A House in Bali
by Colin McPhee, James Murdoch
List Price:
Our Price: $11.39
You Save: $8.56 (43%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Colin McPhee, James MurdochEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2000-05-15
ISBN: 9625936297
Number of pages: 224
Publisher: Periplus Editions
Book Reviews of A House in Bali
Book Review: The epitome of following one's dream
Summary: 5 Stars
Even as the art & tradition of classical gamelan music fades in Java, gamelans are built & organized in America & Europe, the music is studied & taught in universities. This has occurred since the 70's, when recordings of gamelan music became widely available, particularly in a major series on Nonesuch Explorer. For many people, hearing gamelan for the first time is not only a delightfully exotic experience, the music unlike anything one has heard, but there is often also a strange shock of recognition, as if one somehow already knew the music, although where & how remains a mystery. Perhaps this is what happened to Colin McPhee. For McPhee in 1930, as for so many western musicians since, hearing gamelan inspired something like a religious conversion.
I was given an old copy of this book shortly after I heard gamelan for the first time, & so I was able to follow McPhee on his great adventure to find where the music came from. When he arrived in Bali, he discovered that although the culture was vibrantly alive, much of music was in danger of being lost. He met, befriended, & studied with some greatly talented Balinese musicians, old masters & several younger composers & leaders, including Wayan Lotring & Made Lebah. They set about restoring a Semar Pegulingan gamelan. The task of bringing this music back to life is the "plot" of the "A House In Bali." McPhee quickly realized that his western musical training was of limited value, because the "values" of music - technically & culturally - in Bali were so different. Music had popular, ritual, & concert functions, as in the West. But the music was inseparable from the instruments, & each collection of instruments - each gamelan, was unique. Compositions were learned by rote, in phrases, with the gamelan functioning as a kind of all-ages social club for men. McPhee had to become, as best he could, a person of Bali, a villager, someone with a place & a role in the life of the community. He recounts his immersion in Balinese life, As strange as Bali was for McPhee, he was the "stranger," the outsider, & he remained one, oddly indifferent to what the Balinese thought of his lifestyle. Most inexplicably, he seems not to have become a gamelan musician. One wonders not only how he resisted this experience, but also why?
McPhee later attempted to translate Balinese music into a western idiom using pianos & a symphony orchestra, with beautiful results, but losing what he had learned in the process, Sadly, when he returned home, he had left the most important stuff behind.
Summary of A House in Bali
In the 1930s a young American composer heard some gramophone records of Balinese gamelan music -- the clear metallic music of the land that forever changed his life. Writer Colin McPhee lived for the day when he could travel and study the beautiful island, its people, culture, and music. His classic text written in the 1940s remains the only literary narrative of the island by a classically trained musician, and this unique perspective allowed him to immerse himself in the people, and music of his beloved Bali. McPhee's work is a landmark look at Bali's distinctive gamelan tradition, now available again more than 50 years after it was written.General Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Audiobooks on Cassette
- Audiobooks on CD
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- e-Books
- Engineering
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Medicine
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Indonesia
Sexual Politics in Indonesiaby Saskia E. Wieringa
Palgrave Macmillan; Published: 2002-09-06; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $127.11
Price in other shops:
Media, Culture and Politics in Indonesiaby Krishna Sen, David T. Hill
Equinox Publishing; Published: 2006-01-10; Paperback; Book
Best price: $29.94
Price in other shops:
A House in Baliby Colin McPhee, James Murdoch
Periplus Editions; Published: 2000-05-15; Paperback; Book
Best price: $11.41
Price in other shops:
Indonesian Destiniesby Theodore Friend
Belknap Press; Published: 2003-06-20; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $10.15
Price in other shops:
House of glass: A novel (Penguin international writers)by Toer Pramoedya Ananta
Penguin Books Ltd; Published: 1992; Paperback; Book
Child of All Nations (Buru Quartet)by Pramoedya Ananta Toer
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 1996-05-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.40
Price in other shops:
Footsteps (Buru Quartet)by Pramoedya Ananta Toer
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 1996-05-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.75
Price in other shops:
This Earth of Mankind (Buru Quartet)by Pramoedya Ananta Toer
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 1996-05-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.95
Price in other shops:
A History of Modern Indonesiaby Adrian Vickers
Cambridge University Press; Published: 2005-12-05; Paperback; Book
Best price: $19.93
Price in other shops:
Similar Books and other products
Balinese Dance, Drama and Music: A Guide to the Performing Arts of Baliby I Wayan Dibia, Rucina Ballinger, Barbara Anello
Periplus Editions; Published: 2004-12-15; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $23.10
Price in other shops:
Music in Bali: Experiencing Music, Expressing Culture Includes CD (Global Music Series)by Lisa Gold
Oxford University Press, USA; Published: 2004-10-28; Paperback; Book
Best price: $22.35
Price in other shops:
Bali, Sekala and Niskala, Vol. 1: Essays on Religion, Ritual, and Artby Fred B. Eiseman Jr.
Periplus Editions; Published: 1996-12-15; Paperback; Book
Best price: $15.00
Price in other shops:
Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesiaby Elizabeth Gilbert
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 2007-01-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.93
Price in other shops:
Periplus Guide to Bali: The Island of the Gods (Periplus Adventure Guides)Periplus Editions; Published: 2005-06-15; Paperback; Book
Best price: $14.87
Price in other shops:
Bali & Lombok (Lonely Planet Travel Guide)by Ryan Ver Berkmoes, Iain Stewart
Lonely Planet; Published: 2007-03-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $13.49
Price in other shops:
A Little Bit One O'clock: Living with a Balinese Familyby William Ingram
BookSurge Publishing; Published: 2007-07-13; Paperback; Book
Best price: $15.95
Fragrant Rice: My Continuing Love Affair with Baliby Janet De Neefe
Periplus Editions; Published: 2006-10-15; Paperback; Book
Best price: $10.22
Price in other shops:
A Short History of Bali: Indonesia's Hindu Realm (A Short History of Asia series)by Robert Pringle
Allen & Unwin; Published: 2004-04-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.57
Price in other shops:
Island of Bali (Periplus Classics Series)by Miguel Covarrubias, Adrian Vickers
Periplus Editions; Published: 2008-09-15; Paperback; Book
Best price: $13.00
Price in other shops: