Biography of Arnold A. Bake (completed)
As a writing fellow at the institute Bob will be working on the long-overdue biography of Arnold Bake (1899-1963). This Dutch pioneer in South Asian ethnomusicology spent more than fifteen years in the subcontinent studying local folk/devotional music traditions. He made numerous and often irreplaceable recordings, films and photographs of South Asian musicians and dancers. In addition, he was the first Dutch music scholar who actually studied with local teachers and he performed the songs of Rabindranath Tagore and South Asian traditional songs during hundreds of (lecture-) recitals in India, Europe and the United States. From 1948 onward, Bake was the first to teach Indian music in a Western University at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London.