Symposium – Faszination Gamelan

1.Tag: Samstag, 9. Juni 2018

10.00 Uhr

Dr. András Varsányi (München)

Cara Bali – like Balinese?

Before finishing his studies in orchestral percussion in 1977, András Varsányi took the suggestion of Karl Peinkofer, his teacher at the Musikhochschule München, and went to Bali. His very first experience witnessing a live Balinese gamelan – one that accompanied a real trance-dance – left a stunning impression. He began studies of Balinese music, which led to broader ethnomusicological research and then to the field of musical instrument construction and development. These studies affected not only his perception of music in general but also fundamental ideas of ensemble playing and music instruction. Throughout, the most basic question – "Why are we studying [the music of] other cultures?" – remained in the background. In this symposium, he presents a very

personal answer to his intention to establish the balinese group Cara Bali in Munich.

10.30 Uhr

Dr. Henrice Vonck (Amsterdam)

Balinese gamelan in the Netherlands: A tale of two countries

I have been involved in the performance, teaching and furthering of Balinese gamelan in the Netherlands for over 30 years now. In the last 10 years, I also became involved in the preservation of traditional gamelan in north Bali, Buleleng.

In all these years it has not become easier to succesfully maintain a thriving gamelan group, which depends completely on the personal efforts of a few dedicated people. Venues have disappeared and the financial support for non-western music from the government with it. Based on experiences of the past, I will sketch a future for a thriving (Balinese) gamelan scene in the Netherlands, which can only be build in close cooperation between two countries: the kingdom of the Netherlands and the Republic Indonesia.

11.00 Uhr

Dr. Gilbert Stöck (Leipzig)

Gamelan in Leipzig – establishing a Transcription Library for Gamelan Music

Musical editions for rare or endangered sources were in common in musicological studies since the late 19th century (so called „Denkmälerausgaben“). The idea was born to consider possibilities of collecting also music outside our western music culture, especially Balinese Gamelan Music, music which could also disappear, for instance, when elder gurus will pass away. Almost allgamelan leaders have some transcription of composition laying down in dark drawers or other “mystical” places.

I would like to initiate a research project, perhaps in Lübeck, perhaps in Munich, or elsewhere, to realize the task of such musical edition. Initially this project needs money, certainly, perhaps with some help of organisations as the “Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft”. Secondly we should choose members for an editorial board (to consider basic questions), and then to produce transcriptions in order to published them in the World Wide Web. Our aim could be a broad collection of Gamelan compositions. Therefore gurus all over the world can choose these compositions in order to teach their groups and to amplify their musical horizon."

11.30 Uhr

Andy Channing (London)

Balinese Gamelan in London: a personal history

Andy Channing has been teaching and performing Balinese and Javanese gamelan throughout Europe since 1991 and has been instrumental in establishing and developing Balinese gamelan in London. This is a personal history of that development.

12.00 Uhr

Andreas Herdy (Hildesheim)

Gender Wayang – Hope, Disenchantment, Discovery

Spotlighting some key events of 35 years as a German Gender Wayang player and teacher. The study of one of the most complex and virtuoso Gender Wayang style finally leads to a new understanding of teaching and learning even in different musical contexts.

-- Mittagspause –

13.30 Uhr

Prof. Dr.h.c. Peter-Michael Hamel (Aschau)

Music from the Morning of the World

• Memories of David Lewiston (+ 2017)
• Gamelan in West-Berlin 1969/70,
• Balijava for prepared piano, 1971,
• Meeting with Ton de Leeuw, Holland, 1975
• Meeting with Lou Harrison, Berkeley, 1981

14.00 Uhr

Wayne Vitale (San Francisco)

Collaborative Composition in Gamelan

The presenter, as a performer, composer, and arts administrator in the field of Balinese music, but also as someone immersed in Western music performance practice, reflects on the nature of intradisciplinary collaboration. Collaborating as composers in a single work presents particular challenges – some common to any intradisciplinary collaboration, some unique to musical ones, others culturally based. In this presentation he explores conceptual issues, interactive challenges, and unexpected inspirations of composing collaboratively, with an emphasis on those particular to current gamelan performance practice.

14.30 Uhr

Made Arnawa (Tunjuk)

Overview of Sekaa Gong Taruna Mekar Tunjuk

Sekaa Gong Taruna Mekar Tunjuk was formed in 1968 by I Made Tika and I Wayan Radin. As one of the next generation, I feel immensely fortunate for the group's creation since it has made me what I am today. Of course, there already existed a gamelan group in our village which fulfilled the ritual needs of religious ceremony and local law (adat). It was simply called Sekaa Gong Tunjuk. Now, with Taruna Mekar, we have a group which maintains this ceremonial and religious repertoire, but also plays pieces in the modern kebyar style.

15.00 Uhr

Prof. Dieter Mack (Lübeck)

A Composer with Bi-Cultural Life Experience

After being exposed to Balinese Gamelan, it might be noted that I fully stopped to compose electronic music. My social behavior changed and so did many other things. However, it never appealed to me to apply Balinese music language in my composition. Besides, Machault, Mozart, Ravel and Frank Zappa have continued to be my guidelines. It was necessary to discover my own personal culture, while Balinese music probably had its strongest influence in the playing situation that I favored in my music, including a certain fondness for sharp contrasts and metallic sounds.

