The piece is titled: Palawakya
Semara Ratih- gamelan group of musicians, dancers and composers from Indonesia. Director of the organization is Anak Agung Gede Anom Putra.
Gamelan is a form of musical ensemble from Indonesia. Gamelan means "musical ensemble. " There are various different forms of gamelans having to do with the different instruments and or dancers involved in the group. The word gamel means to hold or wield, thats why the instruments involved in the group are mainly percussive.
This is a picture of all the instruments included in the gamelan group. Some of them are just bigger or louder more powerful versions of the same instrument.
I see this music to be connected to the Wade chapter 2 where it was talking about how instruments provide cultural diffusion and how the craft and make of the instruments show the cultural values. Many of these specific instruments are made of wood, bamboo and other natural resources. They try to stay away from using metals and other man made materials on the instruments, obviously gongs and other instruments requiring such materials are allowed. The interaction of the performers is very high especially with the dancer! The dancer is the key figure of the group. She sings and plays the bonang. All the performers seem so comfortable with the music and almost look bored. I highly doubt they are bored, probably so used to playing in this group its just like an everyday activity!
The first thing that came to mind when watching this was the King and I when everyone watches the play put on about Uncle Tom's Cabin. The movements of the dancer, costume and make up looked similar to me. I wonder if that part of the movie was a semi-authentic recreation of that culture's dance and music.
ReplyDeleteThe costume and movements were very angled. The costume was not symmetrical, which was strange to look at and the movements were twitchy and angular. It was very interesting that angles are used in this type of dancing to represent something.
The ensemble was very interesting, as well. The sound was very intricate. I especially loved the zoom on the man playing a mallet instrument that was playing really fast but did not seem phased by it at all. It seemed like it would be a difficult thing to learn and he was just playing like it was no big deal. This shows that the training for playing that instrument must have started young to feel so comfortable playing such fast rhythms. I do wonder if the instrument the woman played is traditionally played by a woman and if the woman has some place in society, such as part of the court or is from an well endowed family.
Notice how fast their hands need to move in order to mute the bars they just played! Amazing.
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