Description

This book is a wide-ranging study of the varieties of gamelan music in contemporary Java seen from a regional perspective. The focus of most studies of Javanese music has been limited to the court-derived music of Surakarta and Yogyakarta, but Sutton goes beyond these to consider also gamelan music of Banyumas, Semarang, and East Java as separate regional traditions with distinctive repertories, styles and techniques of performance, and conceptions about music. Sutton’s description of these traditions, illustrated with numerous musical examples in Javanese cipher notation, is based on extensive field experience in these areas and is informed by the criteria that Javanese musicians judge to be most important in distinguishing them. Whatever the extent to which regional traditions now blend and spread beyond their area of origin, Sutton maintains that regional differences persist in contemporary Java not as vestigial curiosities, but rather as deep-rooted aesthetic differences that reflect varied perceptions of regional cultural identity. The book contains numerous illustrations of performing groups and cultural events, a glossary, and discography.