Henry Spiller
 hjspiller@ucdavis.edu 222E Music Building 530.752.2603 Office Hours T 2:00-3:00 PM |
Henry Spiller is an ethnomusicologist whose research focuses on Sundanese music and dance from West Java, Indonesia. He is interested particularly in investigating how individuals deploy music and dance in their personal lives to articulate ethnic, gender, and national identities. He has studied Sundanese music and dance for more than 30 years, and he has conducted fieldwork in Bandung, West Java, on many occasions. ABC-CLIO published his first book, Gamelan: The Traditional Sounds of Indonesia, in 2004. It was named and Outstanding Academic Title by CHOICE. In 2008, Routledge released a second edition under the title Focus: Gamelan Music of Indonesia. His monograph, Erotic Triangles: Sundanese Dance and Masculinity in West Java, published by the University of Chicago Press in 2010, focuses on constructions of masculinity in Sundanese men's improvisational dance in West Java, Indonesia. It received Honorable Mention for the 2011 Alan Merriam Prize, the Society for Ethnomusicology's most prestigious book award. His latest book, titled Javaphilia: American Engagements with Javanese Music and Dance (expected publication date: 2013) chronicles the careers and motivations of 20th-century North Americans who were attracted to Javanese music and dance to develop a better understanding of American orientalisms and the subtleties of identity formations. His current research investigates how the physical qualities of a landscape and the resources it provides shape musical styles and aesthetics. He will focus on Sundanese bamboo musical instruments as a case study. A Fulbright award for a research trip to West Java in 2013 will jumpstart this project. Spiller's articles and book chapters appear in publications such as The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, Asian Music, Worlds of Music, Asian Theatre Journal, and Journal of the Society for American Music. He has presented papers at regional and national meetings of the Society for Ethnomusicology (SEM), the Association for Theatre Arts (ATA), the International Association for the Study of Popular Music (IASPM), and the Congress on Research in Dance (CORD). Spiller holds a bachelor's degree in music from UC Santa Cruz, a master's degree in harp performance from Holy Names College, and a master's degree and the Ph.D. in ethnomusicology from UC Berkeley. He taught gamelan at Mills College in Oakland, California, and music at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo, California. From 2002–05 he served as Luce Assistant Professor in Asian Music and Culture at Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio. At UC Davis, Spiller is the chair of the department, teaches world music classes and graduate seminars, and directs the Department of Music's gamelan ensemble.
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Dumas awarded Outstanding Graduate Student Teacher Award