From Issue 2

Album Review: Nunas Taksu by Gamelan Singamurti

I Dewa Made Suparta

Nunas Taksu by Gamelan Singamurti
Nunas Taksu (Seeking Guidance), released by Insitu Recordings in 2018, features works by Singapore-based composers Rosemainy and Zachary Chan. The album includes four compositions that reflect a creative blending of different music cultures—both in terms of timbre and concepts. Cello, clarinet, and voice have been combined with gamelan instruments closely-tuned to the Western scale–a more recent phenomenon in Bali—allowing for a unified sound. The compositions of Rosemainy and Chan work well together. Their overall sound combines a meditative Javanese aesthetic with Balinese rhythmic and Western harmonic concepts. Out of the four pieces on this album however, it is Rosemainy’s composition Liku-Liku that sounds most Balinese. Similar to other gamelan outside Bali that incorporate Western instruments, Singamurti’s primary focus appears to be experimenting with harmony.
 
This first album showcases the group’s ability to both play and compose traditional repertoire, like the first track (Liku-Liku), as well as their interest in exploring more contemporary works. The quality of the recording is superb and the balance between instruments is good; however, it would be interesting to hear these pieces played on a full set of gamelan with the cello and clarinet doubled to exploit the paired tuning of gamelan. This would enrich the overall sound. Throughout the album, the composers have used other techniques to add richness—in particular with multiple layers of voices entering at unexpected moments, varying the same melodic line in different ways. More virtuosic passages would have been welcome—solo sections, or alternating group solos, for example, between the clarinet and reyong. As a listener curious about different musics and interested in a deeper understanding of world music traditions as well as blending them with Western musical concepts and instruments, it would have been helpful to have more detailed liner notes. This would have given more insight into the composition, rehearsal, and performance processes. Overall, Nunas Taksu is accessible to listeners unfamiliar with gamelan while remaining satisfying to those of us that have been listening to gamelan music for a long time now.

Liku-liku [Rosemainy]

In this work, composer Rosemainy experiments by mixing concepts and features from Balinese gamelan with those from other music cultures. In the opening section kebyar-inspired unison attacks follow a slow melodic prelude. In addition to the use of typical Balinese gamelan techniques, such as interlocking, layers of melody and elaboration, and angsel rhythms heard at the beginning, a rhythm resembling a West African bell pattern (or timeline) is played on the kajar for several cycles. At particular moments of the piece angsel rhythms are articulated by progressively shortening a pattern in a way that is similar to the North Indian tihai. Although the composition often conforms to what is expected in Balinese gamelan, the composer occasionally discards certain conventions, particularly the traditional approach to melodic contour and harmony. She instead ornaments on stepwise descending pitches and “moving” reyong ‘chords’ that harmonize the melodic tones (rather than playing a fixed unison “byong”). In the final minutes of the piece, typical rhythmic features including binary subdivisions and avoiding the downbeat are discarded. Instead, the ugal subdivides the beat into three and is supported by the kendang which accents the downbeat. A final observation to note about the timbre is an overall staccato-like sound. In essence, consecutive pitches do not resonate long enough before being dampened. Although it is unclear whether this is intentional, it suits the composition well. In this work, the composer successfully combines both traditional and more contemporary Balinese gamelan styles with other music concepts in a way that resembles an overall Balinese aesthetic.

Empunya [Zachary Chan]

Empunya is through-composed in the style of Balinese kreasi baru and features an interesting blend of timbres between the cello, clarinet, gamelan, and voice. The piece begins with a reyong solo introducing the first portion of a larger 22-beat cycle based on an 8+8+6 gong pattern that repeats three times. Cello, clarinet and the entire gamelan enter after a note played by the ugal. Here the composer begins his exploration of timbres with all of the instruments apart from the voice. In terms of Balinese gamelan harmonic “rules”, the combination of pitches resembling D3, F3#, C4#, played by the clarinet, cello, and reyong respectively, sound strange but blend beautifully. The reyong then plays an 11-beat (3+3+3+1+1) melodic cycle that seems to support the sparser melodic lines of the clarinet and voice. At moments these three timbres meet sounding either the Balinese ngempat harmony (G# and C#) or minor C# chord. In addition to the timbral explorations mentioned above, the composer also makes use of Balinese music concepts including oncangoncangankotekan nyogcag, and modulation from selisir (C# D E G# A B) to selendro (C# E F# A B) mode. Empunya is a work that needs multiple careful listenings to reveal its many layers of complexity.

