|
Tabuh Pat Jagul © 1982 Traditional Balinese
Performed by The Gamelan Ensemble of STSI Denpasar
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
Song Lyrics |
|
|
This is an instrumental composition without lyrics |
| |
Song Credits |
|
Performance Credits
Reong: I Wayan Berata
Kendang: I Wayan Suweca
Kendang: I Wayan Rai
Ugal I: I Nyoman Windha
Ugal II: I Wayan Kartiana
Gangsa (Pemade): I Wayan Suharta
Gangsa (Pemade): I Made Arnawa
Gangsa (Pemade): Ida Bagus Nyoman Mas
Gangsa (Pemade): I Nyoman Sudiana
Gangsa (Kantilan): I Wayan Meder
Gangsa (Kantilan): I Wayan Gama Astawa
Gangsa (Kantilan): I Komang Sudirga
Gangsa (Kantilan): I Wayan Karyawan
Reong: I Ketut Partha
Trompong: I Wayan Berata
Reong: I Wayan Widia
Reong: I Dewa Gede Darmayasa
Penyacah: I Wayan Daria
Penyacah: I Nyoman Japa
Jublag: I Nyoman Tantra
Jublag: Dewa Ngakan Sudiana
Jegogan: I Wayan Winaja
Jegogan: I Gede Yudarta
Kempli: I Ketut Sudiarta
Kempur: I Wayan Wija
Gong: I Wayan Geria
Ceng-Ceng: Pande Widara
Ceng-Ceng Kopiak: Pande Mustika
Ceng-Ceng Kopiak: I Nyoman Suda
Ceng-Ceng Kopiak: I Gusti Made Oka
Ceng-Ceng Kopiak: I Wayan Mudana
Rebab: I Pande Astawa
Rebab: I Wayan Sanglah
Suling (Balinese Bamboo Flute): I Ketut Sudana
Suling (Balinese Bamboo Flute): I Nyoman Wiriatnyana
Suling (Balinese Bamboo Flute): I Ketut Darnata
Production Credits
Producer: I Wayne Vitale
Arranger: I Wayan Berata
Mastering Engineer: I Wayne Vitale at Fantasy Studios, Berkeley, CA
Mixing Engineer: I Wayne Vitale at STSI Campus, Denpasar, Bali
Recording Engineer: I Wayne Vitale at STSI Campus, Denpasar, Bali
On CD Release: "Music of the Gamelan Gong Kebyar, Vol. 1" (1996)
Artist/Performing Group: The Gamelan Ensemble of STSI Denpasar
|
|
Song Notes |
|
Tabuh Pat Jagul arranged by I Wayan Berata, 1984 (17:03) With Jagul we turn stylistically from explosive images of early Indonesian political turmoil to the expansive, elevated atmosphere of the Balinese temple. Littered with flower petals and incense sticks, overflowing with village crowds dressed in their colorful finest, crammed in its outer courtyards with vendors hawking their wares, selling everything from children's toys to coffee and sweets and shots of arak, the outdoor temples of Bali are a rich focal point of their culture. Within the temple walls can be found countless varieties of offerings, music and dance, theater, and recitation. Each temple is feted at least once every 210 days (= one Balinese year) with elaborate and festive ceremonies which may last several days. And for Balinese sensibilities, the sound of the gamelan runs like a spiritual beacon throughout the entire event. Usually seated in a special open pavilion (baM) in the next-to-inner courtyard (jaba tengah) of the temple, the gamelan musicians play instrumental pieces from a special body of ceremonial music known as tabuh letambatan-literally, "slow compositions." This is the true classical repertoire of the Balinese bronze gamelan, which evolved in these same temples over the past few centuries. The broad and stately architecture of lelambatan music, ranging in style from simple, unadorned, older renditions to the baroque complexity of modem kebyar-influenced arrangements, is considered an essential component of the ceremony. Tabuh Pat Jagul is one of its most lyrical representatives.
