
RASA
Affect and Intuition in Javanese Musical Aesthetics
Marc Benamou(Author)
Oxford University Press Inc
Published on 21. October 2010
Book
Hardback
344 pages
978-0-19-518943-8 (ISBN)
Description
The complex notion of "rasa," as understood by Javanese musicians, refers to a combination of various qualities, including: taste, feeling, affect, mood, sense, inner meaning, a faculty of knowing intuitively, and deep understanding. This leaves us with a number of questions: how is rasa expressed musically? Who or what has rasa, and what sorts of musical, psychological, perceptual, and sociological distinctions enter into this determination? How is the vocabulary of rasa structured, and what does this tell us about traditional Javanese music and aesthetics?
In this first book on the subject, Rasa provides an entry into Javanese music as it is conceived by the people who know the tradition best: the musicians themselves. In one of the most thorough explorations of local aesthetics to date, author Marc Benamou argues that musical meaning is above all connotative - hence, not only learned, but learnable. Following several years performing and researching Javanese music in the regional and national cultural center of Solo, Indonesia, Benamou untangles the many meanings of rasa as an aesthetic criterion in Javanese music, particularly in court and court-derived gamelan traditions. While acknowledging that certain universal psychological tendencies may inspire parallel interpretations of musical meaning, Rasa demonstrates just how culturally specific such accrued, shared meanings can be.
In this first book on the subject, Rasa provides an entry into Javanese music as it is conceived by the people who know the tradition best: the musicians themselves. In one of the most thorough explorations of local aesthetics to date, author Marc Benamou argues that musical meaning is above all connotative - hence, not only learned, but learnable. Following several years performing and researching Javanese music in the regional and national cultural center of Solo, Indonesia, Benamou untangles the many meanings of rasa as an aesthetic criterion in Javanese music, particularly in court and court-derived gamelan traditions. While acknowledging that certain universal psychological tendencies may inspire parallel interpretations of musical meaning, Rasa demonstrates just how culturally specific such accrued, shared meanings can be.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
9 black and white halftones, 38 line illustrations
Dimensions
Height: 165 mm
Width: 244 mm
Thickness: 25 mm
Weight
632 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-19-518943-8 (9780195189438)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

Book
11/2016
Oxford University Press Inc
€53.50
Available immediately

E-Book
09/2010
1st Edition
OUP eBook
€20.99
Available for download

E-Book
09/2010
1st Edition
OUP eBook
€19.99
Available for download
Person
Associate professor of music at Earlham College; his writings interweave aesthetics with various other domains, such as gender, food, language, ornithology, and ethics; has performed extensively in Java and abroad as a vocalist of traditional Javanese music, and has founded and directed a number of gamelan ensembles in the U.S.
Content
PREFACE; TECHNICAL NOTES; APPENDIX A: CLASSIFICATIONS OF RASA GENDHING FROM ORAL AND WRITTEN SOURCES; APPENDIX B: HOW IRAMA WORKS; GLOSSARY; BIBLIOGRAPHY; DICTIONARIES AND GLOSSARIES; CORPUS: WORKS HAVING CITATIONS OF RASA TERMS AS USED BY JAVANESE EXPERTS IN MUSIC AND RELATED ARTS; GENERAL WORKS; DISCOGRAPHY OF RECORDINGS REFERRED TO IN THE TEXT; INDEX