Allan Thomas began lecturing at Victoria University's School of Music in 1977, and developed across the following three decades a wide range and vision for ethnomusicology there. World Music courses were complemented by tuition in and performance of Indonesian gamelan, using the set of instruments from Cirebon which he had brought to New Zealand in 1974. The twin focus on Asian and Pacific music also broadened into explorations of vernacular music in New Zealand society. Postwar musical life of Hawera township in Taranaki is the subject of Music Is Where You Find It (2004). In this volume, Allan's distinctive voice and sensibility are sustained through another generation of ethnomusicological studies by students and colleagues who have jumped over the boundary fence to find music in its social context at stock sales, agricultural shows, dance festivals, brass band competitions, Irish pubs, and in communities wherever they have travelled.
