Chapter 12: Introduction to the Region

2. Chapter 12: Introduction to the Region • wayang kulit – shadow puppet play • Dalang – puppeteer of wayang • Gamelan – orchestra to accompany wayang • Each is an all-night epic that recounts the never-ending battles of the forces of light and dark, good and evil • The puppets are flat and carved with lace-like features projected onto a large screen by the light of an oil lamp • nine-hour performances

3. Chapter 12: Introduction to the Region • Geography • Indonesia is a nation made up of a chain of over 13,000 islands • capital is Jakarta • the world’s fourth most populous country • The motto of the Republic of Indonesia is “Unity in Diversity”

4. Chapter 12:Elements of Gamelan Music • Orchestras Featuring Bronze Instruments • Metallophones - metal-keyed xylophones • Compositions Guided by a Core Melody • balunganin Java and pokokin Bali - a skeletal melody that directs the intricate parts of gamelan texture • Polyphonic Texture

5. Chapter 12:Elements of Gamelan Music • Colotomic Structure • Paired Families of Tuning Systems • Pelog - a tuning system of seven pitches per octave with some adjacent intervals significantly larger than others • Slendro - a tuning system of five pitches per octave with the adjacent intervals close to the same size

6. Chapter 12:Elements of Gamelan Music • Stress at the End of Metrical Cycles • beats in gamelan music are numbered so that the stress comes at the end of every metrical unit instead of the beginning • The following graphic shows the stress on beats in gamelan music:

7. Chapter 12: Java, Its Gamelan and Instruments • Javanese Culture • Hindu stories are still common in dramas and gamelan performances even if they have lost much of their religious, if not cultural, significance • The Javanese highly prize alus, a characteristicsometimes translated as refined • This quality is reflected above all in the heroes of their dramas, especially the wayang kulit • The counterbalancing side from alus is frequently given as kasar, usually translated as coarse

8. Chapter 12: Java, Its Gamelan and Instruments • The Javanese Gamelan • Javanese gamelan music is refined and often moderate and contemplative in temperament • Bonang - kettle-gongs • Rebab – fiddle • Buka - short introduction which actually leads the listener into the world of the gamelan and, more specifically, the mode and character of the piece to be played

9. Chapter 12: Java, Its Gamelan and Instruments • Javanese Gamelan Instruments • the most characteristic and obvious instruments are usually metallophones and gongs • Other instruments may include drums, wooden xylophones, zithers, fiddles, and bamboo flutes • The most impressive instruments in the gamelan are the large, lowsounding, vertically hanging gongs

10. Chapter 12: Javanese Composition • Lagu – an ornate melody, though it is never explicitly heard—it exists only in the minds of the musicians • This underlying melody subtly guides the delicate filigree of the higher instruments and the lyrical countermelodies of the strings and singers into an elaborate polyphonic fabric • may be hidden from the audience, but we are always aware of its shadows from the ways the other instruments artfully suggest its presence

11. Chapter 12: Javanese Composition • The Balungan • a simplified version of the lagu, boiled down to its essential tones within a simple rhythm and limited range • prominent because it forms a middle ground between the slowly sounding gongs and the faster melodic instruments • Melodic motives (patterns of just a few notes) are very important to a balungan • They not only distinguish its identity, but also help establish the mode and character of the piece

12. Chapter 12: Javanese Composition • The Kembangan • Process of elaboration • the “flowering” of the music • Cengkok – standard basis for elaborating patterns

13. Chapter 12: Javanese Composition • Patet (Mode) • the guiding structure of melody in the pelog and slendro tuning systems • a term often translated as “mode” but that includes a hierarchy of stressed and unstressed tones and characteristic motives • Each patet has certain emotional associations, which sometimes connect with their use in the wayang kulit

14. Chapter 12: Javanese Composition • Colotomic Structure - the pattern of regular punctuation of the composition by certain gong strokes • Gongan - the large phrase defined by the duration between successive gong notes • Wela – absence of colotomic stroke • Ketawang - any form that has only two kenong strokes per gong • kerep (“often”) or arep (“sparse”) in the name of the form indicates the number of ketuk strokes per kenong stroke, such as “merong ketuk 4 kerep”

15. Chapter 12: Javanese Composition • Colotomic Structure • Here is an example ofColotomic Forms shown schematically

16. Chapter 12: Javanese Composition • Irama and Stratification of Rhythm • Rhythmic density - notes it plays per beat • irama refers to these relationships between the rhythmic densities of various instruments to the beat • Frequently a piece undergoes several changes in irama • To signal these changes, the drummer loudly plays a pattern that slows or speeds up the tempo

17. Chapter 12: Javanese Composition • Irama and Stratification of Rhythm • Table 12.1 shows the typical relationships for a ladrang (32-beat form)

18. Chapter 12: Javanese Composition • Irama and Stratification of Rhythm • In the example below the instruments playing faster than the balungan (one note per beat) have shifted from level 7 to level 8 or from level 8 to level 9, creating a new level

19. Chapter 12:A Javanese Gamelan Performance • Kepatihan - cipher notation, in which numbers represent pitches • The following graphic shows the balungan melody for Pangkur • N stands for kenong • P for kempul • T for ketuk • G for large gong

20. Chapter 12:A Javanese Gamelan Performance • A well-composed balungan sounds good at a variety of levels in the context of the colotomic form and patet • the bonang in this piece plays a kind of elaboration known as pipilan, in which a new melody is created mostly by alternating between pairs of balungan tones, as shown in the next graphic • In the following section of Pangkur, red rectangles mark the bonang barung part • Black rectangles mark the original balungan notes

21. Chapter 12:A Javanese Gamelan Performance • other instruments, including the gendér barung, gendér panerus, gambang, and celempung, weave more elaborate melodies around the balungan • The section of the gendér part shown below is a variation of a cengkok (a stock melodic outline) known as tumurun In this single phrase from Pangkur, red rectangles mark the gendér barung part and show its more complex “flowering” of the balungan, marked by black and gray rectangles.

