Javanese gamelan revives a hit in Chicago<\/p>\n
By Riyadi<\/p>\n
CHICAGO (JP): The sounds of a Javanese gamelan orchestra
\nresonate in the windy city of Chicago, sending heavenly melodies
\nfrom Indonesia and soothing some of the sad feelings about the
\ncountry.<\/p>\n
Four performances by the Friends of Gamelan (FROG), the only
\ngamelan group in Chicago, have entertained Chicagoans during the
\nlast few months at the Brookfield Zoo, the summer picnic at
\nAurora, the Field Museum and the North Shore Center for the
\nPerforming Arts at Skokie.<\/p>\n
In early October, the Friends, comprising Americans with an
\ninterest in Javanese percussion instruments, will again give a
\ngamelan demonstration for Chicagoans, and this time at the
\nprestigious Rotunda Symphony Center for the Chicago Symphony
\nOrchestra's Day of Music.<\/p>\n
Gamelan has been in Chicago for 106 years, and yet it is still
\nan alien sound for most people in the city, including Kate
\nShorney, a graduate student at Columbia College.<\/p>\n
\"It's totally strange music to me, but it's beautiful,\"
\nShorney said after attending an Indonesian cultural show at
\nSkokie.<\/p>\n
But for most of the 50 FROG members, gamelan is already a part
\nof their lifestyle.<\/p>\n
They love playing gamelan and giving performances, although it
\nmeans they have to put aside their free time to transport the
\ninstruments. For a one-hour demonstration at the Field Museum,
\nfor instance, FROG members had to spend at least 10 hours to
\nprepare the instruments, perform and then take the instruments
\nback home to the Rockefeller Memorial Chapel at the University of
\nChicago.<\/p>\n
Carolyn Johnson, a FROG member, said: \"It's really laborious.
\nFor that performance, I left home at 8 in the morning and got
\nhome again at 8 in the evening.\"<\/p>\n
Nevertheless, FROG members are more than happy to give
\nperformances and gamelan classes to the public. This fall,
\nclasses will start on Oct. 5 at the University of Chicago. And
\ntwo major performances are already scheduled for the year 2000.
\nThe first is for the University of Chicago's ensemble concert in
\nJanuary and the other is for a spring concert at the Friends
\ngamelan home base, the Rockefeller Memorial Chapel.<\/p>\n
The first Chicago performances of the gamelan were heard in a
\nbamboo theater built as part of a Javanese village at the World's
\nColumbian Exposition in 1893. There, the resounding, rhythmic
\nsounds of gamelan accompanied puppet plays and dance dramas
\ndepicting Javanese epics.<\/p>\n
The Field Museum's Asian curator, Bennet Bronson, said the 24-
\npiece pelog (tune with seven intervals of unequal size per
\noctave) gamelan then belonged to G.C.F.W. Mundt, a tea plantation
\nowner at Parakan Salak, Sumedang, West Java.<\/p>\n
Mundt, together with E.J. Kerkhoven, the owner of a tea
\nplantation in Sinagar, also in West Java -- both members of a
\nJava-Chicago syndicate -- shipped the gamelan, along with gamelan
\nplayers and dancers, to Chicago and established the Javanese
\nvillage for the exposition. The village, the gamelan and the
\nJavanese participants were all part of a promotional effort to
\nsell tea and coffee.<\/p>\n
Musicologist Sue Carter-De Vale said these same Dutch
\nentrepreneurs sponsored similar Javanese exhibits at the
\nAmsterdam Exposition in 1883 and the Paris Exposition in 1889.<\/p>\n
The gamelan, traditional dancing and puppet performances at
\nthe Columbian Exposition made the Javanese village one of the
\nmost popular sites at the exposition, the Chicago Sunday Tribune
\nwrote in a four-column front page headline story titled \"Glimpse
\nInto Java\" on July 2, 1893.<\/p>\n
\"The Javanese village is as faithful a reproduction of the
\nreal houses and public buildings as possible. The theater
\ncorresponds to the council chamber in the royal village, and the
\nmasagit (Mohammedan church) which stands opposite it, bears a
\nclose resemblance in general style of construction to the
\nSultan's dwelling,\" the newspaper reported.<\/p>\n
Commenting on the Javanese village, Harper's Weekly wrote in
\nits Oct. 21, 1893 edition: \"It is quite safe to say, and that is
\nthat whoever missed the Javanese village missed one of the most
\nalluring of all the side shows.\"<\/p>\n
On the gamelan, Harper's wrote: \"Indeed, the Javanese music is
\nmuch more condoling than most of the Oriental orchestras that set
\nthe passer's teeth on edge in the Midway.\"<\/p>\n
On the dances, it said: \"The costuming is gorgeous, and the
\nJavanese drama most curious and interesting.\"<\/p>\n
Because of its popularity, Benjamin Ives Gilman, the first
\nperson to use the phonograph for the scientific analysis of
\nmusic, went to the Javanese village to record the gamelan
\nperformance. Gilman used 33 wax cylinders to record the gamelan.<\/p>\n
The original wax cylinder recordings of gamelan are now kept
\nby the Library of Congress.<\/p>\n
Johnson, a content specialist at the Field Museum's Sound from
\nthe Vaults exhibit, said: \"These are the first known recordings
\nof any gamelan.\"<\/p>\n
The recording was made on Sept. 23, 1893, at 1.30 p.m.
