Title: Change and Identity in the Music Cultures of Lombok, Indonesia
Author: David D. Harnish
Publisher: Brill, 2021
This book completes its promise to “encapsulate the variety of musics and identities generated on the island of Lombok” as it serves as both a repository of descriptions of these musics and a narrative on the cultural politics of their origins and developments. Harnish’s experiences of researching the musical traditions of Lombok for 35 years have granted him a broad perspective, thick first-hand historical data, and hundreds of interlocutors (or, as he calls them, “teachers”) from various positions of social influence, which is apparent in this 337-page book.
In 1983, Harnish first came to Lombok for fieldwork to research the musical traditions of Lombok Balinese (Hindu Balinese migrants who identify as both Balinese and Lombokese). His research interests have grown to include: religion, festival, hybridity, pedagogy, composition, popular culture, sustainability, and politics in music. Throughout the decades, he has visited Lombok for fieldwork restudies of the Lingsar Festival (Lombok/Balinese interaction) in 1985, 1987, 1989, 1990, 2001-2002, 2009, 2010, 2012, 2013, and 2017. In 2017 Lombok, there was a significant change in approaches toward the Sasak adat and other traditional musics, compared to the situation in Harnish’s previous studies. Therefore, his research agenda for 2017 was to survey the changes, developments, processes, stakeholders of preservation efforts, and the impacts of these sociocultural and religious changes on music.
With ‘change’ and ‘identity’ as the key themes, Harnish discusses how social identities may form (new) and rework musical traditions, how social identities are reimagined through the diversified practices of culturally-established musical traditions, and how these phenomena have ultimately resulted in the enrichening of Lombok’s musical traditions. He divides the discussion of these musical traditions into seven discussion chapters: the traditional musics (Chapter 2), Gendang beleq (Chapter 3), Wayang Sasak (Chapter 4), Islamic music (Chapter 5), popular and folk music (Chapter 6), minority musics (Chapter 7), and those presented in the Lingsar Festival (Lombok/Balinese interaction; Chapter 8). Chapter 9 discusses the efforts and benefits of musical sustainability promoted by various stakeholders. Chapters 2-9 act as puzzle pieces that can be read individually , which are then woven together in the conclusion chapter.
Throughout this book, we are guided through a discussion that weaves in themes such as the socio-politics of interreligious tolerance, the intricate nature of modernization, the fluidity of (religious, cultural, and musical) identity, and heritage commodification. These themes, as he says, may appear in other localities within South East Asia. However, the combination is specific to Lombok’s socio-historical landscape due to its unique position in the Nusa Tenggara-Bali range.
While it is established that in the 1980s, the two main culture groups in Lombok: the Sasak and Lombok Balinese, had adopted more localized practices, in the 2010s, Harnish witnessed how both traditions have grown to be more normative (p. 34). The communities of Sasak religious traditionalists, Wetu Telu, which constituted the majority of the Sasak one hundred years ago, became subject to political outbreaks of violence in the 1960s and continued to shrink with the rise of the tuan guru religious authorities (charismatic Muslim leaders who identify with homogeneous normative Muslim values). Meanwhile, the Lombok Balinese also no longer practice local adaptations of the Balinese traditions in favor of the modern practices from Bali. In the chapters, it is clear that Harnish acknowledges how modernity and globalization promote change but not in a linear, uniformized way throughout the different localities in Lombok, as there is always a complex interplay between local histories and emerging forces.
Change, to Harnish (Chapter 1), manifests in different forces: movement (from the ‘origins’ of the tradition to the current settlement), modernity, and various other emergent forces (among which Harnish mentions political orders, provincial autonomy, globalization, tourism, economy, urbanization, education, and mediascape and mediatization). At different points in Lombok’s history, these forces have played various roles in inspiring new musical developments, restraining ‘other’ musical expressions, and preserving (and, in the process, re-designing) older musical traditions.
Mediatization, for instance, has magnified the effects of Westernization and Arabization, thus inspiring new (‘globally’ normative) hybrid forms of musics while intensifying boundaries between (increasingly normative) identities (Chapters 6 and 7). However, at a different point in history, mediatization also played a role in disseminating research and information to reestablish the older Sasak traditions in the cultural debate, as 21st-century (Sasak) adat study groups were established and maintained through social media communities (Chapter 5).
On another note, the post-Reformasi provincial autonomy regulations also drove divergent changes. On the one hand, the value of inter-religious tolerance that was once promoted by New Order government officials (but through militaristic reinforcement) were no longer compulsory, strengthening power among (homogeneous normative) religious leaders. Several acts of violence toward religious and ethnic minorities commenced within this period, insinuating a decrease in interreligious tolerance (described in Chapter 1). However, provincial autonomy also allowed local government officials to establish cultural and musical sustainability programs, which are vital in preserving older (dying) musical traditions (Chapter 9).
The establishment of such programs is tied to other strong forces of change: globalization and tourism. These programs were initiated and designed to counter Western influences toward local (musical) practices and to draw the youth’s attention to local tradition. In the process, however, several musical traditions are secularized, detached from the previous ritual contexts for a broader audience. The result is a newly packaged notion of ‘traditional music’ that successfully appeals to the next generation of musicians. Musicians from different cultural backgrounds now practice and perform various music from both Sasak and Lombok Balinese traditions. Harnish thus asserts that alongside “good communication and social engagement” between groups, making music together is also “key to maintaining peace and social harmony” (p. 37).
This book is an extensive study of the various musical traditions of Lombok, exhibiting David Harnish’s breadth of knowledge of Lombok’s history and social landscape, his engagements with the numerous ‘teachers’ from various cultural groups, and the embracement of local perspectives. Although minor details of information are repeated in the introductory chapter, discussion chapters, and conclusion—and thus can feel repetitive at times, this can be seen as the only way to accommodate an interweaving between the general social contexts with the variety of themes as witnessed in Lombok’s complex social landscape. Reading this book (and self-guided video referencing via Youtube) has widened my perspective on the prevalence of Lombok’s various musical traditions. I found the glossary and index section very accommodating. However, an accompanying list of audio or audiovisual references would have complemented the text, as some musics were difficult to find online references, possibly due to the use of (slightly) different terms. Overall, this book will appeal to aspiring and professional ethnomusicologists, scholars of the humanities, and religious studies.
Reviewed by Leilani Hermiasih
Leilani Hermiasih is a musician and researcher based in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. As a musician, she performs as singer-songwriter Frau and collaborates with contemporary artists in producing theater performances and music recordings. She is currently completing her Ph.D. dissertation on the transmission of musical affectivity among the next generation of Central Javanese gamelan musicians.