Indonesia guest of honor at Paris' Festival of Music

Indonesia guest of honor at Paris' Festival of Music

By Kunang Helmi Picard

PARIS (JP): It has become a "nouvelle tradition" here that the
summer's solstice be celebrated by the Festival of Music. Despite
this year's reluctance to actually produce summer temperatures
and blue skies, 1995 is the 14th year in which the capital has
swung to lilting melodies, or pounding rhythms, spanning the 20
arrondissements of the city and leaving daily woes far behind.

During the festival, it is impossible to travel by car as
roads are transformed into impromptu concert halls. Meanwhile,
all existing concert halls, auditoriums, cafes and restaurants
are filled by various, and widely varying music groups. The
selection ranges from rap and ethnic music from all over the
world to French provincial and traditional chants, and from
formal to frankly informal. The choice is overwhelming. Obviously
nobody can enjoy all of the musical temptations, but at least
everybody can find something to their taste. They can even
participate actively and make music themselves.

The festival's logistics are centralized in the vast, modern
spaces of the Cite de la Musique (National Music Academy) where
this year's guest of honor is Indonesia with its five-day long
celebration "Java-Paris-Bali". Opened on the same day as the
festival of music, the celebration commenced with the launching
of Catherine Basset's new partial introduction to the immense
world of Indonesian music, Musiques de Bali a Java et la Fete
attended by Indonesian ambassador Wiryono and his wife, together
with the Indonesian community.

The book is published in the series Musiques du Monde, a co-
edition of the Cite de la Musique and the publishers Actes-Sud.
Basset takes the reader on a musical journey through the gamelan
music of Bali, Java and Sunda, which has so intrigued western
composers and musicologists such as Claude Debussy and Georges
Asperghis. The book is accompanied by a compact disk of a choice
of gamelan music. Basset remarked: "I actually went to Indonesia
to follow some Indian musicians from India to Bali but then I
stayed six years because I love the music, and not only of Bali,
also of Java and Sunda. It is as simple as that!"

Later visitors listened to the Cite de la Musique's gamelan
orchestra practicing in the hall under the expert supervision of
Isabelle Carre. The students of all three levels obviously had
fun singing the traditional sindenan and gerongan music and
playing the gamelan to the great satisfaction of those present.

Then, after enjoying a wide range of Indonesian snacks, music
fans stormed the free places in the huge auditorium to witness
the rehearsal of the performance scheduled for the end of June.
Dancers of Puri Taman Saba and gamelan musicians of the famed
gong kebyar of Pinda in Bali, performed Liar Samas, Jobog, Tjak
Solo, Barong, Semarandana and Topeng under the guidance of dancer
and choreographer I Gusti Ngurah Serama and his 80-year-old
father.

Noted contemporary composer Georges Asperghis stayed in Bali
four times between 1985 and 1995 essentially studying the musical
tradition of Saba and incorporating it in his works. Coming from
the world of theater music, Asperghis inevitably stumbled upon
the percussion of Bali together with three percussionists of the
Trio Le Cercle and three productions ensued in Bali, in Avignon
and in Marseille. Inspired by the role of demons in Bali, he
sought to relate it to the story of Faust searching for eternal
life and concluding a pact with the devil for eternal youth, thus
Faust and Rangda was born a few years ago. In this special
version commissioned by the Cite de la Musique, the Balinese
dancers performed alone without French actors as in the original
version in Avignon and Marseille seven years ago. The text was
written by Christophe Husman and the music score by George
Asperghis.

Briefly the synopsis of this joint East-West production is
that God and Satan make a bet about Faust. Mephisto is sure that
he is damned and God is certain that Faust's soul will be saved.
Faust, in his old age realizes that he has not learned anything,
that he has not helped humanity and that he is sure to die before
accomplishing anything. It is then that the spirit of Earth
appears in the form of a young Balinese female dancer who revives
his enthusiasm for life. The Barong then enters and Mephisto
leaps out of his huge belly and tempts Faust. Rangda, the goddess
of evil makes her appearance and concludes a pact with Faust, his
youth for the price of his soul. Faust transformed into a young
Balinese man now appears on the scene and discovers the young
girl. Faust continues to enjoy life even when Mephisto tells him
that his time is up. The Barong and Rangda fight over Faust. God
returns and saves Faust, the devil Mephisto has lost.

Questioned by noted French musicologist Francois Picard about
how he relates to Balinese music, Georges Asperhis answered:
"Since 1987 I had not really listened to Balinese music because I
had really 'swallowed' it excessively so that I took a rest and
now I listen to it differently. Now I have sufficient distance,
it has become as familiar as a concerto by Mozart and I can tell
what the Balinese will play next. Even though their music is not
written, it seems that it is so because it is so fixed in its
ways, hardly any improvisation occurs as in contemporary
occidental music. They have such powers of musical memory that
they can even find their way back into my music and enter
immediately into its spirit."

The sight of the three French percussionists in their formal
black and white tail-coats playing a huge battery of
extraordinary instruments amid the gamelan orchestra in their red
and gold traditional garb was indeed amazing. The experimental
music seemed to predominate the danced theater and captured the
audience's full attention.

The interest shown in the five-day celebration of Indonesia by
the French public is reflected in the increasing knowledge about
specific sectors of Indonesian culture sparked by such joint
cultural enterprises as Faust and Rangda. The performance of
Faust and Rangda was followed by two nights of Balinese wayang
kulit staging Sutasoma at the Sacred Mountain and the final
concert given by the students of the gamelan classes under
Isabelle Carre at the center marking another chapter in the 50
Years Celebration of Indonesian Independence in France.

Meanwhile, the exhibition Gold of the Archipelago at the Musee
Guimet is still drawing crowds of interested Parisians and will
continue until the end of July.