European gamelan orchestra receives accolade in Yogya

European gamelan orchestra receives accolade in Yogya

By Asip A. Hasani

YOGYAKARTA (JP): "You may say it is a translation of the
traditional Javanese or Balinese gamelan orchestra into a western
way of thinking, although we still respect the traditional
gamelan very much," said Roderik de Man, a composer for the Dutch
contemporary music group Ensemble Gending.

The audience considered the musicians somewhat eccentric when
they performed seven compositions at the Purna Budaya Art Center
here on July 2 and July 4. The group was participating in the
Yogyakarta Gamelan Festival '99. Similar to an "ordinary"
classical music show, the orchestra was led by a conductor, who
stood in front of nine musicians with musical scores before them.

When the music began, the Javanese audience could feel they
had entered a strange environment, where they could hear familiar
music, although it sounded not entirely Javanese. The beat was
starkly different from that of the original Javanese musical
instruments which respect harmony. Ensemble Gending forced the
audience to concentrate in order to understand and enjoy its
compositions.

Only a few of the seven compositions played by the Ensemble in
the festival were readily understood by the Javanese audience.
Two of these pieces were Sonata da Camera by composer Klaus
Kuiper and Soekarno Suite -- the soundtrack of a film called
Soekarno in Holland. The group played Sonata da Camera on its
second show on July 4.

Jurrien Slighter, the group's artistic director and conductor,
said the basic idea of the group's composition was acculturation,
the spirit to promote mutual understanding among nations. For
this reason, Ensem compositions combine gamelan percussive
instruments and western musical instruments.

"We combine gamelan with western voices, and in another
program with electronic devices. So we are always looking for new
combinations, using the gamelan and adding something else," said
Slighter, a music teacher at the High School of the Arts in
Utrecht.

This is particularly true in Sonata da Camera, a composition
by Klaus Kuiper, or in the Soekarno Suite.

Kuiper said of the dynamic beat of Sonata da Camera that it
blended Western conventional music with its own ornamental
devices and Balinese Gajah Legong music.

"I want to do something which is immediately recognizable,"
said the composer who creates works for the theater.

Spontaneous appreciation came from the audience attending the
July 4 performance of the Soekarno Suite. In addition to the
familiar gamelan sounds, the composition was enhanced with the
addition of vocals and electronic piano.

Vocalist Saskia van Grevenstein offered light relief with her
blues rhapsody after the group played the more serious
compositions in the first show. The mention of Soekarno,
Indonesia's first president, stirred the audience's curiosity.

Slighter said the movie Soekarno in Holland was a fiction
about Dutch Queen Juliana's secret plan to meet with the first
president to discuss the prevention of violence between Dutch and
Indonesian troops. The plan was canceled.

Unlike Kuiper's works, Frederik de Man's Shining Orchestra was
a complicated composition; a work not all contemporary music
lovers could immediately comprehend. The acculturation idea was
strongly present in the piece, and it literally used light as an
element of the composition.

"The idea of the composition is to do a program with light,
not projection of images, but projection of colors, movements,
and light. Beside using real light, the composition also suggests
dancers," said de Man, who teaches music at the Royal
Conservatory in The Hague.

Modernist musician Sapto Raharjo, who chaired this year's
festival, described Ensemble Gending's performance as "perfect".
He said it did not matter whether the audience could understand
the compositions featured at the event.

He noted that three of the seven compositions that the
Ensemble presented in the festival were easily appreciated by the
local audience. He said spectators would have to "concentrate" to
understand the rest of the group's program.

The three "easy" compositions presented a familiar atmosphere,
although one with a western interpretation.

"Ensemble Gending presented Gending compositions perfectly.
They performed in a highly disciplined way and used a musical
score as any classical music concerts do," he said.

Sapto said Ensemble Gending did not have the spirit of the
Javanese gamelan or gending (musical composition for gamelan),
which uphold harmony. "In traditional gamelan music, each player
can improvise to a certain extent."

Slighter said he could understand the criticism, noting that
the East and the West have very different cultures and different
ways of expressing ideas.

He expressed the hope that the audience could learn something
from the Ensemble about the innovative possibilities of the
gamelan wonder, because Javanese youths were increasingly
alienated from the music of gamelan orchestras.

He said Ensemble Gending refused to be constrained by the
exotic image of oriental culture and refused to color their
involvement in nice ways.

"We try artistically not to play exotic things, but we hope
our composers will be really involved with the culture behind the
instruments so that the idea of acculturation flows," Slighter
said.

Slighter said the Ensemble members were quite well-versed in
Javanese traditional songs and music.

"Half or more of our players also play traditional gamelan,
but Ensemble Gending will not play traditional gamelan because
Javanese could do that much better than us."