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GAMELAN OF CENTRAL JAVA IX. Songs of Wisdom and Love
A Commentary by Sumarsam
Born in East Java, Bapak Sumarsam received formal gamelan education and grew up as musician in Surakarta (Central Java). He is Adjunct Professor and Chair of the Music Department at Wesleyan University (Middletown, Conn) and an internationally renowned gamelan musician. He conducts workshops and concerts throughout the world. He has written “Gamelan - Cultural Interaction and Musical Development in Central Java”, University of Chicago Press, 1995.
This CD focuses on sung poetry, used in both accompanied and unaccompanied vocal works. The musicians are members of the faculty of STSI (Institute of the Arts, Solo), playing one of the finest of the STSI gamelan. Track 1 Tracks 2-11 In this palaran presentation, first, a srepegan
is played. At a certain point, the drum cues the ensemble to switch
to palaran. At this point, gender, gambang, kenong, kempul, kethuk, and gong continue
to play in the srepegan structure,
accompanying the macapat song,
while other instruments drop out. It is instructive to compare
Megatruh in its original, unaccompanied song (track 2) and in palaran style (track 3), where the same melody is employed. One can
compare the phrasing of un-pulsed, metric-free Megatruh and its transformation
into un-pulsed song but accompanied by a metrically-fixed srepegan structure. Pangkur is also presented in a sequence of original
macapat format and palaran style, but the former is in pelog, the latter in slendro—each has its own melody. (A macapat song may have different melodic
versions). One of the musical elements
in a palaran is senggakan: a brief melodic interlude sung by male singers to make
the piece more exciting. The text of senggakan
can be rather humorous, such as dua
lolo oooing (two is two, oooing);
it can also contain words of praise, such as edi
peni peni peni (so beautiful and priceless). Palaran Pangkur (track
5) is rich with senggakan;
other palaran may have fewer senggakan, or not at all. In the present
CD, senggakan is sung only
in palaran Pangkur. In the original form, macapat is performed by unaccompanied solo
singer. The singer can choose whatever melodic register which he or
she is comfortable with. This is also to say that macapat
song is not constrained by pathet
(modal category). But when more and more macapat
songs were recomposed to become gamelan pieces, the relation of these
poetic metres with the gamelan became closer; the application of pathet category became common practice. This CD goes further. Each
of the macapat in track 6,
8, 9, 11 is accompanied by the gender,
in the manner of bawa and
sulukan (see below). It is worth mentioning the
scale used in Maskumambang and Durma (track 7 and 10). The gamelan accompaniment
of the two palaran is in slendro, but the song is
sung in a sub-scale called barang
miring. This is constructed by flattening two tones of the five-tone
slendro scale. The result is a pelog-like scale. Track 12 Each gendhing has a brief
melodic introduction played by one of the leading instruments, mostly
by rebab or bonang. As an option, the introduction can be replaced by the singing
of poetry; this is called bawa.
It is sung by a male singer with gender
accompaniment, insuring that the singer conform to the gamelan intonation.
In a klenengan the bawa, performed in the second or third part, allows the singer to
demonstrate his melodic dexterity. A few bawa
are taken from macapat songs,
but most bawa are drawn from
sekar tengahan and sekar ageng genres. The bawa
in this CD is Pusparaga, pelog
nem. It is a bawa that
can be sung as introduction to any gendhing with gong-tone 6. Track 13 Commonly, pathetan is accompanied by an ensemble consisting of rebab, gender, gambang, and suling (optional). In this CD, it is accompanied
by solo gender. The gender player is a female musician. Today,
there are only a few female gender
players (Sarah Weiss deals with this subject in her commentary of another
Yantra production). Track 13 is a valuable case for study - the listener
can hear clearly solo gender
and appreciate female gender
playing style, which is quite different than male gender
style. Track 14 I have provided a brief background about gendhing kemanak in my commentary to Volume VIII of this collection. What is special about gendhing kemanak Duradasih is the scale system used by the singers. The first part of the piece is sung in pelog. At a certain point, the singing changes to slendro, till the end of the piece. The gongan structure is ketawang, but in the last part it changes to ladrang. In a complete presentation, a piece called Ketawang Kinanthi Duradasih, played by the whole gamelan ensemble, follows the Gendhing Kemanak and completes what is normally a bedaya-style dance performance.
