Gamelan Stories : Tantrism Islam and Aesthetics in Central Java (Monographs in Southeast Asian studies)

"This essential work from Judith Becker breaks important new ground in the quest by English-speaking scholars to understand the deeper levels of Central Javanese meaning regarding music and musical exegesis. She approaches her work on gamelan and court dance by examining texts and interviews of a number of older (and since deceased) Central Javanese scholar/musicians. 'While these stories focus on the events of music and dance, those activities also become metaphors for the strongly felt , extra mundane connections between human and cosmos, between the individual and a greater, more enduring, more powerful realm with which he or she is both linked and separated' (p. 1). Becker carefully outlines her claim with strong supporting evidence, building a history of medieval Javanese thought that lays the groundwork for the ways in which Javanese musicians interpret their art today. She also notes some of the ways in which Western scholars have misunderstood Javanese musicians and the literature about Javanese music and dance, and how they have inaccurately analyzed certain characteristics of modern practice." -- The Journal of Asian Studies