Jaap Kunst

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tagsperson, ethnomusicologist, musicologist, dutch, colonial, academia, 1891, 1960
aliasesJakob Kunst, J. Kunst, Mr. J. Kunst

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Jaap Kunst (full name Jakob Kunst; 1891–1960) was a Dutch ethnomusicologist and musicologist, widely regarded as one of the founding figures of modern ethnomusicology. He served as a government musicologist in the Dutch East Indies and later as curator of the Royal Tropical Institute (Koninklijk Instituut voor de Tropen) in Amsterdam. His pioneering fieldwork across the Indonesian archipelago, particularly his systematic documentation of musical instruments, scales, and dance forms, established the foundation for the study of Indonesian music in the Western academy.

Life and Career

Born in Groningen, Netherlands in 1891, Kunst studied law and musicology at the University of Groningen and the University of Amsterdam. He earned his doctorate in law but pursued musicology as his primary vocation. In 1919, he accepted a position as a government official in the Dutch East Indies, where he remained until 1934 — a fifteen-year period that became the core of his ethnomusicological fieldwork.

During his Indies residency, Kunst traveled extensively throughout the archipelago beyond Java and Bali, visiting Sumatra (including Acheh, Batak Lands, Nias, Minangkabau, Gayo Lands), Borneo, Celebes, the Moluccas, the Lesser Sunda Islands, and New Guinea. He documented musical instruments, recorded performances (using early phonograph technology), transcribed melodies, and photographed dancers and ensembles. His work was among the first to apply systematic musicological methods — organology, tuning analysis, structural transcription — to non-Western musics on a large scale.

In 1934, Kunst returned to the Netherlands and was appointed curator of the Ethnomusicological Department of the Royal Tropical Institute (Koninklijk Instituut voor de Tropen, KIT) in Amsterdam, a position he held until his retirement. He also served as a lecturer in ethnomusicology at the University of Amsterdam. He was a founding member of the International Folk Music Council (later the International Council for Traditional Music) and edited its Yearbook for Traditional Music.

Major Publications on Indonesian Music

Kunst’s bibliography on Indonesian music is extensive. Key monographs include:

  • Music in Nias (1939) — a comprehensive study of Niasian music, instruments, and dance.
  • De toonkunst van Java (1934; The Tone Art of Java) — his magnum opus on Javanese gamelan, tuning systems, and music theory, in two volumes.
  • Music in Flores (1942) — documenting the music of Flores Island.
  • Muziek en Dans in de Buitengewesten (1946) — the subject monograph of this entry, a survey of music and dance across the “Outer Islands” (Buitengewesten) based on his 1919–1934 fieldwork.
  • Een en ander over de Muziek en den Dans op de Kei-eilanden (1946) — on the music and dance of the Kai Islands.
  • Hindu-Javanese Musical Instruments (1968, posthumous) — his final major work.

He also published numerous articles in Tijdschrift van het Bataviaasch Genootschap, Djawa, Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde, and the Yearbook of the International Folk Music Council.

Contribution to Acehnese Ethnomusicology

Kunst’s 1946 monograph Muziek en Dans in de Buitengewesten contains one of the earliest systematic organological and choreological accounts of Acheh (Atjēh) and the Gayo Lands. On pages 9–10, he documents:

Instruments specific to or characteristic of Aceh:

  • Hareubab — the Acehnese name for the bowed spike lute (also arbah in Batak, lagija in Nias)
  • Geudoemba — a small single-headed barrel drum (kleine éénvellige vaastrommel)
  • Tjanang Triëng — a three-stringed bamboo zither (driesnarige bamboe-cither)
  • Gambus — seven-stringed pear-shaped lute (tokkelluit)
  • Rabana / Redep — frame drum (lijsttrommel)
  • Marwas — small double-headed drum
  • Bangei — bamboo nose flute (6–7 finger holes)
  • Serunai — shawm/oboe (from Persian surnāy)
  • Genggong — jaw harp
  • Kendang / Gendang / Geundrang / Geundra — two-headed drum

Dances of Aceh and the Gayo Lands:

  • Sedati — slow dance centering on a young boy, performed by many young men simultaneously
  • Bersaman — religious ecstasy dance with violent swaying, performed kneeling in a row
  • Bineus — graceful dance with waving kains, performed by men or women

Kunst explicitly notes the shared sedati and bersaman traditions between Aceh and the Gayo Lands (Gajoelanden).

Theoretical and Methodological Legacy

Kunst was instrumental in establishing ethnomusicology as a distinct discipline. He advocated for:

  • Organological classification using the Hornbostel-Sachs system
  • Tuning analysis through precise measurement (cents, ratios)
  • Field documentation combining audio recording, photography, transcription, and ethnographic description
  • Comparative methodology tracing historical diffusion (e.g., Persian-Arabic instruments in Island Southeast Asia, bamboo idiophones across the archipelago, megalithic culture correlations)

His concept of the “music area” (muziekgebied) — regions sharing instrument types, tuning systems, and structural principles — prefigured later culture-area approaches in anthropology.

Honors and Recognition

  • Corresponding member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW)
  • Honorary member of the International Folk Music Council
  • The Jaap Kunst Prize (established 1965) is awarded annually by the Society for Ethnomusicology for the best article on ethnomusicology published in Ethnomusicology.

See Also

Source

Muziek en Dans in de Buitengewesten, by Mr. J. Kunst, Mededeling No. LXVII, Afdeling Volkenkunde No. 20, Koninklijke Vereeniging “Indisch Instituut” te Amsterdam (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1946), pp. 1–50. Biographical data from Yearbook for Traditional Music obituaries and KNAW membership records. Kunst’s Indies service dates (1919–1934) confirmed in the monograph’s preface.

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