(b Groningen, 12 Aug 1891; d Amsterdam, 7 Dec 1960). Dutch ethnomusicologist. Both his parents were professionally trained musicians; he began studying the violin at the age of four, and in his teens became interested in the folk culture of the Netherlands. He took a degree in law at Groningen (1917) and worked in banking and the law before joining a string trio (1919), which made a successful tour of the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia). He subsequently remained in Bandung (Java) until the mid-1930s to study and collect the indigenous music (particularly that of the gamelan) while working for the government. In 1930 he was given an official, full-time appointment as musicologist for the Dutch government. He made long tours of the Indonesian archipelago during the next few years and, with the help of his wife Katy, established an archive of musical instruments, field recordings, books and photographs for the museum at Batavia (now Jakarta). His government post was abolished in 1934 and he returned to the Netherlands and lectured throughout Europe for the next two years. In 1936 he became curator of the Royal Tropical Institute in Amsterdam and began to amass what became one of the greatest collections in Europe. He began lecturing at the University of Amsterdam in 1953 and became a faculty member in 1958; he also made two lecture tours of the USA. In 1959 he succeeded Curt Sachs as honorary president of the Society for Ethnomusicology and Vaughan Williams as president of the IFMC. Shortly before his death he was elected to membership of the Anthropological Society of Vienna.
Kunst was a founder of modern ethnomusicology. In his study of Dutch folk music and various Indonesian musical cultures he showed deep concern for the humanity of man and for the need to comprehend music in the widest possible frame of reference – social, physical and spiritual. He himself coined the term ethnomusicology on the grounds that it was more accurate than ‘comparative musicology’ (‘vergleichende Musikwissenschaft’). His many publications relating to Indonesia are standard reference works, without which Indonesians would have lost all knowledge of some of their most valued heritage; his collection of Dutch folk music is equally important.
with R. Wiranatakoesoema: ‘Een en ander over Soendaneesche muziek’, Djawa, i (1921), 235–52
‘Die muziek in den Mangkoe Nagaran’, Djawa, iv (1924), suppl., 24–30
with C.J.A. Kunst-van Wely: De toonkunst van Bali (Weltevreden, 1925); pt 2 in Tijdschrift voor Indische taal-, land- en volkenkunde, lxv (Batavia, 1925), 369–508
with R. Goris: Hindoe-Javaansche muziekinstrumenten (Weltevreden, 1927; Eng. trans., 1963, rev. 2/1968 as Hindu-Javanese Musical Instruments)
‘Een en ander over den Vorstenlandschen gamelan’, Oedaya, vi (1928), 130–37
‘De l'origine des échelles musicales javano-balinaises’, Journal of the Siam Society, xxiii (Bangkok, 1929), 111–22
with R.M.A. Koesoemadinata: ‘Een en ander over pélog en sléndro’, Tijdschrift voor Indische taal-, land- en volkenkunde, lxix (1929), 320–52
‘Een overwalsche bloedverwant van den Javaanschen gamelan’, Nederlandsch-Indië oud & nieuw, xiv (1929–30), 79–96
Over zeldzame fluiten en veelstemmige muziek in het Ngada- en Nagehgebied, (West-Flores) (Batavia, 1931)
Songs of North New Guinea (Batavia, 1931)
A Study on Papuan Music (Weltevreden, 1931/R); repr. in Music in New Guinea (The Hague, 1967)
De toonkunst van Java (The Hague, 1934; Eng. trans., rev. 1949, enlarged 3/1973) [incl. list of writings, 148–50]
