Interlocking Sounds, Interlocking Communities

Abstract

The chapter introduces Indonesian gamelan (percussion orchestra) and the roles that it has played in college world music education in North America and in the discipline of ethnomusicology. The chapter presents a musical overview of gamelan and its original cultural contexts in Indonesia, including religious ceremonies, tourist audiences, and local entertainment. Then it introduces new contexts that gamelan has come to occupy in North America, including performances on concert stages, at outdoor festivals, in prisons, and, most pertinent to this book, in collegiate music halls. Finally, the chapter introduces the premise of the volume—a biography-based examination of the way academic world music ensembles impact local and transnational educational and musical communities—and the book’s primary goal: that of suggesting ways to construct more sustainable academic music communities.