This research aims at investigating a distinctive playing technique observed

Transcription

1 This research aims at investigating a distinctive playing technique observed in North Bali during performances of ceremonial music on the gamelan gong 1, the large orchestra featuring metallophones, suspended gongs and gong chimes all tuned to pentatonic pélog scale, drums and cymbals. Contrary to what is commonly acknowledged in literature (McPhee 1966: 162; Tenzer 2000: 133), here interlocking patterns (kotekan) played by the main elaborating sub sections of the orchestra are not predetermined beforehand by an ensemble leader or a composer, but are rather conceived extempore by each musician, with minimal pre established coordination 2. This is what we have termed spontaneous interlocking. This practice implies that a musician s training not only involves mastering instrumental technique, but also the acquisition of a special sort of knowledge which will allow him to make proper choices regarding pattern formation syntax. It is this knowledge the rules guiding the decision making process that we first aim to probe in this research. These rules will define the range of all acceptable patterns. Secondly, wishing to bridge idea and reality, it 1 Here we prefer to avoid the equally applicable term gamelan gong kebyar, for this study is not directly concerned with kebyar music, the secular repertoire par excellence of the last hundred years. 2 Gray 2011 also notices a similar phenomenon in the domain of Balinese shadow theater music (gender wayang).

2 proposes to assess the degree to which musicians conform to the rules in actual performance. Background, terminology and method The repertoire in which spontaneous interlocking has been observed, commonly known as tabuh tua or gending tua ( old pieces ), is dedicated to accompany the many temple ceremonies occurring on a regular basis in every North Balinese village. It is comprised of various types of pieces, some featuring extended multipart forms and spanning 15 to 20 minutes or more, others limited to a single 32 beat melody cycled over and over. Whatever the type of piece, the interlocking process remains similar throughout the whole repertoire. As with all Balinese music, the layered musical structure including interlocking figuration is dependent on a core melody played by a leading instrument (trompong gong chime). An abstraction of this melody (called pokok, trunk ) is sounded by two calung metallophones at two beat intervals (see figure 1). Among the instrumental sections that feature interlocking, we will focus on the group of eight gangsa (ten keyed metallophones) 3. It is divided into two halves, one being assigned to the polos, the mainly commetric part closely 3 More precisely, the gangsa group is comprised of four gangsa pemade, plus four gangsa kantilan sounding exactly one octave higher.

3 following the pokok, while the other is allotted to the sangsih, the contrametric part conceived to complement the polos. Amid the various kotekan styles developed in Bali (see Tenzer 2000: ), Northern ceremonial music almost exclusively make use of the one called nyog cag, in which the polos plays every duple subdivisions of the beat whereas the sangsih fills the gaps in between (ibid.: 214) (see figure 1). Figure 1: nyog cag interlocking pattern and corresponding pokok tones Pattern analysis will be focused on the two beat unit delimited by pokok tones. Also, one of the concepts structuring this study is the Balinese analytical dichotomy ngubeng/majalan, which characterizes melodic movement in various layers (ibid.: ). The term ngubeng connotes stasis and stability while majalan, on the contrary, movement and progression (ibid.: 178). Applied to the limited scale considered in this analysis, ngubeng designates a pattern which begins and end on the same pokok tone (such as in figure 1); a pattern which

4 ends on a different tone than the starting one is therefore majalan. Also note that depending on the range they cover, their inner melodic movement, and other characteristics, patterns in themselves can also be qualified as ngubeng or majalan, regardless of the core melody s movement. Syntactic rules have been investigated through direct approval/rejection, by musicians, of a wide range of ngubeng and majalan patterns submitted to them by way of computer simulation. For investigation of in context practice, we have resorted to transcriptions based on field video recordings of ceremonial performances. Findings: brief overview Rules governing pattern syntax are few, therefore allowing for a very wide range of possibilities. Some are common to both predetermined and spontaneous interlocking, while others are specific to the latter. Transcriptions of in context recordings show that in common practice musicians often seem to deliberately ignore the rules. Searching for the underpinnings behind this contradiction, we must turn to broader considerations of social context and individual aesthetic preferences. These aspects influence the actual practice and the way it is assessed in local musician s discourses.

5 Sources Gray, Nicholas Improvisation and Composition in Balinese Gendér Wayang. Farnham: Ashgate. McPhee, Colin Music in Bali: A Study in Form and Instrumental Organization in Balinese Orchestral Music. New Haven: Yale University Press. Tenzer, Michael Gamelan Gong Kebyar: The Art of Twentieth Century Balinese Music. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.