\nAccording to a transcript by the Library of Congress, Gilman
\nannounced at the beginning of the recording: \"On the following
\ncylinders, we propose to take the 1:30 p.m. performance in the
\nJavanese theater. This consists of five parts. First, Lagu Rame
\nor usual welcome. Second, Sundanese dance or tandak performed by
\ndancing girls from West Java. Third, Sundanese wayang,
\nrepresenting (volume drops, inaudible) ... of Java. Fourth,
\nJavanese wayang performed by the Javanese dancing girls from the
\ncourt of His Majesty the Sultan of Solo (Surakarta), Central
\nJava. Fifth, American national airs performed by the gamelan or
\norchestra. I shall try to indicate the points of differentiation
\nbetween these five parts.\"<\/p>\n
Johnson said the Sundanese gamelan composition in the
\nrecording was an advanced one and was played beautifully, but the
\nCentral Javanese composition was a simple one. \"It was really
\nboring. They played a simple lancaran (musical piece), and played
\nit over and over again with no variation and no elaboration.\"<\/p>\n
At the end of the exposition, the gamelan sets, puppets,
\ndancing costumes, masks and angklung (tuned bamboo rattle) were
\nall auctioned. The Field Museum, which was established earlier
\nthat year, purchased all of them except the angklung. The museum
\nput the gamelan in storage for most of the time.<\/p>\n
Since then, the gamelan never attracted the interest of
\nChicagoans until the 1970s when it received popularity among
\nuniversities in the U.S.<\/p>\n
Currently, there are about 80 gamelan groups scattered across
\nthe country, mostly at universities or colleges. The most popular
\ngamelan in the U.S. is the Central Javanese one, followed by the
\nBalinese and then Sundanese.<\/p>\n
In 1978, the 1893 gamelan was taken out of the museum's
\nstorage, restored and used for training classes, only to be
\nretired in 1982 for fear it would deteriorate with regular use,
\nsaid Johnson.<\/p>\n
Some of the gamelan students from the Field Museum formed the
\nnonprofit Friends of Gamelan to raise US$5,000 to buy a new set
\nof 60-piece gamelans from Central Java and another $3,000 to ship
\nthem to Chicago. The Friends' gamelan has double tunings: pelog
\nand slendro (tune with five nearly equal intervals).<\/p>\n
All the Friends needed was a name for their gamelan, but that
\ncould only be bestowed by a Javanese dalang (puppet player), said
\nLinda Maher, another FROG member.<\/p>\n
In 1994, a female dalang came to Chicago, and she was asked to
\nbestow the gamelan. A big ceremony was then held, complete with a
\ntraditional rice cone, a roasted chicken and a package of
\nJavanese incense offering. The Friends' gamelan, the dalang
\nannounced, would be known as Nyai Panjang Sari (venerable essence
\nof gamelan music).<\/p>\n
Unlike many other gamelan sets which normally have male names
\nstarting with Kyai, FROG's gamelan has a female name with Nyai.<\/p>\n
\"That's what I like, she gave a female name to our gamelan,\"
\nMaher said.<\/p>\n
Nyai Panjang Sari then rested in a grand room at the Roosevelt
\nUniversity for years until it was moved to its current home at
\nthe Rockefeller Memorial Chapel.<\/p>\n
The Nyai Panjang Sari, however, is not a good quality gamelan
\nset as it is made of iron, and the Friends want a better quality
\none, said its chairman Douglas Hudson.<\/p>\n
\"Once we have the money, we want to buy a new set of bronze
\ngamelan,\" Hudson said.<\/p>",
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