Divine Inspirations: Music and Islam in Indonesia

This pioneering volume reanimates Islamic studies in Indonesia and beyond by revealing the many performative paths to the divine." --Engseng Ho, author of The Graves of Tarim:Genealogy and Mobility across the Indian Ocean"The influence of Islam on the arts has long been overlooked in Western studies of contemporary Indonesia. Anderson Sutton, School of Music, University of Wisconsin-Madison"Divine Inspirations illustrates and confounds the perennially contested line between religion and culture in Islam. This timely and original book changes that entirely. It will become the standard for the study of the arts in Indonesia and a model for similar studies in the broader Muslim world." --

Dr. Debra Jan Bibel said Extraordinary, Engaging, and Encyclopedic. When we think of Islam, the Middle East first comes to mind, but the nation with the largest Muslim population, over "Extraordinary, Engaging, and Encyclopedic" according to Dr. Debra Jan Bibel. When we think of Islam, the Middle East first comes to mind, but the nation with the largest Muslim population, over 200 million, is at the junction of the Pacific and Indian Oceans, Indonesia. We Americans know very little about Indonesian Islam and its relationships with the various musical forms of this huge archipelago. For most world music fans, Indonesian music is the stately classical court music of Java, or the bright, fast, dance music of Bali, or perhaps the lyrical Sundanese dance forms from western Java. These are metallophone gamelan musics. This book dispels such a restricted viewpoint wedded to the past and presents the amazi. 00 million, is at the junction of the Pacific and Indian Oceans, Indonesia. We Americans know very little about Indonesian Islam and its relationships with the various musical forms of this huge archipelago. For most world music fans, Indonesian music is the stately classical court music of Java, or the bright, fast, dance music of Bali, or perhaps the lyrical Sundanese dance forms from western Java. These are metallophone gamelan musics. This book dispels such a restricted viewpoint wedded to the past and presents the amazi

David Harnish is Professor of Ethnomusicology at Bowling Green State University. He is author of Bridges to the Ancestors: Music, Myth and Cultural Politics at an Indonesian Festival (2006) and has recorded and/or performed Indonesian, jazz, Indian and Tejano musics with five different labels.Anne K. Rasmussen is Associate Professor at The College of William and Mary, where she also directs a Middle Eastern Music

Together the authors address how history, politics, spirituality, and gender are expressed through performance and how Indonesian Islamic culture intersects with the ideology and practice of nationalism.Unique and engaging, Divine Inspirations will fascinate readers interested in Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Islam, world religions, global discourse, and music, arts and ritual.. Divine Inspirations: Music and Islam in Indonesia brings together the work of 11 international scholars into an unprecedented volume focused on religion and performance in a nation celebrated for its extraordinary arts, religious diversity, and natural beauty. The resulting collection provides a panoramic view of Indonesia's Islamic arts in a variety of settings and communities