Missionaries, Anthropologists, and Music in the Indonesian Archipelago

Although the history of Indonesian music has received much attention from ethnomusicologists and Western composers alike, almost nothing has been written on the interaction of missionaries with local culture. This study represents the first attempt to concentrate on the musical dimension of missionary activities in Indonesia. In fourteen essays, a group of distinguished scholars show the complexity of the topic: while some missionaries did important scholarship on local music, making recordings and attempting to use local music in services, others tried to suppress whatever they found. Many were collaborating closely with anthropologists who admitted freely that they could not have done their work without them. And both parties brought colonial biases into their work. By grappling with these realities and records, this book is a collective effort to decolonize the project of making music histories.

“This fascinating collection of essays not only opens up the neglected history of Hindu, Buddhist, Muslim, and Christian missionization of the Indonesian archipelago, but also contributes to the decolonizing of its historiography. The book’s wealth of data reveals new historical connections and insights that will confound conventional understandings of the region.” — MARGARET KARTOMI, author of Musical Journeys in Sumatra

“Examining anew the value of the documentation that missionaries accomplished, their interactions with the people and places they occupied, and their relationships with other kinds of observers, this volume is a much-needed corrective and an absolutely fascinating read that enriches the ethnomusicology of Indonesia and beyond.” — ANNE K. RASMUSSEN, author of Women, the Recited Qur’an, and Islamic Music in Indonesia

ANNA MARIA BUSSE BERGER is Distinguished Professor of Music emerita at the University of California, Davis and the author of The Search for Medieval Music in Africa and Germany and Medieval Music and the Art of Memory.

HENRY SPILLER is Professor of Music emeritus at the University of California, Davis and the author of Erotic Triangles and Javaphilia.