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Jaap Kunst | |
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| Born | 12 August 1891 Groningen, Netherlands |
| Died | 7 December 1960(1960-12-07) (aged 69) |
| Occupation | Ethnomusicologist |
| Spouse | |
Jaap Kunst (12 August 1891 – 7 December 1960) was a Dutchmusicologist. He is credited with coining the term "ethnomusicology" as a more accurate name for the field then known as comparative musicology. Kunst studied thefolk musicof the Netherlands andof Indonesia. His published work totals more than 70 texts.[1]
Kunst was born on 12 August 1891 inGroningen. Both of his parents were musicians, and his father was a music-school teacher. He began to study theviolin at only 5 years old, and continued to play the instrument throughout his life.[2][3] Kunst was drawn toward folk music as a result of vacations to the island ofTerschelling.[3]
Kunst decided to pursue a career in law. While studying law, Kunst published the results of his first musical research.[4] Kunst earned a degree inlaw from theUniversity of Groningen in 1917. and pursued a career in banking and law for the next two years.[2] However, he soon grew tired of this work.[4]
In 1919, Kunst set out on a tour of theDutch East Indies with a recently-formed musical trio. This group performed 95 times throughout Indonesia.[2] Kunst heard agamelan ensemble for the first time at thePaku Alaman palace inYogyakarta. Impressed, he decided to remain inJava to studyIndonesian music, while the other members of his trio departed.[2] Taking a job as an official in the colonial government, Kunst remained in Java for fifteen years.[4] He married Kathy van Wely in 1921; she became a partner in Kunst's work.[2][4]
Kunst was the first person to record gamelan music onwax cylinders. He amassed an archive of photographs, recordings, and instruments of Indonesian music.[2][4] He ceded much of his collection to theKoninklijk Bataviaasch Genootschap van Kunsten en Wetenschappen (now theNational Museum of Indonesia).[2]
In 1934, Kunst returned to the Netherlands, and he became the curator of Amsterdam's Colonial Museum (now theRoyal Tropical Institute) in 1936.[2] Later, he became a lecturer at theUniversity of Amsterdam.[4]
Kunst first used the term "ethno-musicology" in his 1950 publicationMusicologica. He stated:
The name of our science is, in fact, not quite characteristic; it does not 'compare' any more than any other science. A better name, therefore, is that appearing on the title page of this book: ethno-musicology.[5]
Ethnomusicology (with no hyphen) quickly replacedcomparative musicology as the name of the field. This usage was influenced by the formation of theSociety for Ethnomusicology in 1955.
In 1956, Kunst released a bestselling album of folk songs, onFolkways Records, entitledLiving Folksongs and Dance-Tunes from the Netherlands.[6]
Kunst died in 1960 of throat cancer inAmsterdam.[4]
Kunst believed musical study must take into account the cultural context of its creation. In his view, musicology was incomplete withoutethnographic elements. Contrary to mainstream European scholarship at the time, Kunst believed that music from other continents was no less sophisticated than themusic of Europe, and he often argued this point against others.[4]
Since 1965, theSociety for Ethnomusicology has offered an annual prize named after Kunst. Until 2018, the prize honored the most significant ethnomusicological article of the previous year by a society member. From 2019 onward, only researchers in their first 10 years of scholarship are eligible for the prize.[7]
