Friday night the Hopkins Center brought "Planet Gamelan" to Spaulding auditorium. It was the third annual production of the festival of gamelan music combining the performances of three separate gamelan groups.
Gamelan is a type of music which originated on the Indonesian islands of Bali and Java. The philosophy that governs gamelan is one of group unity. All the instruments for a single gamelan group are made, decorated, tuned and played together and are almost never played separately.
The instruments are all housed together in the location where the gamelan players meet. For the players, the form brings many varied styles of playing and personalities into the experience.
The music itself can only be described as lyrical and enchanting. It had a surreal quality which consisted of a variety of musical notions ranging from from seductive melodies to loud, celebratory segments, joined in one piece without interruption.
The gamelan groups played on traditional Indonesian gongs and drums which produced waves of chimelike sounds.
The captivating sounds of the gamelan were enhanced by a strong visual element as well. Gamelan Lila Muni, the first group on stage, was accompanied by the dancing of Putu Oka Mardiana who performed a Balinese piece called "Margapati." The movements of the dance were all the more exciting for their depiction of a mythical lion who protects a village from an evil witch. Gamelan Lipur Sih accompanied their playing with a puppet show entitled "Karna, a Shadow Puppet Opera." The story was taken from the tale of a self-made warrior found in the Hindu epic "Mahabharata."
The third group, Gamelan Galak Tika played along to the story telling of I Nyoman Catra, who danced in an elaborate, colorful costume. The performance was a rendition of "Snow White," and Catra told it by singing, dancing and mask-changing. There were many humorous moments as Catra imitated the various characters in his story.
All three gamelan groups were brought to Dartmouth by the festival director Jody Diamond. She is the director of the Gamelan Lipur Sih based in Lebanon as well as of the American Gamelan Institute, and teaches gamelan and multi-cultural arts at Goddard College in Plainfield, Vermont.
Diamond has been studying Indonesian Arts since 1970, and in 1989 was a Fulbright scholar to Indonesia to survey contemporary music. Her group Gamelan Lipur Sih is made up of musicians from the local community. Their name comes from the words "Lipur Sih" inscribed on the instruments, which means "Comforting Your Loved Ones."
Gamelan Lila Muni was founded three years at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York. Their director is Ellen Koskoff and their teacher and musical director is I Ketut Gede Asnawa.
Gamelan Galak Tika is a community group in residence at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology which was started in 1993 for the purpose of studying and performing Balinese music and dance. These three groups are part of a blossoming worldwide effort to spread the joys of Indonesian Gamelan music.
