Jaap Kunst (12 August 1891 in
Groningen – 7 December 1960 in
Amsterdam
Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 907,976 within the city proper, 1,558,755 in the urban ar ...
) was a Dutch
musicologist. He is credited with coining the term "
ethnomusicology" as a more accurate name for the field then known as comparative musicology. Kunst studied the
folk music
Folk music is a music genre that includes traditional folk music and the contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be called world music. Traditional folk music has ...
of the Netherlands and
of Indonesia. His published work totals more than 70 texts.
Early life
Kunst was born in 1891 in Groningen. Both of his parents were musicians, and his father was a music-school teacher. He began to study the
violin
The violin, sometimes known as a '' fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone ( string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument ( soprano) in the family in regu ...
at only 5 years old, and continued to play the instrument throughout his life.
Kunst was drawn toward folk music as a result of vacations to the island of
Terschelling.
Kunst decided to pursue a career in law. While studying law, Kunst published the results of his first musical research.
Kunst earned a degree in
law from the
University of Groningen in 1917. and pursued a career in banking and law for the next two years.
However, he soon tired of this work.
Work in Indonesia
In 1919, Kunst set out on a tour of the
Dutch East Indies with a recently-formed musical trio. This group performed 95 times throughout Indonesia.
Kunst heard a
gamelan ensemble for the first time at the
Paku Alaman
The Duchy of Pakualaman ( jv, ꦏꦢꦶꦥꦠꦺꦤ꧀ꦦꦏꦸꦮꦭꦩ꧀ꦩꦤ꧀, Kadipatèn Pakualaman; also written Paku Alaman; Dutch-spelling: Pakoe-alaman) is a minor Javanese princely state within the Sultanate of Yogyakarta.} It was c ...
palace in
Yogyakarta. Impressed, he decided to remain in
Java
Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's mo ...
to study
Indonesian music, while the other members of his trio departed.
Taking a job as an official in the colonial government, Kunst remained in Java for fifteen years.
He married Kathy van Wely in 1921; she became a partner in Kunst's work.
Kunst was the first person to record gamelan music on
wax cylinders. He amassed an archive of photographs, recordings, and instruments of Indonesian music.
He ceded much of his collection to the ''Koninklijk Bataviaasch Genootschap van Kunsten en Wetenschappen'' (now the
National Museum of Indonesia).
Later activities
In 1934, Kunst returned to the Netherlands, and he became the curator of Amsterdam's Colonial Museum (now the
Royal Tropical Institute) in 1936.
Later, he became a lecturer at the
University of Amsterdam.
Kunst first used the term "ethno-musicology" in his 1950 publication ''Musicologica''. He stated:
''Ethnomusicology'' (with no hyphen) quickly replaced ''comparative musicology'' as the name of the field. This usage was influenced by the formation of the
Society for Ethnomusicology in 1955.
In 1956, Kunst released a bestselling album of folk songs, on
Folkways Records, entitled ''Living Folksongs and Dance-Tunes from the Netherlands.''
Kunst died in 1960 of throat cancer.
Ideas
Kunst believed musical study must take into account the cultural context of its creation. In his view, musicology was incomplete without
ethnographic elements. Contrary to mainstream European scholarship at the time, Kunst believed that music from other continents was no less sophisticated than the
music of Europe
The culture of Europe is rooted in its art, architecture, film, different types of music, economics, literature, and philosophy. European culture is largely rooted in what is often referred to as its "common cultural heritage".
Definition ...
, and he often argued this point against others.
Legacy
Since 1965, the
Society for Ethnomusicology has offered an annual prize named after Kunst. Until 2018, the prize honored the most significant ethnomusicological article of the previous year by a society member. From 2019 onward, only researchers in their first 10 years of scholarship are eligible for the prize.
Writings
* with C. Kunst-van Wely. ''De Toonkunst van Bali''. (
Weltevreden, 1924; part 2 in ''Tijdschrift voor Indische taal-, land-, en volkenkunde'', LXV,
Batavia, 1925)
* with R. Goris. ''Hindoe-Javaansche muziekinstrumenten''. (Batavia, 1927; 2nd ed., revised, ''Hindu-Javanese Musical Instruments'', 1968)
* ''A Study on Papuan Music'' (Weltevreden, 1931)
* ''Musicologisch onderzoek 1931'' (Batavia, 1931)
* ''Over zeldzame fluiten en veelstemmige muziek in het Ngada- en Nagehgebied, West-Flores'' (Batavia, 1931)
* ''De toonkunst van Java'' (
The Hague
The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital o ...
, 1934; English translation, ''Music in Java'', 1949; 3rd ed., expanded, 1973)
* ''Een en ander over den Javaanschen gamelan'' (Amsterdam, 1940; 4th ed. 1945)
* ''Music in
Flores: A Study of the Vocal and Instrumental Music Among the Tribes Living in Flores'' (
Leiden
Leiden (; in English and archaic Dutch also Leyden) is a city and municipality in the province of South Holland, Netherlands. The municipality of Leiden has a population of 119,713, but the city forms one densely connected agglomeration w ...
, 1942)
* ''Music in
Nias
Nias ( id, Pulau Nias, Nias language: ''Tanö Niha'') (sometimes called Little Sumatra in English) is an island located off the western coast of Sumatra, Indonesia. Nias is also the name of the archipelago () of which the island is the centre ...
'' (Leiden, 1942)
* ''Around
von Hornbostel's Theory of the Cycle of Blown Fifths'' (Amsterdam, 1948)
* ''The Cultural Background of Indonesian Music'' (Amsterdam, 1949)
* ''Begdja, het gamelanjongetje'' (Amsterdam, 1950)
* ''De inheemsche muziek in
Westelijk Nieuw-Guinea'' (Amsterdam, 1950)
* ''Metre, Rhythm, and Multi-part Music'' (Leiden, 1950)
* ''Musicologica: A Study of the Nature of Ethnomusicology, Its Problems, Methods, and Representative Personalities'' (Amsterdam, 1950; 2nd ed., expanded, retitled ''Ethnomusicology'', 1955; 3rd ed. 1959)
* ''Kultur-historische Beziehungen zwischen dem Balkan und Indonesien'' (Amsterdam, 1953, English translation, 1954)
* ''Sociologische bindingen in de muziek'' (The Hague, 1953)
References
External links
*
Jaap Kunstat ''
Encyclopædia Britannica''
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kunst, Jaap
1891 births
1960 deaths
Dutch ethnomusicologists
Gamelan
People from Groningen (city)
20th-century musicologists