The Sound of the Ancestral Ship

This text examines the ways in which the urban aristocratic Sundanese of West Java recall the rural past of their ancestors through performances of the tembang Sunda ensemble (comprising voice, zithers, and bamboo flute).

It highlights Sundanese cosmological and cultural practices through an examination of musical performance, and reveals some of the musical tensions and points of connection between men and women, rural people and urbanites, and the upper, middle, and lower classes.

Illustrated with photographs and brief musical examples, this book also includes a CD.