Colin McPhee (1900–1964)
Autor de A House in Bali
Sobre El Autor
Créditos de la imagen: Photo by Carl Van Vechten, Apr. 4, 1935 (Library of Congress, Carl Van Vechten Collection, Reproduction number: LC-USZ62-103711)
Obras de Colin McPhee
Angkloeng gamelans in Bali 1 copia
Children and music in Bali 1 copia
Obras relacionadas
Harrison, Ung, McPhee [sound recording (CD)]. — Compositor — 1 copia
Etiquetado
Conocimiento común
- Fecha de nacimiento
- 1900-02-15
- Fecha de fallecimiento
- 1964-01-07
- Género
- male
- Nacionalidad
- Canada
- Lugar de nacimiento
- Montréal, Québec, Canada
- Lugares de residencia
- Bali
Brooklyn, New York, USA
Los Angeles, California, USA - Ocupaciones
- musicologist
composer - Premios y honores
- American Academy of Arts and Letters Academy Award (Music, 1954)
Miembros
Reseñas
Premios
También Puede Gustarte
Autores relacionados
Estadísticas
- Obras
- 9
- También por
- 2
- Miembros
- 138
- Popularidad
- #148,171
- Valoración
- 4.0
- Reseñas
- 4
- ISBNs
- 11
- Favorito
- 1
In the 1920s, Canadian composer Colin McPhee discovered Balinese gamelan music from hearing a rare recording played on a gramophone. He traveled to the island of Bali in Indonesia to find out more about how this music is made. He ended up building a house and living there. He fell in love with the music, the people, and the cultural traditions, all of which are beautifully documented in his memoir. This is a snapshot of history. It portrays what life was like in Bali over the course of almost a decade in the 1930s, focusing on the music and performance arts.
This is some of the best writing I have seen in a memoir. McPhee was clearly a gifted writer. The following examples are representative of the evocative writing that continues unabated throughout the book:
He describes the gamelan music:
“Through a maze of intricate patterns a lovely melody was heard that slowly unfolded as the rest of the music rushed along at a breakneck speed. Suddenly the music changed. A short motif repeated over and over while the drums grew agitated. Tension increased like a spring being wound, but just at the moment when you felt it must surely snap the opening melody returned. Back and forth the two sections alternated until in a climax of syncopated drumming the music came to an end.”
and a dance performed in costume at Balinese festivals:
“DURING THE galungan holidays, the island was suddenly filled with magnificent masked beasts. With glaring eyes and snapping jaws, with elaborate golden crowns, great hairy bodies bedecked with little mirrors, and tails that rose high in the air to end in a tassel of tiny bells, they pranced and champed up and down the roads from village to village to the sound of cymbals and gongs, as though they had newly emerged, like awakened dragons, from caves and crevices in which for months they had been lying dormant.”
I enjoyed the photographs and the helpful glossary of terms. If you are interested in music and the arts in countries around the world, do not miss this one.
… (más)