Gong Kebyar is the sound of northern Bali

Alit Kertaraharja, Contributor, Singaraja, North Bali

Not a single day passes in Bali without the sound of a gamelan orchestra.

The instruments of the gamelan produce unique sounds which accompany almost all traditional and religious ceremonies in Bali. Gamelan music is almost inseparable from the life of the Balinese.

The centuries-old gamelan music has gone through various changes and evolutions in accordance with the dynamic social and cultural developments that have taken place in Bali.

One of the more interesting gamelan styles is Gong Kebyar, which originated with the Lelongoran gamelan introduced in Bungkulan village, some 90 kilometers north of Denpasar, the provincial capital.

IGB Nyoman Panji, the former head of the Bali Conservatory, said Bungkulan village produced a peculiar gong called the Lelongoran, which became popular in l914.

This kind of gamelan was rooted in the Gong Gede, as the main source of every gamelan orchestra in Bali. Balinese music was previously dominated by the Gong Gede gamelan orchestra, which usually performed in palaces and grand temples. The smaller version was the gamelan gong, which belonged to villages' banjar (community centers).

Lelongoran, or Longor, is a special gamelan orchestra which plays the opening music for religious rituals or temple anniversaries.

"I do not understand the meaning of "longor" but it is seen as sacred by the local community here," he said.

I Gusti Gede Nyoman Panji was one of the initiators and promoters of the sacred longor. Like other Balinese gamelan orchestras, the music of the longor is 4/4 pentatonic. But the style is different, more dynamic and vigorous.

The longor tabuh was later developed into the Gong Kebyar gamelan orchestra.

Collin McPhee writes in his book Music in Bali l966 that the Gong Kebyar was first introduced in Bungkulan village in l914 and it spread to almost all of the villages in Buleleng regency by the early l930s.

The Gong Kebyar consists of four main instrumental groups. They are terompong (instruments consisting of inverted bronze pots struck by large sticks); the jublag and cengceng (bronze cymbal-like instruments); the kantil, kempul, bende, gong, kendang wadon and kendang lanang (a pair of drums referred to as female and male drums); the ugal and gangsa (ten-note xylophone- like instruments made of carved frame containing bamboo resonators). The musicians played the instruments in unison.

"In every village, we have our own music group (sekaha) and songwriters, each with a different style," recalled Nyoman Panji in his house in Bungkulan village.

In time, a number of gamelan groups developed the tabuh mebarung, in which a number of gamelan groups, including the sekaha Jagaraga, Bonthing and Banjar Asem, played together and showed of their distinctive and improvisational styles. Dances and songs often accompanied the performances.

The current Gong Kebyar was the creation of individual musicians in North Bali. The word "kebyar" was derived from byar, or biyar, meaning a sudden intense sound or flash of light. Gong Kebyar music is flashy, highly embellished and musically complex, full of sudden stops and starts.

In Bungkulan village, Gong Kebyar has been adapted from the sounds of various instruments that usually accompany the sacred baris dance, mask dances and sacred songs. The music has gone through various stages of evolution on the way to current sound.

The kebyar style of gamelan is often performed as an opener to the main music. For two or three minutes, the players improvise their music in the form of cecandetan, humorous sounds.

Gong Kebyar reached the height of its popularity in the early l930s. It was frequently performed during Ngaben, or cremation ceremonies. Only the rich could afford to hire a Gong Kebyar group. Therefore, hiring such a group to perform during a Ngaben was a good way to lift one's social status.

A Gong Kebyar group consist of at least 35 musicians and dozens of dancers. For a Ngaben, at least two or three groups are hired to perform for two or three consecutive days.

"The Ngaben was a perfect event for people to show off their wealth and social status," Panji reminisced.

When people were urged to simplify the Ngaben ceremony, the performances by the Gong Kebyar were also affected. Now, people tend to hire smaller groups of angklung or gambang music groups.

Outside of Buleleng regency, Gong Kebyar has experienced a great deal of development. In the arts village of Peliatan in Gianyar and in the Badung and Tabanan regencies, Gong Kebyar has been enriched and refined into a more sophisticated gamelan music.

In the southern part of Bali, Gong Kebyar is known as Kakul, and as Mongol in Tabanan. One artist from Tabanan, Mario, became famous for his Kebyar Duduk (the seated Kebyar) dance.

The dance was believed to have been inspired from the expressions of the Gong Kebyar. Dancers from southern Bali were often invited by Gong Kebyar groups in Buleleng to take part in their performances.

IG Ketut Simba, the coordinator of the North Bali Cultural Studies Center, said the Gong Kebyar was a true expression of the dynamic and energetic society of Buleleng regency, which in some ways differs from their neighbors in southern Bali.