KPFA-FM Music Dept. ➔ In-studio Concert by Gamelan Sekar Jaya (July 4, 1980), 2 of 3

Analog Audio

Event Type

Interview and Music

Origin

KPFA

Identifier

AM.1980.07.04.B

Program Length

138 min

Part

2 of 3

Dates

1980-07-04 | broadcast
| 1980-07-04 | created

Description

Charles Amirkhanian introduces members of San Francisco’s sensational Balinese music ensemble, Gamelan Sekar Jaya (Flowering Success), founded in 1979 under the direction of Balinese composer I Wayan Suweca and American Michael Tenzer. Included in this live, in-studio July 4, 1980 concert is a composition by I Wayan Suweca entitled “The Love of Art”, composed in difficult, non-metric rhythms with virtuosic solos for each of the three main instrument groups, gendaran (metalophones), reong (row of tuned gongs), and kendang (drums). Tenzer also takes time to demonstrate the various tuning systems and different instrumental groups that are part of this gamelan. According to Tenzer, “Balinese gamelan music (to simplify things drastically) is governed by two basic principles: Colotomy, that which governs the horizontal (i. e. existence in time) aspect of the music, and the stratification, that which governs the vertical (i. e. moment to moment structure). Colotomically, gongs punctuate the melody lines to delineate a characteristic form of one kind or another. The music is “stratified: in that the higher the pitch of the instrument, the more complex the music it is called upon to play. These co-exisiting simple and difficult parts are in actuality all playing different variation on the same nuclear theme. At the most intricate level are the gangsas and reong, which play interlocking figuration ornamenting the 15-key gender’s melody. Other instruments support the gender in one way or another, and the drums control the entire group with various cues and tempo changes.”

- notes from KPFA Folio and Concert Program Guide

Genres

World music

Musical Selections

[demonstration of tuning systems, kotekan (”interlocking parts”), and structural aspects] (3:00) -- Sekar Gendot (8:32) -- Legong Kraton (21:28) -- Gender Wayang (4:19) -- Bunga Gugur (”Falling Flower Petals”) (9:44) / I Wayan Suweca [world premiere)

Performers

Sekar Jaya:
I Wayan Suweca
Rucina Ballinger
Janet Blair
Rachel Cooper
Eileen Corder
Larry Cox
Jim Finck
Toni Hilsinger
Jim Hogan
Maddie Hogan
Steve Johnson
Mindy Klein
Andy Kaye
Debbie Lloyd
Tessa Morone
Zac Morrison
Mudita Nisker
Nick Robinson
Abby Rose
Ann Stebinger
Michael Tenzer
Wayne Vitale
Evan Ziporyn

Subjects

World music
Gamelan music

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