From the 1999 book 'Exotica. Fabricated soundscapes in a real world' by David Toop:"[Composer and ethnomusicologist] Colin McPhee was not a surrealist, but his self-willed displacement in Bali projected him into the Interzone, the imaginative construct, a place that encouraged 'extraordinary realities drawn from the domains of the exotic, the erotic, and the unconscious'. Though McPhee was too discrete to make a connection public, the 'sensuous charm' that he heard in Balinese music seems connected to his enjoyment of other sensual pleasures: cooking, drinking, sexual freedom. In his essay, 'Eros and Orientalism in Britten's Operas', musicologist Philip Brett quotes a letter from McPhee in which he wrote; 'Many times there was a decision to be made between some important opportunity and a sexual (homosexual) relationship that was purely sensual. I never hesitated to choose the latter. This I did deliberately and would do again and again, for it seemed the only thing that was real. The Balinese period was merely an extension of this."
- Over at the UCLA Ethnomusicology Archive, the are some silent films by MacPhee, as well as a slide show.
- His book 'A House In Bali' is still available.
- Here is an excellent blog post on McPhee.
The YouTube video below contain some silent movies Colin Mcphee shot in Bali in the 1930's.
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