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ix Acknowledgments + i have heard more than a few people admit that a book’s acknowledgements are the pages they read most closely. so i’ll restate something that comes later on in a less interesting segment: i believe it is the duty of an author to take ownership of his or her writing so that the ideas it expresses appear plainly as the interpretation of one individual. that is not to say that i got here on my own. i clear everyone whose help i have received of whatever errors and misinterpretations, mistranslations or imperfect recollections may lurk in the following pages. With one exception: if you find my voice annoying or my disclosures unwarranted, i lay the blame entirely at the feet of friends and colleagues. they read and critiqued but ultimately failed to rein in my excess. i extend their apologies on my behalf. With that out of the way, i express my appreciation to the people who first inspired this project: the sitohang family of harian Boho. Guntur sitohang and tiamsa br habeahan—Bapak and oma—as well as their children , kak Mega, Bang Bakti, kak Maya, Bang togi, Bang Juni, Mona, Doni, naldy, seni, tahan, and elpi. Without the love and support of my second family (now four generations) over the eighteen years i’ve known them, this project would have stalled many times. their knowledge helped, too: Bang togi, in particular, brought me to toba music when i was an exchange student in the city of Medan, then ensured that i would stay with it the moment we walked into the village (through the graveyard) and met Bapak, my most important interlocutor and informant. thanks to Judith Becker for recognizing potential in my project, despite the clumsiness and naïveté of its early formulations. My extended cohort at the university of Michigan was too smart to let me stay too clumsy and naïve for long. My committee members enlightened me in different ways: nancy Florida modeled the ethical responsibilities of scholarship, amy stillman provided the crucial insight that theory must proceed from data and not the other way around, and Rich crawford’s red scrawl improved the dissertation at every page. above all, though, Judith is responsible for Acknowledgments / x the historical breadth and humanist depth i have aimed for here: if she had not made me cry at my qualifying exams, i never would have been pushed to expand beyond the present. i thank her, too, for not kicking me out of the program when i disappeared for a second research trip, announcing i was going to write my dissertation in the field. i wish to recognize all of the institutions that supported this work—support that i wish my indonesian music colleagues had access to. a Fulbrighthays grant enabled long-term research in Medan; a Ford Foundation initiative allowed me to integrate indonesian scholarly voices into my work at a crucial stage in its development; and a Mellon postdoctoral grant allowed me to tie up loose ends. colleagues at the university of illinois, Pomona college, and st. olaf college, including Donna Buchanan, katherine hagedorn , and luying chen, were supportive in small ways and large. i also need to thank my undergraduate institution—st. olaf college—for its commitment to undergrads abroad, which put the entire project in motion. a move to the united kingdom the month after i submitted the first draft of the manuscript for review was an absolute blessing. although my interactions with colleagues at king’s college london made for chapters of revision, the work is infinitely better for it. thanks to katherine Butler schofield, Jim sykes, David irving, David lunn, Raja iskandar bin Raja halid, and Jenny Mccallum for the eye-opening dialogues, and to the european Research council for funding the “Musical transitions” project generally, and my research in indonesia specifically. chapter 4 is particularly indebted to the eRc project. the staff and editors at Wesleyan university Press have made it abundantly clear what a blessing finding the right press can be. annie Randall and harry Berger supported the project at an early stage, and Deborah Wong and sherrie tucker brought it to completion. Parker smathers, leslie starr, lauren seidman, and Margery tippie have been infinitely patient with a constantly disappearing author. the generous editing of Jeremy Wallach is responsible for bringing structure to the flow and urging consideration for the reader. and much thanks to my informal editors, mapmakers, and computer geniuses: Mark oliver, Philip...

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