Listening to an Earlier Java: Aesthetics, Gender, and the Music of Wayang in Central Java

In "old—style" Central Javanese wayang, still known to many shadow—puppet performers and musicians in Java today, the male dhalang and his primary accompanist, usually a female gender player, are gendered embodiments of a Javanese aesthetic that has its origins in early Java. Analysis of the musical tradition known as "female style" grimingan—melodies played on the gender as the puppeteer sings, narrates or describes a scene—makes it possible to "listen back" to and reconstruct aesthetics f...