‘A Musicological Argument for Cultural Relationship between Indonesia (probably the Isle of Java) and Central-Africa’, PMA, lxii (1935–6), 57–76; Ger. trans. in Anthropos, xxxi (1936), 131–40
‘Musicological Exploration in the Indian Archipelago’, Asiatic Review, iv (1936), 810–20
Music in Nias (Leiden, 1939)
Een en ander over den Javaanschen gamelan (Amsterdam, 1940, 4/1945)
‘Een merkwaardig blaasinstrument: de Maleische duivenlokfluit’, Cultureel Indië, ii (1940), 47–53
Music in Flores: a Study of the Vocal and Instrumental Music among the Tribes Living in Flores (Leiden, 1942)
Een en ander over de muziek en den dans op de Kei-eilanden (Amsterdam, 1945) [with Eng. summary]
Muziek en dans in de buitengewesten (Leiden, 1946)
De inheemsche muziek en de zending (Amsterdam, 1947)
Around von Hornbostel's Theory of the Cycle of Blown Fifths (Amsterdam, 1948)
‘Musicology’, Report of the Scientific Work Done in the Netherlands on behalf of the Dutch Overseas Territories during the Period … 1918–1943, ed. B.J.O. Schrieke (Amsterdam, 1948), 194–7
The Cultural Background of Indonesian Music (Amsterdam, 1949)
Begdja het gamelan jongetje (Amsterdam, 1950)
De inheemsce muziek in Westelijk Nieuw-Guinea (Amsterdam, 1950); also in De Bergpapoea's van Nieuw-Guinea en hun woongebied, ii/2, ed. C.C.F.M. le Roux (Leiden, 1950), 921–96; Eng. trans., rev., in Music in New Guinea (The Hague, 1967), 99–178
Metre, Rhythm and Multipart Music (Leiden, 1950) [also in Fr. and Dutch]
Musicologica: a Study of the Nature of Ethno-Musicology, its Problems, Methods and Representative Personalities (Amsterdam, 1950, enlarged 3/1959 as Ethnomusicology, 4/1970) [incl. list of writings, 466–7]
‘Die 2000-jährige Geschichte Süd-Sumatras gespiegelt in ihrer Musik’, GfMKB: Lüneburg 1950, 160–69
Kulturhistorische Beziehungen zwischen dem Balkan und Indonesien (Amsterdam, 1953; Eng. trans., 1954)
Sociologische bindingen in der muziek (The Hague, 1953)
‘The Origin of the Kemanak’, Bijdragen tot de taal-, land- en volkenkunde van Nederlandsch-Indië, cxvi (1960), 263–9
‘On Dutch Folk Dances and Dance Tunes’, Studies in Ethnomusicology, i, ed. M. Kolinski (New York, 1961), 29–37
ed.: C. Sachs: The Wellsprings of Music: an Introduction to Ethnomusicology (The Hague, 1962/R)
‘Fragments from Diaries Written during a Lecture Tour in the New World … and a Trip to Australia’, The Commonwealth of Music, in Honor of Curt Sachs, ed. G. Reese and R. Brandel (New York, 1965), 328–42
Terschellinger volksleven (Uithuizen, 1916, 3/1951)
Noord-Nederlandsche volksliederen en -dansern (Groningen, 1916–18, 2/1918–19)
Het levende lied van Nederland (Amsterdam, 1918–19, 4/1947)
Songs of North New Guinea (Batavia, 1931); repr. in Music in New Guinea (The Hague, 1967)
Oude westersche liederen uit oostersche landen (Bandung, 1934)
Lists of writings in J. Kunst: Ethnomusicology (The Hague, 3/1959) and Music in Java (The Hague, 1973)
Obituaries: A. Bake, Jaarboek der Koninklijke Nederlandse akademie van wetenschappen (1960–61), 327; E. Reeser, TVNM, xix/1–2 (1960–61), 4–5; A. Bake, AcM, xxxiii (1961), 67–9; H. Husmann, Mf, xiv (1961), 257–8; F. van Lamsweerde, Sonorum speculum, no.6 (1961), 36; W. Paap, Mens en melodie, xvi (1961), 1–6
M. Frijn and others: Indonesian Music and Dance: Traditional Music and its Interaction with the West (Amsterdam, 1994) [incl. ‘Part I: Jaap Kunst’, 11–48, reprs. of articles and list of writings, 242–6]
MANTLE HOOD