A young American composer, quite by accident, heard some gramophone records of Balinese gamelan music that were to change his life completely. Such was his fascination that he ‘wanted to hear every gamelan in the countryside’. This book is an account of his stay in Bali just before the Pacific War. A House in Bali merits republication because of its sympathetic and often amusing account of the author’s involvement in Balinese society. While the author’s musical interests take up a considerable part of the narrative, music was itself such an integral part of Balinese life that the reader gets an overall impression of life on the island. Much has been written on the art of Bali and by artists but this is the only narrative by a musician and stands in its own right as a worthwhile period piece.