15.30 Uhr Ende 1. Tag Symposium – Faszination Gamelan

Gangsa (Metallophon), findet in der balinesischen Musik Verwendung; Bildquelle: Jörg Huhmann

Symposium – Faszination Gamelan

2.Tag: Sonntag 10. Juni 2018

10.00 Uhr

Catherine Basset (Paris)

Field and mental experiences revolutioning theory, pedagogy, philosophy

Having start to play the gamelan without learning, directly jumped in as a member of someBalinese groups during rituals and performances in the 1980’s, I soon realized that my background of Western classical music and musicology was only a handicap. So I played my jegogan parts by guessing it and without memorizing anything. Being able to play it like a robot, I got time to observe the rituals or performances while playing. Then I leaved music and threw away musicology, for reviving old traditions and local groups, for the staging of dramatic performances and for a more holistic anthropology, totalizing now 12 years of fieldwork from 1982 until 2016. Today in France, we too, i.e several groups of Balinese and Javanese gamelan, becoming one big movement with all the Indonesian dancers living here, begin to work in the direction of the «théâtre total».

Struggling against the use of any kind of score to learn and play, and against the westernized theory of gamelan used in the Indonesian academies and abroad, I created a geometrical concentric notation of gamelan music. By the way it appeared that the cosmological mandala or (kala)cakra is the fundamental structure of music (2003). Since mandala is holistic, and because the initiatic tantrical knowledge (secretly) founds and explains the cultures of a wide Asia, I try to open the minds to this way of thinking and feeling, endangered by the universalization of the western structuration of mind.

10.30 Uhr

Dr. Helen Loth (London)

Creative Uses of Gamelan and Music Therapy

I have been playing various genres of Gamelan in a range of settings and countries for over 35 years, and it has become the dominant feature of my musical, and to some extent, social life. Working as a music therapist for almost as long, the music has influenced my clinical improvisations and led me to consider the therapeutic aspects of gamelan playing. I will presentsome outcomes from my doctoral research into the creative uses of gamelan with people who have a range of special needs, and describe a music therapy project which utilised Balinese Angklung instruments.

11.00 Uhr

Dr. Kendra Stepputat (Graz)

"Oh, you are not a Balinese?" – performing gamelan as a German

If organizers in Europe ask a group to perform such an 'exotic' music as Balinese gamelan, they often have visual expectations as well. No matter how open-minded and liberal an organizer, the idea that a group is more authentic if they /look/ Balinese, is fixed in many heads - sometimes in our own as well. While this can be frustrating for a performer, it is most interesting for a researcher: What goes on in our heads? Why are we biased? Does an unaccustomed audience really need costumes more than sound quality? In my presentation I will share some personal experiences both from Bali and Germany, and give some insights into the phenomenon from an ethnomusicological perspective.

11.30 Uhr

Elizabeth Davis (Lissabon)

My work with the gamelan and it`s relevance in todays society in Portugal

An elaboration of my personal perspective and experience with Gamelan, specifically the Javanese gamelan. The introduction of Gamelan in Portugal, the creation of Gamelan groups and ist beneficial influences in education, social and therapeutic work, composition and performance. The importance of fusions and intercultural connections and exchanges. The creation of a specific notation, enabling the simultaneous fusion between western and Gamelan scales and notation.

12.00 Uhr

Robert Campion (London)

Guiding composers into the unknown

Whilst studying composition at university I first came into contact with Javanese gamelan. I have now been studying and playing gamelan for over 30 years and have incorporated it into my own compositions. Recently my focus has been on how to encourage western composers who are not gamelan players to take on what seems like a daunting task: composing for gamelan. I will present some experiences of working with western composers as a commissioner, composer and player.

-- Mittagspause –

13.30 Uhr

Sinta Wullur (Amsterdam)

The development of the chromatic gamelan in Netherland

In this presentation of sharing my experiences in the world of gamelan in the west, I focus on my chromatic gamelan projects. As a composer my aim is to make a connection between the traditional gamelan musical idiom and the western classical music. To get enough experiences in gamelan playing I learned Javanese gamelan in Holland, Balinese gamelan in Bali and set up a Balinese gamelan group in Amsterdam in 1984. After I realised that western instruments are not suitable for the typical gamelan structure and patterns, I developed the chromatic gamelan and made contemporary music and musical theatre projects. I will show fragments of productions

where the gamelan instruments blend wonderful with western instruments and Indian instruments in universal compositions.

14.00 Uhr

Iwan Gunawan

A New Aproach to Tuning Systems in Javanese Music

In 2010 I was commissioned to re-arrange Six Marimbas by Steve Reich for Javanese gamelan. Adapting Western well-tempered tuning systems into pelog and selendro made for some interesting discoveries. I brought these new approaches to Javanese tuning into my next compositions. In this presentation I will discuss the process, using examples from LIGHT, a collaborative work with LeineRoebana Dance Company in the Netherlands.

14.30 Uhr

Aafke De Jong

In(do)spiration in dance

Dancer, choreographer and researcher Aafke de Jong from The Netherlands shares some insights about how she implements aspects of Balinese dance, music and culture into her choreographic work. After graduating from a western dance academy (Codarts, Rotterdam) she lived in Bali for five years to study the local dance technique. Also she studied Indonesian languages and cultures at Leiden University and graduated with a thesis on developments within the Balinese court dance genre Legong Keraton. Back in Europe she created her own dance ensemble for Balinese dance, named DwiBhumi, and also started creating new work. De Jong likes to work together with artists

from other art genres, liks musicians, composers, visual artists, fashion designers, writers and puppeteers. Different forms of contemporary gamelan find their way into her creations. De Jong has been collaborating with composers like Iwan Gunawan (Java, Indonesia), Krishna Sutedja (Bali, Indonesia) and Sinta Wullur (The Netherlands).

15.00 Uhr

Dewa Ketut Alit

Influence of Notation on Balinese Gamelan Composition

As a Balinese composer and musician since the late-1980s, I have seen clear influences of Western music in Balinese music. Among them, the most interesting influence is how the idea of writing and using score or notation when composing can change the result and development of the music. I would like to talk about it with examples of my own works and experience.

15.30 Uhr Ende Symposium – Faszination Gamelan