A note on translating
from old Javanese The
desire to get glimpses of the world contained in old Javanese poetry
prevails over the discouraging difficulties of a translation into a
modern Western language. One
would like to find the precise words that express the meaning of a poetic
verse, maintaining all the subtleties and complexities of the original
text. Unfortunately
the exact words and the real meaning are about impossible to find. It
was aptly said that defining the meaning of Javanese words is like aiming
at a moving target. The
difficulties of translations have been authoritatively illustrated by,
among others, A. L. Becker in the Preface (“Translating the Art of Music”)
to Vol. 2 of “Karawitan - Source
Readings in Javanese Gamelan and Vocal Music”, Michigan Papers on South
and Southeast Asia, 1987. The entire essay should be read by the interested
reader, but it may be useful to extract here a couple of
passages. Page
XIII: “Most words in any language
are more like symbols than signs, more like metaphors than names, and
a translator wants to savor the whole range of resonances that a word
evokes. That is a great part of the power of a word - to evoke its own
past in the varied word-memories of its readers. Words are multi-dimensional,
and one would like to retain more than one dimension in a translation.
The trouble is that the metaphors Javanese words make are seldom the
metaphors English words make, and the memories they evoke are not our
memories.” Page
XVIII: “The definitions from
dictionaries and the explanations by Javanese scholars are meant to
suggest the resonance of words and to open the possibility of many translations,
rich in sound and shape.... The
aesthetic here, as in gamelan music, as in batik,
as in shadow plays, is an aesthetic of overlays. Sound is superimposed
on sound, design on design, event on event....
Each new reading is accepted as an enrichment of the last, not
a correction of it.” The
above statements are illuminating, but I do not wish to use them to
justify the result of my effort to translate the texts sung in this
CD. To the reader/listener I say that he/she should consider these as
instances of possible - in some parts refinable - translations. I wish
to thank Bapak Sumarsam for his kind revision and the resulting decisive
improvements to my work. The shortcomings that may be left must be debited
to me only. Rosella Balossino
Track 1
-
Gendhing KODOK NGOREK A) Mantram
Move, move, evil spirits, move away,
Track 2
- Macapat MEGATRUH slendro sanga Ing wurine yen ati durung tuwajuh If your heart does not yet firmly consent
Track 3
-
Palaran MEGATRUH slendro sanga Paribasan anganti kambanging watu Expecting a stone to float
Track 4
- Macapat PANGKUR pelog nem Jinejer neng Wedhatama It is written in Wedhatama [the book of wisdom]
Track 5
- Palaran PANGKUR with Dolanan PITIK TUKUNG slendro
sanga Sun anti-anti tan prapta I waited but you did not arrive, [Dolanan]
[Singsong]
Track 6
- Macapat DHANDHANGGULA slendro
sanga Pamedhare wasitaning ati Pronouncing wisdom
Track 7
-
Palaran MASKUMAMBANG slendro sanga Sambat-sambat dhuh babo sang kadi Ratih I keep lamenting to the one who resembles
Ratih [goddess of love],
Track 8
-
Macapat SINOM slendro sanga Ambege kang wus utama Arrogance of a wise man
Track 9
- Macapat KHINANTI slendro sanga Padha gulangen ing kalbu To train your mind
Track 10
- Palaran DURMA slendro sanga Haywa age ngubungi karsa tan yogya Do not quickly encourage improper intentions,
Track 11
- Macapat GAMBUH pelog nem Sekar Gambuh ping catur The fourth is Gambuh sung-poetry
Track 12
-
Bawa PUSPARAGA pelog nem Marmanta praptanipun It is told the arrival
Track 13
- SULUKAN - Pathetan Ageng slendro
nem (A dhalang
song taken from the 10th century Bharatayuda poem in ancient Javanese
language) Leng leng ramyaningkang sasangka kumenyar
, O.... Entrancingly beautiful is the shining of
the moon
Track 14
- Gendhing kemanak bedhayan DURADASIH slendro
manyura (This is a text particularly difficult to
translate) Duradasih kadi sinawung asmara Duradasih is a pronouncement of love.
