Although Sumatra is the sixth largest island in the world and home to an estimated 44 million Indonesians, its musical arts and cultures have not been the subject of a book-length study until now. Documenting and explaining the ethnographic, cultural, and historical contexts of Sumatra's performing arts, Musical Journeys in Sumatra also traces the changes in their style, content, and reception from the early 1970s onward.

Having dedicated almost forty years of scholarship to exploring the rich and varied music of Sumatran provinces, Margaret Kartomi provides a fascinating ethnographic record of vanishing musical genres, traditions, and practices that have become deeply compromised by the pressures of urbanization, rural poverty, and government policy. This deeply informed collection showcases the complex diversity of Indonesian music and includes field observations from six different provinces: Aceh, North Sumatra, Riau, West Sumatra, South Sumatra, and Bangka-Belitung. Featuring photographs and original drawings from Kartomi's field observations of instruments and performances, Musical Journeys in Sumatra provides a comprehensive musical introduction to this neglected, very large island, with its hundreds of ethno-linguistic-musical groups.

| Cover Title Page Copyright Contents Orthography Abbreviations Note on Informal Learning, Musical Notation and Transcription List of Music Examples List of Figures List of Tables and Maps Preface Acknowledgments Chapter 1. Sumatra's Performing Arts, Groups, and Subgroups Part I. West Sumatra and Riau Chapter 2. Upstream Minangkabau: Music to Catch Tigers By Chapter 3 The Minangkabau South Coast Home of the Mermaid and the Earth Goddess Chapter 4. Tabut: A Shi'a Ritual Transplanted from India to Minangkabau's North Coast Chapter 5. Four Sufi Muslim Genres in Minangkabau Chapter 6. The Riau Indragiri Sultanate's Nobat Ensemble and Its Suku Mamak Stalwarts Part II: South Sumatra and Bangka Chapter 7. South Sumatra "The Realm of Many Rivers" Chapter 8. The Wartime Creation of "Gending Sriwijaya": From Banned Song to South Sumatran Symbol Chapter 9. The Island of Bangka Part III: North Sumatra Chapter 10. From Singkil to Natal: Sikambang, a Malay-Portuguese Song-Dance Genre Chapter 11. The Mandailing Raja Tradition in Pakantan Part IV: Aceh Chapter 12. Changes in the Lament Dances in Aceh: Phô as a Symbol of Female Identity Chapter 13. "Only If a Man Can Kill a Buffalo with One Blow Can He Play a Rapa'i Pasè: Chapter 14. Connections across Sumatra Appendix 1. The Languages of Sumatra Appendix 2. Historical Studies of Sumatra and Ethnicity Appendix 3. Musical Studies of Sumatra Appendix 4. Tunings and Vocal Scales in South Sumatra Appendix 5. Gamelan in Sumatra Appendix 6. Audiovisual Recordings and Audio Examples on the Website Notes Glossary Bibliography Index |"Kartomi's book reaffirms the value of classic ethnomusicological research. . . . Highly recommended."—Choice
"This is a delicious book — to be savoured, appreciated for its richness of detail and admired for its texture and cohesion. An innovative work, of great significant for describing, categorising and analysing Indonesia's traditional musical arts."—Inside Indonesia
"The first comprehensive text detailing Sumatran music-dance traditions, based on forty years of fieldwork and scholarship, is, above all, a wonderfully encyclopedic collection of fascinating data and careful, honest description—in short, a classic ethnomusicological text."—Journal of the American Musicological Society
| Margaret Kartomi, a professor of music at Monash University in Australia, is a specialist on the...