Nunas Taksu [Rosemainy]

Nunas Taksu narrates the action of praying for taksu (charisma often related to performance or other important activities). In this piece, a listener, particularly one familiar with ritual life on Bali, can imagine the unfolding of events during the activity of praying at a temple. A meditative feeling is created through a careful selection of timbral combinations. The reyong plays a slow sparse rhythmic pattern similar to that heard in Japanese Noh using two pitches that function like the ketuk kempyang in traditional Javanese gamelan. A Javanese-like gong pattern plays in the background contributing to this overall feeling of calm and quiet in preparation for prayer. The composer selects jegogan and calung pitches that combine together with the gongs to create a “shuddering” effect — seeming to reflect the progression of events as one attempts to connect with the other world. In the middle section of the piece, a conversation-like interaction occurs between the kendang and cello.  Shortly after, beautiful melodic singing fills the space with happiness—this climactic moment is the most memorable part of the piece. In the final moments, an electronic sound effect is heard. This stark sonic contrast seems unrelated to the rest of the piece; however, it is bridged and unified by a solo male voice. In this work the composer experiments with multiple timbres and for the most part beautifully blends Javanese-like sonorities with unique vibrato created by a particular selection of pitches played on the cello and gamelan instruments.

Song for… [Rosemainy]

In Song for…, the minor mode, andante tempo and unchanging dynamic range together create a haunting feeling that aptly reflects the work’s title. This composition features gamelan and clarinet. Here the composer seems to be exploring ways in which both the gamelan and clarinet may complement each other. Rather than making use of essential Balinese music features, the composer experiments with other ways in which these instruments can combine musically. Instead of instrumental parts complementing each other by interlocking in traditional Balinese kotekan, they ornament or complete each other’s melodic line. Sometimes the clarinet plays a leading melodic role which is ornamented or completed by the gamelan. At other times, the gamelan plays the dominant melody which is ornamented or completed by the clarinet. Furthermore, the composer exploits the timbre created by paired tuning and the blending of the gamelan with the clarinet. In some parts, the Balinese melodic instruments (jegogan and calung) often play different notes in close range at the same time creating an ombak (wave or beating) unlike what is typically heard in Balinese music.
 
Overall this album contains many interesting ideas. The composers’ efforts to create innovative works that combine the clarinet, cello, and human voice with Balinese gamelan is applauded! In a follow-up album, I would like to hear Singamurti draw more from specific temporal elements characteristic of Balinese music, such as kotekan and dramatic shifts in tempo. I would be interested to hear how these elements might push their works in new and different directions.
 

I Dewa Made Suparta

Listen to Nunas Taksu here:

You can learn more about Gamelan Singamurti and Gamelan Asmaradana here:

About the author(s)

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I Made Dewa Suparta (Super)

I Dewa Made Suparta is a musician, composer, and teacher. Founding member of Gamelan Çudamani, an innovative ensemble based in Bali, Indonesia, Dewa has toured internationally. He has directed the Balinese gamelan ensemble at l’Université de Montréal and Montreal’s Gamelan Giri Kedaton in Canada, and has been invited as a guest artist across North America. Artist-in-residence at Conrad Grebel University College, University of Waterloo, he teaches courses in Balinese music, culture, and composition, and is the artistic director of the UWaterloo Balinese Gamelan and Grebel Community Gamelan.

People and organizations mentioned in this article

Zach Chan

As a general statement, Zachary (b.1990) loves to make things. For his day job, he runs a graphic design studio in Singapore with two other collaborators. He loves gamelan music and has been participating in various gamelan activities on an amateur level for the past 6 years, this includes noodling around with writing music on occasion. He has various interests that completely takes over his attention from time to time, the most recent being Riichi Mahjong.
Singapore

Rosemainy

Rosemainy is a gamelan musician, composer and educator. Traditionally trained in gamelan for the past 10 years, Rose looks forward to creating and collaborating with other art forms and practitioners. Fueled by the philosophy of gamelan, in which establishing a relationship between the musician and the music requires more than hitting the right notes, Rose aspires to ascend towards rasa – the highest form of aesthetics in karawitan.
Singapore

Releases mentioned in this article

© Insitu Recordings 2018