural Perspectives on Gamelan Theory: Metaphorical Readings of Gamelan
Conclusion
Notes
Glossary
Selected Discography
Bibliography
"This book offers a sweeping overview of Javanese musical and cultural interactions with the rest of the world, providing critique and reconsideration of the prevalent themes and ideas that have fascinated scholars for decades. It will be essential reading, not only for Javanists but for scholars of postcolonialism in general." Sarah Weiss, Associate Professor, Department of Music, Yale University

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9781580465236

July 2015

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9781580464451

July 2013

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9781782045533

July 2013

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9781580467995

July 2013

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Title Details

220 Pages

2.28 x 1.52 cm

6 b/w, 3 line illus.

Series: Eastman/Rochester Studies Ethnomusicology

Series Vol. Number: 3

Imprint: University of Rochester Press