Winter Term In Indonesia

January 1, 2014

Associate Professor of Ethnomusicology and Anthropology and Oberlin Shansi Trustee Jennifer Fraser and Associate Professor of Music Theory Jan Miyake traveled through Indonesia with a group of 10 Oberlin College and Conservatory students over the month of January. The group spent three weeks exploring music, Islam and disasters in Banda Aceh, West Sumatra and Yogyakarta. Jenny wrote, “While we witnessed a number of performances, I believe we gained far more from the interactive workshops with local artists where we studied arts ranging from meukeusat (an Acehnese seated form that integrates song, movement, and body percussion) to randai (a Minangkabau theater form that combines martial arts, song, dance and pant-percussion). Learning these styles helped illustrate the intricate relationship between what we call “music,” “dance,” and “theater” and that in some other parts of the world there aren’t necessarily words to distinguish between these different arts.”