Gamelan festival boasts 10-year grand design<\/p>\n
Sri Wahyuni, The Jakarta Post, Yogyakarta<\/p>\n
Gamelan lovers will find it worthwhile to be in Yogyakarta this
\nweek with the 10th Yogyakarta Gamelan Festival (YGF) 2005 being
\nopened on Tuesday with a two-day, pre-festival concert at Misty
\nMultimedia Gallery, Jl. Pandega Karya 290, at Jl. Kaliurang Km
\n5.5.<\/p>\n
The main concerts are to be held at Taman Budaya Yogyakarta
\nconcert hall on Jl. Sri Wedani, next to the well-known
\nBeringharjo traditional market, for three consecutive evenings
\nfrom July 7 through July 9, 2005.<\/p>\n
\"The number of participating groups is fewer than last year.
\nThe number of individuals, however, it greater than last year,\"
\ncoordinator of the YGF organizing committee Sapto Raharjo told
\nThe Jakarta Post.<\/p>\n
That, said Sapto, who is a contemporary gamelan musician, was
\nbecause most of the participating groups are quite large in terms
\nof supporting personnel. Kabumi of Bandung (West Java), for
\nexample, has 55 players in its gamelan group.<\/p>\n
One People Voice (OPV) of the U.S., similarly, will bring with
\nit 47 performers for its scheduled performance on July 8. It is
\nscheduled to perform the well-known kecak dance from Bali.<\/p>\n
\"This will be quite unique, especially as it requires the
\nperformers, who come from quite a different cultural background,
\nto utter the \"cak-cak-cak\" Balinese sounds that a kecak
\nperformance requires,\" Sapto said.<\/p>\n
Other foreign groups or individuals scheduled to participate
\nin the festival include Veronique and Friends of France, Motohide
\nTaguchi and Friends of Japan, Trio Dingo of Australia, Prof Rene
\nT.A. Lysloff of the U.S., and Chris Miller of Canada.<\/p>\n
Domestic groups include Michael Asmara and Friends
\n(Yogyakarta), Anane (Yogyakarta), Kelompok LOS (Surakarta),
\nSanggar Pepasak (Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara), Keras Tanpa S
\n(Surakarta), Gang Sadewa (Yogyakarta), Gobah Contemporary Music
\n(Riau, Sumatra), Vertigong (Yogyakarta) and Kyai Fatahillah
\n(Bandung, West Java).<\/p>\n
Some of the groups or individuals from foreign countries have
\nbrought with them compositions to play at the festival. Others,
\nhowever, will prefer to create collaborative works here with
\nlocal groups or musicians.<\/p>\n
As a consequence, they have had to come earlier to work on
\ntheir compositions and interact with the designated local groups
\nor musicians.<\/p>\n
\"I see this as a positive sign, in which people of different
\nbackgrounds work together for the creation of new cross-cultural,
\ncross-disciplinary collaborative gamelan works,\" Sapto added.<\/p>\n
Collaborative performances will also end each of the scheduled
\nconcerts, during which all participating groups and musicians
\nwill play together on the stage.<\/p>\n
Apart from the scheduled concerts, a supporting program, Gaung
\nGamelan (Gamelan Echo), whose main objective is to actively
\ninvolve people throughout the province to participate in the
\nannual event, will also be held during the pre-festival and main
\nevent.<\/p>\n
Via the program, gamelan players from across the province are
\ncalled to play their instruments at their own places and their
\nown convenient times from July 5 through July 9, in the morning,
\nat noon, or in the afternoon.<\/p>\n
\"In the evenings they are invited to enjoy the concerts,
\nthrough which they are expected to enrich their insights and
\nviews about gamelan and its development worldwide, so that they
\nwill also be able improve their artistic appreciation,\" Sapto
\nsaid.<\/p>\n
Prior to the Gaung Gamelan program, the YGF organizing
\ncommittee has also issued calls through the regental and
\nmunicipal tourism and culture offices in the province for owners
\nof gamelan instruments to clean and tune their instruments.<\/p>\n
\"Slendro and pelog are ours. It's our responsibility to
\nmaintain them,\" said Sapto, referring to the five- and seven-tone
\ntuning system of Javanese gamelan.<\/p>\n
Sapto added that so far the festival was considered more a
\nmedium for cultural exchange. As such, therefore, it had minimal
\ncommercial potential, making it relatively difficult to develop,
\nespecially with regard to fund-raising.<\/p>\n
For the next 10 years, however, a 10-year plan has been drawn
\nup to turn the festival into a prestigious, world-class event for
\ngamelan music.<\/p>\n
\"It will be just like a Northsea Jazz Festival for gamelan,\"
\nSapto said.<\/p>\n
As a preparation, a company named PT Gamelan Hangeka Buwana
\n(which literally means \"gamelan unites the world\") has been
\nestablished to ensure the annual festival is both better and more
\nprofessionally managed, starting next year.<\/p>\n
\"My own personal experience teaches me that a legal entity is
\nneeded for an event with sponsorship worth more than Rp 100
\nmillion. That's why we decided to establish the company,\"
\nexplained Sapto, who is the director of the newly established
\ncompany.<\/p>\n
Sapto, however, also said that establishment of the company
\nwould not mean the festival would be 100 percent profit-oriented.
\nRather, it was intended to make management of the festival more
\nfinancially accountable.<\/p>\n
\"We do not wish to be dependent on the local government's
\nbudget,\" Sapto said.<\/p>\n
Held for the first time in 1995 as part of the month-long
\nYogyakarta Arts Festival (FKY), which usually starts on June 7,
\nYGF was initially a government-funded event.<\/p>\n
Only in 2000 did YGF start to finance itself after
\nsurrendering its budget to other FKY programs, mostly due to
\nFKY's small budget. Since then, YGF has been self-financing. The
\nfollowing year, 2001, it was held as an independent festival, no
\nlonger part of FKY.<\/p>\n
So far, according to Sapto, to manage the festival the
\norganizing committee has been dependent on what is called the
\nFriends of YGF, a network made to accommodate donations to
\nconduct the festival from gamelan lovers from all over the world.<\/p>\n
\"Frankly, the Friends of YGF network has enabled us to
\nmaintain the festival thus far,\" said Sapto, adding that this
\nyear's main festival (July 7 through July 9) required expenditure
\nof some Rp 250 million, mostly on accommodation for participants.<\/p>\n
Also part of the 10-year plan for YGF is the establishment of
\na gamelan academy in 2015, in which a proper gamelan educational
\nsystem will be applied and developed according to the needs of
\nthe era.<\/p>\n
\"One of the considerations for preparing the 10-year plan is
\nthe fact that gamelan has been acknowledged as the world's second
\nsymphony orchestra, after the Western model. It is also found in
\n31 countries; none has elevated it to the level of a science,\"
\nSapto said.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/gamelan-festival-boasts-10-year-grand-design-1447893297",
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