The shaping of a Sundanese music and dance tradition: an ethnomusicological study of pa enoch atmadibrata, pa atik supandi, and pa endo suanda

Abstract

This study examines the writings of three indigenous Sundanese scholars: Pa Enoch Atmadibrata, Pa Atik Supandi and Pa Endo Suanda; to consider their place in the emerging written Sundanese music and dance tradition. All available writings of the three scholars have been collected and studied, and an English abstract made of each work. Issues that emerge from the study include the preoccupation with a Sundanese distinctiveness, and the role of the artist/scholar between preservation and innovation—linking the past tradition with that of the present. The three scholars are selected for they are representative of these features. Two theoretical perspectives of ethnomusicology are reevaluated: the positions of cultural relativism; and the emicetic dichotomy. One aim of the study is to show that such positions are inadequate when considering the relationship of power struggles in and between communities, regional minorities, and the state.