(b Groningen, 12 Aug 1891; d Amsterdam, 7 Dec 1960). Dutch ethnomusicologist. He studied the violin and became interested in Netherlands folk culture. In 1919 he went with a string trio to Indonesia, remaining until the mid-1930s; in 1930 he was given a government appointment as musicologist. He established an archive of instruments, recordings, books and photographs for the museum at Djakarta. In 1936 he became curator of the Royal Tropical Institute in Amsterdam and began to amass the collections there. From 1953 he taught at Amsterdam University. Kunst was a founder of modern ethnomusicology (a word he himself coined): he showed deep concern for humanity and the need to comprehend music in the widest possible frame of reference.

The Concise Grove Dictionary of Music. Copyright © 1994 by Oxford University Press, Inc.. All rights reserved.