Asian Music, the Asian Scholar, and Modern Asia: A Keynote Address

Abstract

The occasion for this keynote was the centenary celebration of José Monsarrat Maceda (1917–2004) in 2017. Professor Maceda was a pioneer in Philippine ethnomusicology and the premier internationally recognized scholar of his generation.1 He was published in international journals, including among others Ethnomusicology , the Yearbook of the International Council for Traditional Music , Acta Musicologica , Neue Zeitschrift für Musik , and Revue d’esthetique nouvelle , and in various languages including English, German, Dutch, French, Portuguese, and Pilipino (Tagalog). In his earlier years he enjoyed an international career as a concert pianist specializing in late nineteenth-century French music, and he had an equally strong reputation as an avant-garde composer with works performed throughout Europe, the Americas, and Asia (Tenzer 2003). He was recognized by the Republic of the Philippines as a National Artist for Music in 1997. He was a strong advocate for indigenous epis-temologies related to the Philippines as a nation, to Southeast Asia as a region, and to Asia as an area distinct from the West. He organized international conferences in the region on the topic. As an Asian scholar and composer of international renown, he is one of the few whose residence and professional locus of productivity remained in Asia throughout his lifetime—that is, in Manila, Republic of the Philippines. He was an exemplary scholar; he was an exem-plary Asian.2 The keynote references Professor Maceda in terms of his life, characteristics, and accomplishments as a framework for the broader considerations of Asia indicated in the title.