Conceptual Cues on Javanese Music Abstracted
and translated from
Why
does this music fascinate us? Two
factions, at least, take a position on the subject. One - let’s call
it the purist’s view - will uphold the argument
of the cultural misunderstanding: we like this music because we do not understand it. Or: the interpretative keys that
we use for that music have little to do with what that music has and is. For example, we tend to ‘see’ the complex vertical superimpositions
generated in gamelan music as tonal-harmonic dimensions, which is what
we are familiar with. The
other faction - nowadays we’d call it the globalist’s
view - adheres to the concept of intercultural translatability,
of the permeability of languages. Music, foremost among languages, would
possess universals, which can cross cultures, go
through language barriers. So: we like this music because we are capable
of perceiving its beauty; beauty we do have direct access to. We
should be interested in both perspectives. I propose to use the pessimism
of the former to sustain the arguments of the latter. Let
us think of the process of knowing a music ‘other’ as a journey with
stages. At the starting end, the myth of the first listening, the first
encounter with musical events which we ignore forms and language of.
At the other end, the specialized knowledge. In between, the progressing
stages of getting acquainted with the innumerable elements and characteristics
of Javanese music, until we get close to the ideal and idealized end
of bimusicality (but probably
never of biperception). We
want to dwell on the first of those stages, and propose here a listening,
as it were, programmatically uncultivated. And we shall ask ourselves
questions. We
like this music because we do not understand it. How,
in what sublime way do we not understand this music? What does such
incomprehension tell us? Besides
the fascination of the ‘other’ musicality, is there an attraction based
on identification? That is, does this music resound also in spaces of
our own world? May we listen to this music and perceive that it tells
something of ourselves? Is
there an Aleph? The
Aleph is the title of a nice book by Borges - and a concept of the mystics.
The sages used it when they had to answer very difficult questions -
the existence of God, the definition of the universe, and similar trifles.
Borges defines it as follows: “Aleph
is one of the points in space that contain all points. It is the locus
where all loci of the earth gather, without mixing up, seen from all
angles.” I
have the impression that this music tells us things about ourselves,
things that are close to our world. And that draws us to a locus where
all musics of the earth gather, without mixing up. Consider
the impact of minimalism in contemporary music. Consider specific -
though relevant - instances such as the music used as background for
weather forecasts in radio and TV. The point is not the likeness of
such musics to gamelan, rather what these ‘sound carpets’ stand for,
what they tell us, really. Strange. It’s as if from a secluded safe
corner we had the desire of spying upon what the cosmos is up to. First
control, next technology.
Nothing new. It’s something that humans have been doing for a while,
probably for some millennia. On the one side: nature. On the other:
control, through technology. The weather forecasts could be the place
where intercourse between man and cosmos is - laically, scientifically
- celebrated. Science here appears to reassure regarding the control
over natural phenomena, while evoking and suggesting an appeased relationship
with the forces of nature. At a superficial level, the background music
contributes, with its placid repetitivity, to sustain and reinforce
the image of security and control. An imperturbable music, abstract
in some way, and culturally quite close to the concepts of the early
minimalism. If some being from Mars could tune-in to the weather forecasts,
planet Earth, and wanted to make conjectures as to how these other beings
(us) lived, he would probably think that they passed their time in some
sort of perennial limbo, and that they have left the machines to sing
for them. It
is here that gamelan music, especially the instrumental part, intercepts,
with surprising precision, the
contemporariness of our world - meant as a vision of the destiny
of the world. A time of the Eden, where the relationship man-cosmos
is pacified. An immutable, non-historic time. Because history, viewed
from there, is nothing but the difficult route through which, finally,
humanity found rest. The end of epos. Then the time of the end of time? So,
here is one of the points of interception that we were looking for. The
voice strays from the cyclic and repetitive time of the orchestra. It
moves in a different space, freer with respect to the heterorhythmic
movement of the orchestra. For the gamelan, that utopian time of the
instrumental does not come by itself, as it happens in much of our music.
