Traditional music appeals to young people

Traditional music appeals to young people

Kadek Suartaya, Lecturer at Indonesia Arts Institute in Denpasar and
expert on Balinese traditional performing arts Gianyar, Bali

Any time the Balinese celebrate big religious rituals, the
sound of their baleganjur traditional gamelan orchestra fills the
air.

Dozens of people play baleganjur before Nyepi (the Hindu day
of Silence), Ngaben (cremation rituals) or even at a more secular
celebration like the nation's Independence Day.

Local banjar (traditional villages) in some regencies, like
Gianyar, Tabanan and Denpasar, even hold gamelan competitions to
raise people's interest in this music.

And the passion and creativity of the players have rejuvenated
the age-old gamelan, changing it into an appealing performing
art.

During the performance, gamelan players are required to
display both music and dance skills, exhibiting a perfect blend
of expressive dance movements and harmonious music.

The development of baleganjur gamelan can be traced back to
Prakempa, centuries-old palm leaf inscriptions on traditional
Balinese gamelan. According to these inscriptions, baleganjur
gamelan was also called ketug bumi gamelan.

Etymologically, baleganjur consists of two Balinese words,
bala and ganjur. Bala means "troops" while ganjur means
"walking" or "moving". It was believed that baleganjur gamelan
was originally intended to be war music but in the course of its
history, it was played as a musical accompaniment for a myriad of
traditional and religious ceremonies.

In terms of musical instruments, baleganjur is a percussion
orchestra dominated by instruments like gongs, reong (small
gongs), kendang (drums) and ceng-ceng (cymbals).

A baleganjur gamelan group usually comprises 25 to 40
musicians and dancers.

During a performance, twin drums (kendang) dominate the
orchestra's sound and rhythm, serving as opening music and
determining the pitch, tempo and rhythm of the entire orchestra.

Ceng-ceng are also a significant musical instrument, which
enriches the music with a powerful and rhythmic beat, thus
creating a very distinctive sound.

Just like other Balinese gamelan, baleganjur also emphasizes
kotekan, interlocking figuration play. The interlayered sound
produced by lanang-wadon kendang (male and female drums), along
with dozens of ceng-ceng instruments, creates a harmonious tone.
At the same time, reong instruments, played by four players to
six players, create melodious sounds.

The popularity of baleganjur as a traditional, performed art
form started in the l980s.

It was the Adi Merdangga marching band from the Denpasar-based
Indonesia Arts Institute (STSI) that popularized this type of
gamelan orchestra for the first time. The group, set up in l984,
actually helped to modify and modernize this traditional form of
performed art by, among other things, producing innovative
musical compositions.

As a result, attractive performances by the Adi Merdangga
marching band attracted the younger generation. Since then, there
have been increasing numbers of marching bands and baleganjur
gamelan groups.

Each banjar, plus schools and universities regularly hold
baleganjur competitions. There are changes here and there. Some
groups modify the musical composition and choreography for dance
while others enrich the sound of each instrument.

Noted composers, like I Wayan Windha, I Wayan Rai and Ketut
Gede Asnawa, have frequently been invited to the United States,
Canada and some European countries to teach baleganjur.