Gamelan

Sound Spaces and Shadows

Contemporary (Gamelan) Music From Indonesia: Local – National – International

By Dieter Mack, composer and curator of the Gamelan Festival

Under the broad category of “contemporary music” one could put together numerous and, at the same time, extremely diverse music programmes with a focus on Southeast Asia. However, it is important to remember that our conception of history is barely applicable to music cultures in the region, especially when it comes to oral music traditions. Indeed, for many Indonesians, the idea of consciously promoting cultural change is a metaphor for a loss of culture. Nevertheless, over the past few decades, young artists in Southeast Asia have been confronted with radical transformations in their societies; globalisation, the growth and influence of the media, and migration (both violent and peaceful) have all had an important impact on the consciousness and development of young artists.

At the opposite end of the spectrum are the authoritarian political systems in the region that, for a long time, insisted on a functionalist roll for the arts and thus stood in direct opposition to these changes. For this reason, many young artists are now attempting to participate actively in global interplay by taking a radical step out from under the shadow of tradition. In the case of most artistic disciplines, such an undertaking also contains a political element, for consciously rejecting politics in art in favour of aesthetics is a political statement in and of itself. Nevertheless, it is above all the field of music that has remained comparably untouched over the years, despite the political upheavals in the region.

Yet if one looks behind the scenes, one sees that political factors have nevertheless exerted an influence; one needs only think of the atrocities in Vietnam or Cambodia, which even to this day do not appear to have been overcome and have nearly prevented the formation of an independent contemporary music scene. Despite all the migration and blending of peoples and cultures, each country has its own set of problems. In particular, Indonesia, the largest country in Southeast Asia, has developed an entirely independent contemporary music scene with few ties to musical developments in other countries.

Popular Music

Popular music today is often seen as originating, for the most part, in youth cultures, finding its voice primarily through the media and being shaped by multicultural crossover. What we are dealing with here is a type of global trend founded on a broad variety of traditions (hip-hop, rock, etc.), but with local nuances—be it with respect to language, various local instruments or partial borrowings from traditional local music forms. This is a type of popular music whose audience resides primarily in newer urban areas, both in Indonesia and elsewhere. Alongside this style there are, of course, music forms (which are probably the most popular!) that we would call “pop hits”. The only difference between them and German pop hits is the language of the lyrics. This world of glamour, celebrity culture and longings is highly regarded in Indonesia, and hardly an evening goes by without at least one television station presenting long music shows of this kind.

In the end, we find that contemporary music can be considered popular even when the boundaries between artistic, popular and religious forms do not exist or are permeable, as is the case in Bali. In fact, even when avant-garde performances are held, one can assume that a large percentage of the population will watch and listen to them with active and critical interest. This holds true for West Sumatra and West Java as well—not to mention for the innumerable forms of traditional folk music, which any given ethnicity or sub-ethnicity (oftentimes only a village) would also regard as popular music.

Gamelan

Although a strict definition of “gamelan” does not exist, it is generally used to refer to different types of small orchestras primarily in Java, Bali and Sumatra. The main instruments are metallophones and gongs, but other combinations are possible. In Bali, for example, there are gamelan ensembles made up exclusively of flutes or other instruments. The ensembles in West Sumatra are grouped under the umbrella term “talempong”, yet are still considered a type of gamelan orchestra in the overall Indonesian context. The number of musicians in an ensemble varies from four to fifty persons. The music played by these orchestras is undoubtedly the best-known international advertisement for Indonesia; primarily in the United States, but also in Europe and other countries, there are now numerous gamelan groups, some of which are of professional quality.

At the most important local art academies, gamelan music makes up the core of students’ education. In Java and parts of West Sumatra, the practice of gamelan is limited to special professional groups; in Bali, however, we encounter an entirely different situation. Of all the relevant types of gamelan music, the Balinese form is the most complex and technically challenging. In Bali, this music is not only performed in the academies, royal courts and tourist centres, but has remained an integral and indispensable part of village cultural life. This is distinctive feature of musical culture in Bali, as are the clearly recognisable tendencies here towards new developments. If any cultural area in Indonesia has embodied a historical consciousness for development, then it is Bali, albeit against the backdrop of an ever-important cyclic concept of history, indeed of life.

