Unplayed Melodies: Javanese Gamelan and the Genesis of Music Theory (review)

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THEORY, METHOD, AND TECHNOLOGY Unplayed Melodies: Javanese Gamelan and the Genesis of Music Theory. By Marc Perlman. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2004. [xix, 254 p. ISBN 0-520-23956-3. $49.95.] Music examples, index, bibliography. Based on seven years of fieldwork in central Java over the last twenty-five years, Unplayed Melodies documents Marc Periman's quest to find answers to some of the most vexing questions that have preoccupied Javanese musician-theorists and nonJavanese music scholars alike. To answer these questions, Pcrlman became a formidable gamelan musician in his own right as well as a sophisticated theorist of the music. Not only did he work closely with some of the most highly respected musicians and theorists of his time, but he helped some of them actually discover their own music theory. Perlman's challenging questions compelled his teachers to come up with answers to questions that they had never been asked before. In this sense, Perlman did not simply reveal something that was already there (as in previous studies of what ethnomusicologists have called ethnotheory) but he helped to shape the way that the music could be understood. His work has resulted in a fascinating study of Javanese music theory and creative thinking about music in general. Central Javanese gamelan music (karawitan) is characterized by a rich multi-part texture that revolves around a single melody. But the nature of that melody is not clear. Each gamelan composition has a central melody known as the skeleton or framework (balungan) that is notated in cipher notation and played on the metalkeyed instruments (saron). (Interestingly, is not listed in Perlman's glossary.) What is the role of the in a gamelan composition? To what extent does the guide the improvising musicians who interpret a composition? How is the related to what Javanese musicians have called the melody, a melody that everyone in the group conceptualizes to some degree but does not necessarily realize in sound? Studies of Javanese gamelan music by Javanese teachers as well as European and American scholars have privileged the as the melodic guide. For example, the ethnomusicologists Jaap Kunst and Mande Hood promoted the idea of the as a cantus fi rmus or nuclear (p. 123). A surge of theoretical activity came about in the 1970s that challenged these older models. Perlman argues that a detailed analysis of these theoretical issues will tell us much about Javanese gamelan, as well as musical thinking in other traditions. Perlman situates music theory within Java's colonial and postcolonial history. He challenges the notion that the concept of as theme was introduced by Europeans when the music changed from an oral to a written tradition in the nineteenth century. The argument in favor of foreign introduction posits that the pan (played on the saron) is only one of many important melodic lines. Further, the term balungan postdates non-Javanese sources that treat the saron part as a theme. Perlman suggests that the concept of was already present, even if the term was not (chapter 4). Perlman disagrees that it was deemed central for the purpose of notating the music. Rather, he argues persuasively that the part made the most sense to notate because it was already central to the music. But this is not to deny the profound influence of Westerners on Javanese thinking or theorizing about music. In chapter 5, Perlman addresses the social and historical context of Javanese music theory. He describes elements of Java's colonial past in which Javanese imitated Europeans, following Dutch forms of verbal discourse, used reason, etc. Javanese music scholars read works by Kunst and Hood, whose ideas did not quite match up to the way Javanese thought of their own music. The American composer and researcher Vincent McDermott provided a strong stimulus for the development of Sumarsam's idea of inner melody (p. …