Sound of the Ancestral Ship: Highland Music of West Java

This book examines the ways in which the urban aristocratic Sundanese of West Java recall the rural past of their ancestors through performances of the tembang Sunda ensemble (voice, zithers, and bamboo flute). This is the first book on Indonesian music that focuses on a non-gamelan ensemble as well as the first book to highlight Sundanese cosmological and cultural practices through an examination of musical performance. It reveals some of the musical tensions and points of connection between men and women, rural people and urbanites, and the classes. Illustrated with photographs and brief musical examples, this book also includes a CD.