A Tradition of Preservation; A Tradition of Revival

We thus come to the actual topic of concern, for although the forms of music called “gamelan” have a long tradition of preserving their values, they also have an equally long tradition of innovation and renewal—that is, the search for new styles and forms of expression. Unfortunately, the dynamic innovations of these forms of music are not yet well known, something for which many ethno-musicologists, who denounce modern developments as “impure” and propagate an entirely unrealistic “musical biotope”, are at least partially responsible. The tourism industry, as well, contributes to this with its own form of irony, eagerly selling the respective local musical forms under the guise of “old tradition”. In reality, however, nearly all tourist productions have already been modified to make them more readily comprehensible. For a time, there was a risk at the art academies that these “light versions” would be declared the cultural standard as part of the economically focused “link and match” ideology of the Ministry for Education and Cultural Affairs. Luckily, this did not happen. Instead, a type of functional tourist music was cultivated.

Extensive contact with the world outside of Indonesia also casts its “shadow”. This contact does not only refer the internet and mass media, but also to the rapid increase in the number of gamelan ensembles abroad. Indonesian gamelan music has experienced a veritable boom over the past twenty years, primarily in the United States, but also in Europe, Australia and Japan. Hundreds of non-Indonesian ensembles play gamelan music, thus bearing witness to the international relevance of this fascinating ensemble culture. Inevitably, many Indonesian musicians work abroad regularly and bring their experiences with music from other cultures back with them to their own world.

In precisely this respect, there is still a singular phenomenon that can only be understood by taking a closer look at Indonesian history. Although contact with the rest of the world and mutual influences have grown exponentially, this exchange occurs only rarely within Indonesia’s borders. Instead, one frequently encounters the very opposite phenomenon: tensions, jealousies, resentment and separation among the different ethnicities. This is an example of how politics work their way into artistic practice, even if there is a desire to prevent such a phenomenon. This appears to occur primarily in dance and music—the two forms of art that, seen historically, are the most firmly rooted in the cultures of local ethnic groups.

New Gamelan Music

What are the distinguishing features of new gamelan music, other than the fact that the four cultural spheres represented here have entirely different traditions of musical language? The tendency, in all its various forms, towards producing unconventional sounds with native instruments is particularly striking: knobbed gongs are turned around and played like small gongs; innovative muting techniques for the metallophone produce unusual textures, not to mention the use of bowed sounds (using a type of violin bow) on the brass instruments. There are no limits to the additional instruments that can be used, and the use of kitchen gadgets, bottles or glass in many works is no longer a novelty.

Yet primarily in the last five to ten years, a transformation has taken place on the level of traditional parameters such as form, rhythm and melody. Multifaceted rhythmic and metrical textures such as those which a contemporary composer like Conlon Nancarrow was once only able to achieve with the help of a mechanical piano are no longer uncommon in new Balinese and Sundanese gamelan works. The same applies to diverse combinations of different tuning systems, including the use of live electronic and computer sounds. What is truly fascinating about all these developments is the playful approach taken by most of the young composers. Even when their understanding of their music as individual artists is distinctive, the collective realisation of pieces still plays an important role. And perhaps it is this collective work which guarantees that such complex, forward-looking developments can arise in the first place. Indeed, in light of what is still a primarily oral musical tradition in gamelan music, a composer would hardly be able to succeed as such without his fellow musicians.

In conclusion, it should be said that gamelan music ensembles from Java, Bali and West Sumatra represent independent and nonetheless diverse musical cultures that still stand at the heart of the Indonesian music scene. Alongside the preservation of traditional and ceremonial forms, these ensembles are continuously producing new arrangements of old pieces. First and foremost, however, they are composing original pieces that break new musical ground. Outside influences play an important role and are transformed and incorporated in a congenial fashion. The very nature of musical practices by most large gamelan ensembles means that intercultural productions with musicians of other cultures are rarely successful. Instead, it is the original assimilation and reworking of outside influences that is met with considerably more acclaim.