22. Chapter 12: Bali, Its Gamelan and Instruments • Characteristics of the Balinese Gamelan • plays a thrilling, dynamic music apt to create a flood of sensory impressions • One of the most famous and characteristic techniques is the creation of a melody through the combination of two or more extremely fast and rhythmically intricate interlocking parts • Kebyar – style of the Balinese gamelan • the ability of the entire orchestra to stop and start on a dime and to play seemingly non-metrical rhapsodic sections as if they were a single instrument is especially seen in this style

23. Chapter 12: Bali, Its Gamelan and Instruments

24. Chapter 12: Bali, Its Gamelan and Instruments • The Gamelan Gong Kebyar • also called kebyar and gong kebyar • The word kebyar literally means to flare up like the lighting of a match • This large ensemble not only plays for the dance after which it was named, but also accompanies other dances, ceremonial and occasional music, and unaccompanied instrumental performances • Ugal - lead metallophone player • Selisir - a five-tone subset of pelog

25. Chapter 12: Bali, Its Gamelan and Instruments • The Kebyar Instruments • The kebyar orchestra contains two families of metallophones: • Softer single-octave instruments play the slow-moving pokok or background melody • bright two-octave instruments mainly play the very fast figuration • Gangsa - metallophones that play fast figuration • ugal (also called giying), pemade, and kantilan

26. Chapter 12: Bali, Its Gamelan and Instruments • The Kebyar Instruments • Reyong - is a set of twelve kettle-gongs mounted horizontally in a frame • Ceng-ceng - cymbals that reinforce the drum patterns • Kempli - player who helps synchronize the fast parts by playing a metronomic beat on this single kettle-gong

27. Chapter 12: Balinese Composition and Performance • The Topeng (Mask Dance) and Kebyar • Topeng (ormask dance) - in which the solo dancer represents the character depicted in the mask • Tabuh - short repeated melodies (ostinatos) • Angsel – break phrase or cue

28. Chapter 12: Balinese Composition and Performance • Kecak • cak or kecak – Balinese chorus of interlocking shouts • This music does not use instruments at all • the roles of the instruments are taken over by the shouts, chants, and songs of the men

29. Chapter 12: Balinese Composition and Performance • Kecak • The following graph illustrates these interlocking patterns • When sounded together, these rhythms evoke the terrifying monkey army of King Rama in the Ramayana story

30. Chapter 12: Balinese Composition and Performance • Kecak • Interlocking Patterns • Balinese figuration is characteristically based on the precise cooperation of rhythms and melodies that interlock like puzzle pieces • Belaganjur - Cymbal players in processional gamelans

31. Chapter 12: Balinese Composition and Performance • Kecak • Kotekan – Balinese interlocking technique • the players of the pemade and kantilan metallophones or reyong divide into two parts, known as the polos and the sangsih • each consists of fast, complex syncopations, which when played together form a very fast composite melody, precisely interlocking the two parts

32. Chapter 12: Balinese Composition and Performance • Kecak • Kotekan • In the following graphic, half the pemade metallophones play the notes represented by the light blue rectangles (the part called the polos), while the other half play the notes represented by the pink rectangles (the sangsih) • When they overlap, it is always on a unison pitch (colored purple here), and the two parts combine to make a single unbroken and very fast melody

33. Chapter 12: Balinese Composition and Performance • A Balinese Gamelan Performance • Gending Pengalang or Bebarongan is used to accompany the famous barong dance of Bali • Barong - a mythical dragon-like animal that is the holy protector of a village • In a dance-drama acted out for certain ceremonies two men dress up in an elaborate barong costume and dance together • Gending Pengalang is in three large parts, which the Balinese sometimes refer to as the “head” (kawitan), “body” (pengawak), and “feet” (pengecet) of the composition

34. Chapter 12: Popular Music Contact through traders from other countries and continents influenced Indonesian musicians. By the twentieth century, a new popular genre called kroncong emerged from this mixture, although its roots lie in the plucked string ensembles of Portuguese sailors. Kroncong songs have adopted the simple harmonies of European popular songs, strummed by the kroncong lute and guitar in characteristic rhythms that often emphasize off-beat syncopations. By the 1960s, a new popular form known as dangdut emerged from influences as disparate as Latin America and India. Dangdut bands use the same sorts of instruments one would find in pop music bands elsewhere in the world--electric guitars, synthesizers, drum sets, etc.--but are characterized by rhythms that emphasize beats one and four of a four-beat metrical unit.

35. Chapter 12: New Gamelan Music • The famous Javanese composer K. R. T. Wasitodiningrat wrote new and widely popular gamelan compositions that borrowed Latin American rhythms and European polyphony while at the same time confronting contemporary issues such as poverty, government corruption, and environmental damage. • The American experimentalist composer Lou Harrison (1917–2003), along with instrument builder William Colvig, constructed an “American gamelan” out of aluminum tubes, bars, and plates. • Harrison composed dozens of works for gamelan, often in combination with Western instruments, believing that, just as some Indonesian composers write for the Western orchestra, there is nothing wrong with Western composers returning the compliment.