[KS] Re: Indonesian music in Korea?

[Richard C. Miller]

At 09:41 AM 7/24/00 -0700, Keith Howard wrote:

>>>>=20

<excerpt>To my knowledge, there is no gamelan in Korea. Scholars at the
main Seoul universities have resisted all temptations so far, despite the
abundance of Javanese and Balinese sets in Japan (-

</excerpt><<<<<<<<

Thanks for the answer. Someone else (sorry, I forget who...) suggested
checking at the Indonesian Embassy in Seoul, which I think the person
asking the original query was already planning to do. Cultural Attach=E9s
in Indonesian embassies and consulates are usually gamelan experts.
However, not all of the diplomatic ensembles are active, so I was hoping
there were other options.


Your summary of the state of ethno in Korea is quite interesting, and
also, as far as I have seen, typical for Asian countries other than Japan
and, to some extent, Singapore. OK, and Australia & New Zealand, if you
consider them Asian. Even in Singapore's case, the comparative work &
ensembles tend to be Chinese, Indian, Malay, and western, all of which
have large communities and long histories in Singapore itself. And in
many cases, the comparative method is missing from every discipline, not
just (ethno)musicology. I was just reading an essay on Indonesian
literary studies (taking that phrase in both senses) by an Indonesian
critic, Nirwan Dewanto, and he was decrying two problems in Indonesian
literary criticism: 1) Lack of knowledge of literature outside
Indonesian, and 2) A refusal to consider that there might be something to
learn about Indonesian literature by comparing it with other nations'
literatures. This quite well sums up the general state of
ethnomusicology, anthropology, art history, and so forth here in
Indonesia as well, with the sole exception of those scholars trained
outside the country.


I would guess that the interest in areas west of Korea are related to the
Koguryeo-Central and South Asia theories stimulated in part by the tomb
paintings?


I'm sorry to hear than Song Pangsong has dropped the comparison of sanjo
and raga. I found the comparisons he made quite stimulated, and it led me
to think further about other modal practices involving some level of
improvisation (however one chooses to define that), such as Chinese,
Javanese, Vietnamese, and Japanese instrumental music. I even gave copies
of Song Pangsong's articles to a local researcher here in Manado who
believes there are modal/correspondance systems at work in some of the
music of North Sulawesi, and had no idea that any other part of the world
had comparable systems.


Thanks again for the references!


Richard

--Richard C. Miller

--UW School of Music

--Manado, Indonesia

--rcmiller at students.wisc.edu

  http://www.sit.wisc.edu/~rcmiller/


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