New Volume in RISM's Series B: Balinese Palm-Leaf Manuscripts

Thursday, October 29, 2015

RISM announces the newest volume in its publication series B, which presents bibliographies of musical sources organized by topic:

Tilman Seebass, Catalogue raisonné of the Balinese Palm-Leaf Manuscripts with Music Notation. RISM B/XVI. Munich: Henle, 2015. 309 p. ISBN 978-3-87328-155-4

The sixteenth volume in series B, RISM’s first ethnomusicological publication, describes palm-leaf manuscripts (lontars) from Bali. This all-natural music must survive the challenging climate in Indonesia. Since the palm leaves can decay within three generations, the tradition of making copies, transliterations, and reproductions of lontars is essential to their survival.

Seebass, who himself copied lontars for over a decade, uses Latin letters to differentiate between the Balinese tonal systems. Generous indexes facilitate comparison of the manuscripts. Music lontars are described in this catalog from collections in Indonesia, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and the United States.

If you are curious about what palm-leaf manuscripts look like, watch this brief video that was filmed at Udayana University in Bali:

Category: New publications