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Gamelan
Angklung
At temple festivals,
the exuberance of the 4-tone gamelan angklung's
melodies ring out in bold contrast to
the solemn and grave lelambatan compositions
often heard playing simultaneously right
across the courtyard. While to many outsiders
the slendro-derived tuning of the gamelan
produces a mood of playfulness and charm,
to the Balinese it is sentimental, bittersweet,
and an indispensable component of the
atmosphere at any meaningful ceremony.
A
modern Balinese gamelan angklung comprises
8-12 4-keyed metallophones used for melody
or kotekan, a reyong of 8 pots, 2 jegogans,
a small kempur, 2 tiny drums, cengceng,
suling and a kind of kempli called tawa-tawa.
The word angklung originally referred
to a bamboo rattle which produces but
one tone when shaken. Ensembles of these,
tuned to a scale and shaken in alternation
to create melodies, are still common in
West Java. In Bali they used to be played
in conjunction with the bronze instruments,2
but today they are rarely seen, although
people often lament their demise nostalgically.
There
is a large repertoire of compositions
for gamelan angklung. It is full of whimsical
short pieces with names like Goak Maling
Taloh (Crow Steals Eggs) and Katak
Nongkek (Croaking Frog) and longer
pieces of considerable breadth. Having
only 4 keys per instrument would seem
a limitation, and certainly no one would
claim that gamelan angklung has as great
an expressive range as any of the larger
bronze ensembles. Yet as a rule angklung
music is full of supple melodies and inventive
kotekans, which often breathe and flow
in quite unexpected directions. A number
of angklungs around the island, particularly
in the north, use the full 5-tone slendro
scale for the additional possibilities
it provides, with the size of the instruments
expanded accordingly, sometimes up to
as many as seven keys. This serves to
drastically reduce the constraints imposed
by the 4-tone version, substantially altering
the personality of the resultant music
in the process.
There
may be more sets of gamelan angklung in
Bali than there are gamelan gong kebyar.
Most villages have at least one or two.
The village of Mas alone had, at last
count, seven; their players have a tough
time with scheduling, because a local
temple festival lasts only a few days!
But the temple is not the only place to
hear angklung. Because of the instruments'
portability, they are often strung up
on bamboo poles and carried in processions.
Some tari lepas and kreasi baru have been
adapted for the ensemble, thus creating
the secular subgenre of angklung kebyar.
Ketut Partha, a teacher at the STSI conservatory,
is well known for his contributions to
the development of this style (Partha's
composition Sindu Arsa can be heard
on Gamelan Sekar Jaya's CD, Balinese
Music in America). One of the most
famous traditional angklung gamelans can
be found in the village of Sidan, on the
road between Gianyar and Bangli.
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