David Harnish is Professor and Chair of the Department of Music at the University of San Diego. He is author of Bridges to the Ancestors: Music, Myth, and Cultural Politics at an Indonesian Festival (University of Hawaii Press, 2006) and co-author and editor of Divine Inspiration: Music and Islam in Indonesia (Oxford University Press, 2011), as well as Between Harmony and Discrimination: Negotiating Interreligious Relationships in Bali and Lombok (Brill Press, 2014). He is a two-time Fulbright and National Foundation Scholar, a consultant for the BBC, National Geographic, MTV-Fulbright Awards, ACLS, and the Smithsonian Institute. Harnish co-directs Gamelan Gunung Mas and is an Academic Liaison to the Kyoto Prize Symposium.

When the issue of music sustainability arises—a notion within applied ethnomusicology that views music culture as an ecological system—concerns are that “traditional” musics in developing nations are endangered; that globalization has decreased local musical diversity; that local cultures are overwhelmed by hegemonic forces; and, that local musics then change, homogenize, or hybridize in the drive for modernization. Since the middle of the 20th century, developing nations have struggled to maintain traditional arts as global capitalism, often parallel with political pressures, opened new markets and goods and influences spread worldwide. The “traditional” arts then are sometimes no longer perceived to fit with the resulting more cosmopolitan population.

Globalization and increasing religiosity are forces impacting the music of Lombok. Inhabited by the Sasak, Lombok has often been overlooked in government projects for cultural development and arts education in schools has progressively declined. Performers have had a difficult time maintaining their arts and finding performance opportunities and students willing to learn. Many arts are associated with a pre-Islamic historic era and thus are disavowed by religious and political leaders, while musical traditions are secularized, inspire erotic dance forms, or disappear altogether. Government intervention strategies achieve mixed results.

This paper explores the development of the subfield of music sustainability, then examines the background of the problems on Lombok, the educational projects, and the perspectives of the government officials and religious leaders, and the music styles and musicians involved.