In the 1930s, Colin McPhee lived in Bali where he studied the sacred gamelan tradition and other musical genres. When he worked in New York during the 1940s, he was among the talented, young generation of composers that included Aaron Copeland and Henry Cowell. In California, where he died in 1964, he contributed greatly to the study of world music. McPhee was a faculty member of the Music Department at UCLA from 1960-1964. Besides his musical talents, he was an excellent photographer (as seen in the Archive's collection). His publications include A Club of Small Men (1948), A House in Bali (1947), and Music of Bali (1956).