Lelambatan pieces were originally played on the massive bronze keys and gongs of the gamelan gong gede, the sacred gamelan orchestras of forty or more musicians that were predecessors to the newer kebyar ensembles. Though this gamelan is now rare, much of its repertoire continues to thrive and proliferate in modern orchestra] form, and has taken on many colors and techniques characteristic of the kebyar style. In fact, new lelambatan pieces have become a centerpiece of the yearly gamelan festival, in which groups face off in battle-ofthe-bands style competition before a panel of judges and huge crowds of passionately devoted fans. This transformation notwithstanding, I Nyoman Rembang, one of Bali's great masters and documentors of the lelambatan genre, finds that the music "retains its atmosphere of grandeur and nobility, and transports us back to the peacefulness of ancient times," even when played on a gong kebyar.
Lelambatan pieces are more explicitly architectural in structure than most other genres of Balinese music. All adhere to the basic structure of introduction (kawitan), main section (pengawak, and optional second part pengisep) and final section (pengecet), with the general progression from slower-paced, broader gong-periods (gongan) at the beginning to faster tempos and shorter cycles at the end.
But this basic outline would be an obvious formal mapping only in the oldest, most unadorned lelambatan styles. Over the past century, lelambatan forms have evolved in much the same way as sonata form in the hands of Beethoven and his contemporaries: through a tremendous "expansion from within". Each section has been elaborated with increasingly ornate interlocking figuration by the eight gangsa (the metallophones that carry most melodic material), the reong (row of 12 tuned gongs) and the two drums; each is preceded by ever more elaborate introductions and bridged by longer and more carefully workedout transitions. The result is new lelambatan pieces of extraordinary complexity on all levels of form, from the deepest background structure of core melody and gong punctuation to the foreground level of intricate surface detail.
Despite all this complexity, a glimpse of the most important central seetion-the pengawak, or body of the piece-reveals a great deal about the inner workings of Balinese musical forms. The key lies in the clear punctuation provided by three vertically suspended gongs of various sizes. To the Balinese ear they are important formal signposts in the musical flow, analogous in function to cadences in tonal music. Individual lelambatan pieces are categorized and named according to the exact number of phrases of equal length in the pengawak. Jagul, for example, is in the category tabuh pat, or "composition in four". This means that the pengawak has four kempur (medium gong) strokes and four kempli (small gong) strokes; the last of which coincides with the final deep pulse of the large gong. These kempur and kempli strokes are heard in alternation at the end of each 16-beat phrase.
Other categories of lelambatan form are tabuh pisan (composition in one), talmh dua (composition in two), tabuh telu (three), tabuh nem (six) and tabuh kutus (eight). Though the "odd" forms of tabuh lima and tabuh pitu (five and seven, respectively), as well as the gigantic tabuh roras (twelve) were notated by researcher/composer Colin McPhee in the 1930s, these are unknown to most modern musicians .6The sections that follow the pengawak are governed by similar structural principles, where the gongs articulate phrase endings, and characteristic kinds of melodic elaboration, drumming patterns, and orchestration define each part. A complete arrangement of a lelembatan piece presents a rich array of formal structures, embellishment, tempi, and dynamics, and may last a half hour or more. As ethnomusicologists are beginning to discover, the analogy to sonata form is more than superficial: A full description of the form's features and stylistic constraints would be akin in complexity to that of the weightiest 19th-century sonata.
One characteristic feature of lelambatan music is its use of the tromponga horizontal rack of ten small tuned gongs, played by a single musician. Herein lies an element of freedom and individual style in an otherwise strictly composed form, for the trompong player can interpret the steady succession of core (pokok) tones with a freely decorated, ringing melody. The trompong comes to the fore in the tranquil, ametric passage, known as a gineman, which opens Jagul. Here it is accompanied only by suling (flutes), rebab (bowed lute) and occasional bass tones from the twojegogan, before the composition proper begins. This recording offers a rare treat: The trompong player is none other than I Wayan Berata, who revived and rearranged the piece in the early 1980s. It had been played for many years by the gamelan orchestra in the puri (palace) of Pernecutan in Denpasar, and was almost lost to obscurity when Berata-whose grandfather was one of the palace musicians-revived it. Among several changes he made in the adaptation to modem kebyar ensemble, he added the oft-extracted drum variations (known thereafter simply as Jagul) that are featured in the final pengecet section of the piece.
-Wayne Vitale
October 12, 1996 |
|
Song Reviews |
|
| None |
|
Customers Who Bought This Song Also Bought |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Go to feedback form
