Customer Reviews

Voices in Bali: Energies and Perceptions in Vocal Music and Dance Theater (Music Culture)

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This book was a wonderful surprise. First of all, it contains a CD which is worth the price of admission. The CD has a lot of folk songs and arja (Balinese opera) selections which aren't generally available in CD stores (which tends to just cover gamelan and cak.)

For musicians, it presents detailed technical information on performance and to some degree the process of learning the vocal techiques.

For musicologists, it provides quite a background on how it fits in Balinese society.

I don't know if I can properly comment on how accessible it will be to people who don't play or study music. However a good deal of the information is down to earth and anecdotal, and of course the music on the CD is anything but academic.

Here is a work of ethnomusicology that focuses as much on the how of learning this music (from vivid descriptions of personal experience) as on the how of understanding (for the outsider) the nature of this music itself. It delivers what it promises. A CD is included and the lyrics to each song that is sung has a phonetic transcription, a clear translation, and useful notes. If you want to enter the world of Balinese vocal music and dance, start here. I hope videos of the dance will someday be made available. Edward Herbst recently discovered in UCLA's uncatalogued archives the only know film of one of the legendary Balinese performers.