Gamelan February 2008

 

GAMELAN

 

In Bali, music-making is a collective activity, undertaken through a form of gamelan (‘gah-meh-lan’). Gamelan resembles the western ‘orchestra’, but a gamelan is an inseparable collection of instruments, not the people who gather to play those instruments. Outstanding players of particular instruments are certainly recognised and revered, but their playing remains part of the collective enterprise, rather than being singled-out through solos.

 

Most instruments in a gamelan are percussive – drums, gongs and cymbals of various sizes, together with several types of xylophone-like instruments normally made of bronze (‘metalophones’), but sometimes of bamboo. In specific gamelans, these instruments may be accompanied by bamboo flutes and by the rebab (‘r’bahb’), a two-string bowed instrument; and there is sometimes singing, too. In gamelan music, each instrument has its own specific musical function, but all of them play simultaneously, as in this piece by a gamelan pelegongan (‘p’ le-gong-an’) – the first of five forms of gamelan we shall hear tonight.

TRACK 1

Solo, by a gamelan pelegongang from Binoh in central Bali. (7 mts 56 secs)

(Track 5 on Michael Tenzer’s CD)

 

 

A prominent feature of Solo was the regular note of a large bronze gong – the gong ajung. Balinese music is cyclical, which means that a basic melody is repeated throughout a composition. The gong ajung is struck to mark the end of one cycle of the basic melody and the beginning of the next. Very often the last note of that basic melody is the same as its first note, thus creating a circle each time the melody is played. Some have argued the circularity of Balinese music expresses the Hindu belief in reincarnation and/or that it reflects the crop cycles that have supported Balinese life and culture for centuries[1].

 

Traditionally in Bali, the dances, dramas and music performed in ceremonies and rituals were considered acts of devotion to spirits, gods and ancestors that populate the complex world of Balinese spirituality[2]. This continues to be the case today, but many dances, dramas and music are also performed in specialised settings outside of everyday life – in hotels for tourists, in international concert halls and in recording studios for producers of CDs and DVDs.

 

This continuing change is evident in the wayang kulit – the shadow puppet theatre, where continually updated versions of old traditional stories - handed down between puppeteers – are told using leather puppets silhouetted on a back-lit screen. Accompanying wayang kulit performances is the second of the five forms of gamelan we shall hear tonight - the gamelan gender (‘gn-dare’) wayang. This gamelan has a different combination of instruments to the gamelan pelegongang we heard earlier - there are no drums or marking gong – so it sounds quite different, the melodies are more intricate and the pace is slower.

TRACK 2

Embombuan, by a gamelan gender wayang from eastern Bali. (7mts 39secs)

(Track 6 on Michael Tenzer’s CD.)

 

 

So far, we have heard two forms of gamelan, each consisting almost entirely of percussive instruments. In the third form -  gamelan gambuh (‘gam-boo’) - the focus is on the metre-long gambuh flutes, which are played with the bottom part resting on the ground and the player’s arms outstretched.

TRACK 3

Tabuh Gari, by a gamelan gambuh, from Pedungan in central Bali. (5mts11 secs)

(Track 4 on Michael Tenzer’s CD)

 

 

Tabuh gari often opens a theatrical performance, such as the topeng – a masked drama-dance featuring some of the stories enacted in a wayang kulit performance. A topeng is accompanied by our fourth form of gamelan – the gamelan gong kebyar (‘keb-yarr’). This became very popular during the 20^th century and is the form of gamelan that visitors to Bali are most likely to encounter. Like any gamelan, the gamelan gong kebyar plays a very simple melody, which is the foundation of musical structures of great complexity, to which each type of instrument – gongs, metalophones, drums - contributes in its own particular way.

 

The next track – Baris - shows how one such complex structure is created. It is introduced by a drum pattern, followed by a brief burst by the full gamelan playing. Then a gong agung and a medium gong – the kempur (‘k’m-poor’) - between them intone a basic structure, while a third, smaller gong – the kempli (‘k’m-plee’) – keeps rhythm like a dripping tap. Then, each type of instrument is introduced in turn on its own; and the piece ends in a ‘pyramid’, in which each type of instrument is introduced one on top of another until the full gamelan is playing. (See your sheets for the sequence.)

TRACK 4

Baris, by a gamelan gong kebyar from the College of the Performing Arts (STSI) in Denpasar. (5mts 05 secs)

(Track 1 on Michael Tenzer’s CD)

 

 

That was just a slowed-down version of Baris. Here’s what it would sound like in a proper performance.

