From the magic of gamelan to the sounds of Latin America

By Franki Raden

JAKARTA (JP): A very stimulating music event is in the offing -- an international percussion festival on July 10 and 11 at the Jakarta Fair Grounds in Central Jakarta.

The participants will be arriving from countries like Brazil, represented by Brazilian Beats; the Netherlands will be represented by Resonans, South Korea by Samulnori, Australia by Tokakros, while Indonesia will be represented by Harry Roesli from Bandung, Kahanan from Jakarta-Banyuwangi and Bungbang from Bali.

The coming event gives rise to some questions, though: "Why percussion music? Why a drum festival in Indonesia? What will the event mean to the Indonesian music scene?"

Music is a time symbol, a flow of energy which moves people to a direct response, stimulating social communication.

The main element in music to provoke a direct response is the rhythm. Percussion is energy. Through percussion, music can be transformed into a dynamic sound that affects people emotionally.

In ancient cultures we can observe nature's mystery in music. So, if we witness a percussion group, unraveling a mystery of nature, we should regard ourselves as blessed.

Percussion is one of the oldest music forms. In Africa and China, there are percussion instruments made of stone.

In Aceh, the human body is a unique percussion instrument.

Indonesia has the gamelan too, one of the few music orchestras consisting of mainly percussion instruments. It is, therefore, not surprising the outside world has come to know Indonesian music through gamelan.

Traditional gamelan music is not only found in Java and Bali. Sumatra, Kalimantan and the eastern part of the archipelago also have gamelan. Indonesia has an abundance of percussion instruments. This does not stop with traditional music, its predominance is evident in contemporary music. Take, for instance, the works of Harry Roesli, Inisisri and Embie C. Noer. This influence is most pronounced in composers whose backgrounds are in gamelan with voice accompaniment, as performed in Surakarta (Solo), Yogyakarta, Bandung, Denpasar and Padang Panjang.

Indonesia's staging of a world performance percussion groups is justified.

Last year, a Japanese percussionist, Leonard Eto, at the Indonesian International Drum Festival in Ancol, North Jakarta said, "If in the 20th century people associated percussion music with Africa, in the next century the music will be tied up with Asia."

If this is true, Indonesia is going to be quite an authority in the field. But that can not be achieved without seriously trying to raise Indonesian percussion music to international levels. Initiating a forum for Jakarta percussionists in 1996 is just one way to do that.

Percussion elements exist in almost any music variety, whether this may be jazz, rock, or even contemporary music.

French composer Claude Debussy heard a Javanese gamelan for the first time in 1889 at a Paris exposition. Debussy realized then that in comparing classical percussion music from Europe with gamelan, the latter produced more "civilized" sounds than the percussion sounds of the West.

Gamelan inspired Debussy to incorporate percussion into his music, giving his work poetic quality. Since Debussy, percussion instruments made great strides in the classical music of the 20th century. In 1931 a music piece was created that is seen as this century's percussion masterpiece. This piece, called Ionization, was written by French composer Edgar Varese, who later went to live in the United States.

In the States, composers were already acquainted with the gamelan; it was introduced by Henry Cowell, a composer who studied ethnic music.

Because of Cowell, John Cage, an important music authority in this age, came to know gamelan. From this relationship an interesting idea arose -- to construct a piano producing gamelan sounds, a prepared piano. Cages' work for prepared piano entitled Three Dances sounds much like Balinese gamelan.

There is also the American Harry Partch. Partch made his name as a composer using homemade musical instruments, mainly percussion instruments. In his orchestra, the influence of gamelan is unmistakable.

It is interesting that while Cage and Partch tried to simulate the sounds of gamelan on their own invented instruments, another American, Lou Harrison, simply set up a traditional gamelan orchestra.

Harrison got instruction from Pak Tjokro, an authority in the field of gamelan. Now gamelan has been integrated into contemporary percussion ensembles.

The influence of gamelan is not limited to the John Cages, Harry Partches and Lou Harrisons of this century, it will be passed on to the next generation.

One of the new Turks, Steve Reich, has already earned himself a name in contemporary music for his combination of Balinese gamelan and African beats. Steve Reich is a pioneer of minimalism. In 1971 Reich wrote a piece for drums called Drumming which will be performed by the Resonans of the Netherlands at the coming festival.

If gamelan is a phenomenon in contemporary music, Latin American beat is recognizable in jazz and rock. In the 40s, Count Basie tried to use Latin drum beats in his big band. At the recent Santana concert here, the percussionist was the star of the show.