In this Book
- Antiphonal Histories: Resonant Pasts in the Toba Batak Musical Present
- Book
- 2014
- Published by: Wesleyan University Press
- Series: Music Culture
Positioned on a major trade route, the Toba Batak people of Sumatra have long witnessed the ebb and flow of cultural influence from India, the Middle East, and the West. Living as ethnic and religious minorities within modern Indonesia, Tobas have recast this history of difference through interpretations meant to strengthen or efface the identities it has shaped. Antiphonal Histories examines Toba musical performance as a legacy of global history, and a vital expression of local experience. This intriguingly constructed ethnography searches the palm liquor stand and the sanctuary to show how Toba performance manifests its many histories through its "local music"—Lutheran brass band hymns, gong-chime music sacred to Shiva, and Jimmie Rodgers yodeling. Combining vivid narrative, wide-ranging historical research, and personal reflections, Antiphonal Histories traces the musical trajectories of the past to show us how the global is manifest in the performative moment.
Table of Contents
- Acknowledgments
- pp. ix-xii
- Notes on Translation and Music
- pp. xiii-xiv
- PART I Bindu / Introduction
- Orientation
- pp. 3-5
- 1 Cosmological Cartography
- pp. 6-22
- PART II Tarombo / Genealogy
- Orientation
- pp. 49-59
- 4 Grandfather Nommensen and Raja Stambul
- pp. 95-128
- 5 Guru Nahum and Uncle Olo
- pp. 129-158
- PART III Partuturan / Positioning
- Orientation
- pp. 161-172
- 6 Lapo Life
- pp. 173-194
- 7 “Jehovah Fights for Me”
- pp. 195-213
- 8 Artists from the Capital
- pp. 214-239
- 9 Jambar Hata / Portion of Words
- pp. 240-256
- PART IV Afterword
- Four Short Studies in Time and Space
- pp. 259-268
- Bibliography
- pp. 291-308
- Series Page, Tracking List, About the Author
- pp. 317-322