TRACK 5

Baris, by a gamelan gong kebyar from the College of the Performing Arts (STSI) in Denpasar. (4mts 04 secs)

(Track 2 on Michael Tenzer’s CD)

 

Bamboo grows all over Bali, but in west Bali, it grows to enormous proportions, with stems up to 3 metres long and up to 65 centimeters in circumference. Local musicians have exploited this quirk of nature by creating our fifth form of gamelan - the gamelan jegog (‘j-gog’). This form consists entirely of bamboo xylophones – no other percussive instruments – and is confined to west Bali. The tubes are held in frames (like the metalophones but much bigger), but these can be so unwieldy that a pair of musicians sits on top of each frame to play them. When they’re in full flight, however, the result is described as ‘rolling thunder’ and, indeed, the lower notes are felt as much as they are heard. In a gamelan jegog, the basic melody is played by lower-register instruments and can be easier to hear than in performances by bronze gamalans.

TRACK 6

Tabuh jagra winungu, by a gamelan jegog from Werdi Sentana, in west Bali. (16 mts 39 secs)

(Track 1 on ‘Between heaven and earth’)

 

 

There is a variation of the gamelan jegog called the gamelan jogged, in which the instruments are tuned higher because the bamboo tubes are smaller.

TRACK 7

Camar kilang, by a gamelan jogged from Jembrana in west Bali. (5 mts 13 secs)

(Track 9 on Michael Tenzer’s CD)

 

 

The gamelans jegog and jogged lead us to our final track tonight, which is a bit of an oddity. It comes from a CD called ‘Bali meets Africa and Java’, which at times is just another awful ‘fusion’ record. Some tracks, however, are an interesting combination of tuned drums from southern Africa and a gamelan jogged.

 

TRACK 8

Bali meets Africa, by Ketut Suwentra and Djkango Mango. (3 mts 36 secs)

 

GAMELAN

Traditional (yet also contemporary) music of Bali and Java

 

 

TRACK 1 Solo, by a gamelan pelegongang from Binoh in central Bali.

 

TRACK 2 Embombuan, by a gamelan gender wayang from Padang Kertha, in east Bali. (Accompanies a wayang kulit or shadow puppet show.)

 

TRACK 3 Tabuh Gari, by a gamelan gambuh, from Pedungan in central Bali. (Opens theatrical performances, e.g. a topeng or masked drama-dance.)

 

TRACK 4 Baris, by a gamelan gong kebyar from the College of the Performing Arts (STSI) in Denpasar. (The demonstration version.)

 

TRACK 5 Baris. (The performance version.)

 

TRACK 6 Tabuh jagra winungu, by a gamelan jegog from Werdi Sentana, in west Bali.

 

TRACK 7 Camar kilang, by a gamelan jogged from Jembrana in west Bali.

 

TRACK 8 Bali meets Africa, from ‘Bali meets Africa and Java’, by Ketut Suwentra and Django Mango.

 

 

 

 

a.	Introduction	Drum, followed by full gamelan
b.	Basic (4-note) structure	Large gong and medium gong, plus a smaller gong to keep the rhythm
c.	Basic melody	Primary (lead) metalophone (gangsa ugal)
d.	First of two interlocking parts of the first layer of ornamentation	Middle-register metalophone (gangsa)
e.	Second of two interlocking parts of the first layer of ornamentation	Another middle-register metalophone
f.	Melody plus first layer of ornamentation	All the metalophones together (c, d, e)
g.	First of two highlights of the melody: middle-range core notes	Middle register metalophone (calung)
h.	Second of two highlighting of the melody: lower-range core notes	Low-toned metalophones (jegogang)
i.	First of two interlocking parts of the second layer of ornamentation	Row of tuned (in a scale) small gongs (reyong)
j.	Second of two interlocking parts of the second layer of ornamentation	Another row of tuned (in a scale) small gongs (reyong)
k.	First of two interlocking parts of the ornamentation of the rhythm	Cylindrical, two-headed drum (kendang)
l.	Second of two interlocking parts of the ornamentation of the rhythm	Another cylindrical, two-headed drum (kendang)
m.	Combined ornamentation of the rhythm	Both drums together (k, l)
n.	‘Pyramid’: jegogan, calung, ugal, gangsa, reyong, kendang
o.	Ending		Full gamelan

 

 

 

3rd FLOOR	SECOND 2-PART ORNAMENTATION (Tuned gongs)
2nd FLOOR	TWO HIGHLIGHTS (Metalophones)
1st FLOOR	FIRST 2-PART ORNAMENTATION (Metalophones)	2-PART ORNAMENTATION (Drums)
GROUND FLOOR	MELODY (Metalophone)	RHYTHM (Small gong)
FOUNDATION	STRUCTURE (Gongs)

 

 

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[1] The circularity of Balinese music contrasts the linearity of much ‘western’ music – it states its themes, it elaborates them, then it re-stars them to end. Themes are just as likely to recur in a changed form as in their original form, which makes the music challenging and satisfying to hear. It could be that the linearity of ‘western’ music is expresses a view of the world in which everything develops and progresses.

 

[2] Ceremonies, rituals, dances and dramas – together with their musical accompaniments – are part of everyday life, rather than a separate sphere of life called ‘art’ or ‘culture’.