Harmonic Elasticity in Indonesian Kroncong: An Analysis of Lokananta Recordings Between 1957 and 1983 Hannah Standiford University of Pittsburgh (USA) Abstract Kroncong, an Indonesian string band music, is famous throughout the archipelago as it was used as a political tool to build a sense of national identity after Independence. It is often known as a music of nostalgia although it has been experiencing a minor resurgence since the early 2000s. Lokananta, a government-run recording studio in Surakarta, Central Java, was central to the production and dissemination of this genre during its heyday in the 60s and 70s. Kroncong includes three basic forms, kroncong asli, langgam kroncong, and stambul, each of which have fixed harmonic structures. Kroncong asli uses a 28 bar chord sequence, embellished with additional preludes and interludes, that dates back to the early 20th century. While the lyrics and melody vary for each song, the basic harmonic and phrase structure within the repeating 28 bars has remained essentially fixed. Yet musicians have developed sophisticated and subtle ways to elaborate this basic, fixed structure, as demonstrated in the Lokananta discography. This presentation will examine harmonic variations within the Lokananta corpus, focusing on kroncong asli recorded between 1957 and 1983. The corpus is divided roughly into two segments: a set of 78 tracks intended for release on vinyl between 1957-1960 and a set of 130 tracks to be published as cassettes between 1972-1983. Publication dates are based on Yampolsky’s (1987) discography and recordings were acquired directly from Lokananta. Each recording will be analyzed in terms of harmonic variance from the “standard” described by living experts. Preliminary statistical analysis comparing these two segments shows that chords beyond the typical I, IV, V, and II progression became more common as decades progressed. Aside from this data-based analysis, I will provide a critical reflection on the influences of increased access to foreign recordings and changing forms of pedagogy. This work aims to address a paucity of analytical approaches to Indonesian popular musics as there is relatively little available in comparison to gamelan scholarship. Focusing on a corpus of 208 recordings of kroncong asli, this paper will demonstrate how musicians impart subtle yet significant innovations to what is perceived as a fixed musical form. .