Gamelan orchestra star in Paris festival
By Kunang H. Picard
PARIS, France (JP): Parisians spanning all ages and walks of life will jostle with visitors this summer for 194 concerts in 20 arrandissements of the 11th "Fete de la Musique" which opened on June 21.
Everyone is invited to play music in the streets of the capital. Here one hears every strain, tune and instrument imaginable until the wee hours of the morning.
Strolling around is recommended because driving cars is never advisable -- unfortunately the traffic jams are always people, equally memorable.
Even representatives of that formidable group of people, the Parisian Concierge, cannot lodge official complaints about the loud music or the noise of honking cars.
From classic to jazz, from folklore to world music, all shades of mood, style and expression of the human voice and musical instruments fill the air.
A symbol of peace, liberty and equality, the annual festival was started in 1982 by Director of Music Maurice Fleuret.
Minister for Culture Jacques Toubon has strongly urged all professional players to participate in the open air concerts - witnessing, for example, the Orchestra of Paris at the Place de la Concorde.
A lucky few were invited to the musical reception at the Ministry of Culture for a classical evening of Brahms. An even luckier few were invited by President Mitterand to attend a pop concert starring Julien Clerc in the courtyard of the Elysee Palace.
Gamelan
The truly musically inclined attended either one of the two concerts given by the gamelan orchestra of the state conservatory of music, otherwise known as the City of Music of Paris.
The concerts were given in the entrance hall of this modern gem of architecture designed by Christian de Portzxamparc.
The skilled and fluent use of the instruments by the players impressed the auditors -- the performers had only commenced their study of gamelan six months ago.
The second performance was broadcast directly by Radio France Musique.
The other gamelan orchestra in France is that of the Indonesian Embassy directed by Putu Diasa which has been in existence for over ten years and is hugely popular.
Six months ago the French National Conservatory of Music installed Isabelle Carre as director of their new gamelan course. Carre who has an English father and a French mother studied music at York University from 1981 to 1984 under the renowned ethnomusicologist Neil Sorrell.
Pioneer gamelan player Sorrell helped found the over 20 gamelan orchestras established in Great Britain.
Carre herself has been teaching gamelan at the South bank Center in London since 1987, besides continuing her career as a concert flutist.
The gamelan pupils here, as in Java, start by learning to play each of the instruments from the metallophones and gongs to the gendang drum. They learn to follow the rhythm and melody by memorizing through repeated listening to the main musical reference points of each piece.
Apprenticeship is based essentially on listening to the music, repeating the gestures and singing the melodies.
Isabelle Carre's pupils include one Javanese, Wilma Margono who is thrilled at being able to learn here after work-hours. Wilma's 90-year-old grandmother still takes care of the family's gamelan near Probolinggo, East Java, and is very pleased that her granddaughter, married to a Frenchman, is carrying on the family tradition so far away from home.