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Popular World Music Shahriari

Gamelan

In terms of music, Indonesia is the most researched country in Southeast Asia. Since the late 1800s ethnomusicologists have been fascinated with the sounds of the gamelan, a traditional ensemble consisting of a variety of metal gongs and metallophones. Many of the field’s best-known scholars, such as Colin McPhee (1900–1964), Jaap Kunst (1891–1960), and Ki Mantle Hood (1918–2005), focused their research on Indonesian music. Smithsonian Folkways, the premier world music label in the United States, dedicated its largest series—twenty volumes—to Indonesia. Numerous other recordings are readily available throughout the world, yet the vast majority of easily accessible Indonesian music is of traditional genres (i.e., folk and classical).