By Brittany Yingling

Rick Shriver's search ended in Bali, Indonesia, at the rundown hut of a local resident. Crouching in front of a large pot, the man casually flung scraps of metal into crackling flames that licked precariously close to his body. He wore only a pair of shorts, a thin t-shirt and flimsy sandals. After the two men talked, Shriver realized he had found one of the few remaining craftsman who produced authentic Southeast Asian Gamelan instruments.

Shriver is an associate professor and coordinator of electronic media at Ohio University's Zanesville campus. In 1999, he was one of about 800 faculty members nationally to receive a traditional Fulbright Senior Scholarship, which funded one year of research and lecturing in Malaysia.

The deputy vice chancellor of the Universiti Putra Malaysia contacted Shriver to share his concern that globalization and the import of Western culture were pushing traditional music out of the school. Shriver's mission was to bring it back.

"That prompted me to start paying more attention to the media," he said. "I wanted to hear this music, I wanted to record it."

To recreate the music, Shriver first had to find someone who still produced authentic Malay instruments. Although cheap versions were sold as souvenirs, only the real thing could create the exact sounds used in Malay music. He began his search in Indonesia.

After renting a vehicle and "sort of just driving around," Shriver finally located the man in Bali. Shriver brokenly communicated with the man, explaining that he needed to record individual notes, not complete songs. He returned to the conservatory with tapes produced from the man's instruments.

His students began to study ways to artificially recreate the sounds and began an extensive comparison between the Malay stringed instruments and their Western counterparts, such as violins and guitars. To allow even more people to use the material, Shriver placed the sounds online for musicians to download.

Shriver analyzed distinct rhythm and repetition of the traditional music, and discovered folklore claiming that the music contains mystical powers capable of curing illness and disease.

"It all ties in with this Asian idea that music is therapy," he said. "I would love to explore the therapeutic effects, but how do you do that?"

He is close to answering his own question with the help of Mohamed Ghouse of the Universiti Sians Malaysia. Ghouse performs using Malay instruments and shares Shriver's curiosity about the music's curative powers. The two are brainstorming ways to study the subject.

After Shriver returned from Malaysia, his research appeared in a 2002 book published by the University Kebangsaan Malaysia in Southeast Asia. His chapter, "Malaysian Media: Ownership, Control and Musical Content," describes the gradual loss of traditional Malay music as a result of the westernization of the Malaysian media.

When he's not busy with research, Shriver enjoys playing the acoustic guitar for a local band called Disturbing the Peace, which adds its own flavor to previously recorded music.

"We're not a cover band," he said. "Our goal is to get you to go, 'Oh yea! That's The Beatles.'"

Shriver does not consider himself to be a trained musician, although he has loved music since he received his first drum kit as a toddler. In middle school, Shriver's talent caught the attention of a local band, composed of four African-American men who ranged in age from mid 30s to late 40s. All had spent time in prison, which inspired the band's name The Fugitives. Shriver, barely 14 years old, began playing drums with the band during their weekly gigs.

Shriver used the money he earned from the shows to help finance his college education at Ohio University. In 1977, he earned a bachelor's degree in communication. Two years later, Shriver launched his own recording and sound reinforcement business, which he built with his own hands and operated for 15 years. He returned to Ohio University and received a master's degree in telecommunications in 1983.

He continues to expand his research from Malaysia through a collaborative project examining the similarities between the traditional musical instruments of Southeast Asia and the traditional instruments of southeastern Ohio. And with a new project that will convert the Malay instrument sounds into storable units that can be installed onto electronic instruments, he might soon spread his contagious love of music to people all over the world.