Music of Indonesia

Music of Indonesia

* originally posted on September 21, 2006

The music of Indonesia is a whole world of music, different yet alike, running the gamut from primitive to highly cultivated. Most cultivated music uses an orchestra, usually consisting of tuned percussion instruments, called a gamelan. Sometimes, especially for women's music, there will be a small flute with a wisp of tone of top, and perhaps a bowed string rebab, taken from Persia. Otherwise the gamelan consists of tuned gongs, metal and wooden bars, and drums. The five-tone scales are two in number: Slendero, in which there are five almost equal intervals between A and A a bit over an octave distant; it sound to us like A, B, C#, E, F#, A; and Pelok, which is like G#, A, C#, D, E, G#. Pelok is somewhat more elegant, Slendero is more popular. A gamelan has to be tuned to one or other of these scales; both cannot be played on the same gamelan.

The gamelan is usually in three octaves, one player to the five tones of each octave (thus there are nine fundamental players - three each on the three octaves of gongs, metal bars and wooden bars). The low octave in longer tones (we usually write these as half-notes), the middle octave in slightly faster counter-point, the top octave in high variations. The form is four-square; everything is in 4/4 meter, and the form in groups of four, eight, sixteen, thirty-two, etc. measures. On the first beats of longer form sections there is apt to be a lower large gong, often slightly displaced in pitch with the rest of the scale. The deepest gong in the gamelan will be sonded only at the junction of very large form sections. The main tone here will be the end of the past section and the beginning of the new.

In the quasi-mythological theory of music, music goes on all the time about us, but is inaudible unless brought into reality by a gamelan. The time-sequence is controlled by musical priests, who calculate where the continuous music has arrived at any given moment. The great cycle is seven years long, and once in every seven years the end of the old cycle and the beginning of the new is marked by the sounding of the great gong - said to be the world's largest - in the Sultan's temple. The tone lasts for slightly over an hour, and when it is to be sounded, pilgrims from all over the East come to hear it. Once started, the music runs continuously (though inaudibly) for the next seven years, and some of the main smaller cycles are marked by the sounding of other large gongs in various temples. When a gamelan actually plays, it is thought that it merely makes audible that which is already going on in the musical cosmos. One hears by way of introduction therefore, a few tones leading the gamelan to a main point, for it to get in tune with the infinite, so to speak.

While orchestra (gamelan) music is commoner in Indonesia than with any other peoples of the world, there is, of course, some vocal music. The cultivated voice is thin-lined, nasal, and steady - no vibrato. The Rama legend of India is often used for the opera-drama, which may last several days. The shadow plays also have their own music. In recent times, boys of Bali have developed an astonishing rhythmical group-singing style which seems to have grown out of the whole cloth - its fullsome tittilating rhythms have no historical basis, and while this manner was apparently developed for tourists, it is certainly a fine new beginning point. (Henry Cowell)

Tracklisting:

LP1

1. Gandrung Bulo (Bamboo Drums) {1:56}

2. Gandrung Bulo {2:28}

3. Sinrili {2:15}

4. Tjakalele {3:02}

5. Ketchak (instrumental) {5:28}

6. Ketchak (vocal) {1:12}

7. "Perdjuritan" Dances (Soldiers' Dance) {5:21}

8. a) Paron; b) Kulu Kulu Gantjang {6:40}

9. Mamaos (comic Song) {5:43}

10. Sundanese (Water Music) {4:06}

LP2

1. Gondang Mula Mula {4:21}

2. "Andung Andung" {4:46}

3. "Hasa Hatan" {4:13}

4. Menari Sawat (Moslem Dance) {3:36}

5. Pubbradaya {3:33}

6. Barong Dance, Preren {3:46}

7. Barong Dance, continued: Omang {3:45}

8. Barong Dance, continued: Castel {3:00}

9. Barong Dance, ending: Sadewa {2:36}

10. Cremation Music Played on 2 Instruments {2:10}

11. Cremation Music Played on 4 Instruments {2:50}

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