Puspawarna Gamelan!

Yesterday was the final performance of the community gamelan group I have been playing with for the past semester.


The pelog (7-note scale) instruments of our set in place at the Temple Gallery. About to start rehearsing.

It was a rather eclectic concert. The night was opened by an early music group playing pre-opera music from the 1600s on lute, viol de gamba, regular viol, and flute. This was followed by a soloist on Tibetan flute and then us. We played a few traditional pieces, but the main purpose of the concert was to premiere works written by people in the ensemble. One was written in traditional style by Ali, a fourth year honours student. Another was by a composition lecturer and featured a western structure, progression of changing melodies, and had parts for individual instruments written out.

"Frogs" by the artistic director of the group, Joko Susilo called for a string section (cello, violin, and bass) as well as "special effects" of croaking frogs with wooden percussion instruments and gongs placed on the ground.

The string section setting up.




Good old Saron II. Because Puspawarna Gamelan is a community ensemble with members coming and going depending on the rehearsal I've been shifted around to play several different instruments but this saron is the one I know best and the one I was lucky enough to play at this show.

Playing gamelan has been an amazing musical experience. This semester has made me conscious of how strongly dependent on western structural forms and notation I am when understanding music. Unlike an orchestra for example, where though the instruments are played together, the melody and temporary importance is passed between instruments and sections, in gamelan, it is hard to distinguish any particular instrument from the sound as a whole. Everyone is playing the melody or a variation upon it at all times - there are no diva parts. In addition, much time (and frustration) would be spent trying to figure out how many times Joko expected us to repeat a particular section; it was normal to spend ten minutes trying to get him to explicitly tell us the order so we could write it down and then having him cue something different the very next time we played it. Traditionally though, gamelan isn't supposed to be fixed in writing but rather changes based on the whim of the drummer and what he signals.

Also: Community! I am not sure what exactly it is...something about the instrumentation of the songs themselves, the large number of birthdays falling on rehearsal days (celebrated with food and the obligatory attempt to play "Happy Birthday" on gamelan which doesn't work very well because the scales lack the necessary notes), Joko's insistence on giving rides home after rehearsal, or (most likely) the ridiculous amounts of time and effort spent moving the heavy bronze instruments every time we have a concert...but at the after party it struck me how much the gamelan group felt like whanau (family). Music groups often inspire this sort of bond, I have just never felt it so quickly.

The concert was recorded so hopefully I will be able to acquire a copy and post a song or two here.


Gamelan practice room with just the slendro scale instruments. Ali resting while waiting for the truck to arrive with the instruments we brought to the concert.




"Ayun Ayun" written on a board in the practice room. Notably the form at the bottom(AA-AA-BA) is not what we played at the concert. ^_^