It rather seems more like a pretext, a sort of horizon
of the voice, a space that exists so that within it the voice may
unfold itself. As
is the case with many other cultures, ours too entrusts to the voice
a special role. Even through a language that we do not understand, a
singing voice polarizes. As soon as it enters the auditive space, a
barycentre is created. In the unfolding of a singing voice we recognize
a gesture that profoundly belongs to our world. The voice evokes in
ourselves a well-defined dimension - between two opposed motions that
run through the entire history of our civilization, between mimetic
participation and distance, between the dionysiac and the apollonian. In
gamelan music we seem to instinctively recognize an epic dimension,
indipendently from the fact that the particular genre is actually the
expression of an epos. Do we also recognize in this music a profound
relationship between epic distance and memory? “Only
memory, no expression in your voices” was Benjamin Britten’s instruction
to the singers during reharsals of his War Requiem. This seems to fit
well with the gamelan. Do we perceive this music as a memory
of the world? How is it that a music so distant - so diverse from
ours - manages to illuminate ritual spaces so dense with meaning for
us? Normally
we are ambivalent about ‘otherness’, but on the front of the sacred
- in the vacuum of transcendence characterising our existences - we
are quite ready to open ourselves to the sacred of others. Surprising
is our pliability when encountering an unknown system. We are ready
to accept, with that sacred, also everything else that, of that sacred,
we do not understand. When listening to the gamelan music in this CD
we are surprised by unusual durations, a ‘tactus’ which we are totally
unable to recognise, different ways to produce - and to deny - a climax,
sudden atmospheric disturbances caused and governed by the kendhang,
unexpected tensions and relaxations which do not fit in our schemes
of such things. We could get crossed at these quite different dramaturgic
and expressive choices. And yet, within us, all that glides in free-and-easy,
as if part of the game. Are
we ready to entrust to other cultures the awareness - the potential
for experiencing - of the sacred? If so, what about the meaning that
this sacred expresses? How can we commit the search for meaning to a
sacred we do not know? Actually meaning may not be important. We get
the form. We perceive the transparence. As in Palaran Megatruh, for
instance, where the mantra is set in the cosmos
of the voice as a primeval material, as a pearl. A
pearl - what is its meaning? It amounts to ask ourselves what is the
meaning of the sacred. If
we assign a special language to the sacred (the language of the sacred,
precisely, which needs to be different from the language of the ordinary),
if we entrust our sacred to ‘other’ rituals, in the end it’s perfectly
coherent that the sacred be, by its very nature, incognoscible, ‘other’.
This is what we are looking for. Are we surprised by the durations of
a tempo which we are unable to count? It’s part of the sacred, of the
‘dépaysement’ that the sacred causes. We listen to this music and within
its ritual we allow to be guided by the motion of the sacred. As in
an initiation, we explore, for the first time, its forms. We capture,
for the first time, its.... Utopia of contemporariness and memory of the world. Does the collision of these two coordinates satisfactorily
define the quality of our listening? It’s one of the possible ways to
receive the gamelan in our world. With our exercise we have tried to
sketch out the contour of a figure, the founding elements of a double
movement - most delicate, elusive - which this music seems to evoke.
A tension: -
towards the origin of time, of humans,
of things, -
towards the end of time, of humans, of
things. Some of us know that these two are just one. At the end of time: the beginning of time.
Pesindhen
(female singers): Nyi Cendaniraras (including all macapat),
Nyi Suparsih Gerong (male chorus): Darsono (also bawa), Rustopo, Waridi Gender and sulukan singer: Ibu Pringgo Hadiwiyono Musicians
of STSI Surakarta: Darno, Djoko Santosa, Hadi Boediono, Kuwat, Nyoman
Sukerna, Rusdiyantoro, Sarno, Slamet Riyadi, Sugimin, Sukamso, Supardi,
Suraji. Music
Coordinator: Joko Purwanto Recordings
made 6-7 May, 2004, in the Studio of STSI, playing the "ancient"
gamelan of STSI. Sound Engineer: Iwan Onone Musical
Design, Mastering, and Photos: John
Noise Manis YANTRA PRODUCTIONS yantra@gamelan.it |