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Angklung Bali, Vol. 1

by Bali Gamelan Sound

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Topeng Keras 05:17
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Topeng Tua 08:19
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Bapang 03:58

about

Recorded in Tegal Tamu, Batubulan Village, Sukawati, Gianyar, Bali, Indonesia. December 2020.

I was invited to a Cremation/Funeral ceremony in a Hindu Balinese Family.

In Bali, this kind of celebrations are held usually during the lapse of 1 week, starting with the preparations maybe months ago (when the priest -Mangku or Pendeta-, watches the Balinese Hindu calendar and suggests the family which day is optimal to proceed with the cremation).

Usually in the Balinese Hindu religion, many cremation ceremonies of different families (or weddings, if the case), take place in the same day, because many priests will look at the calendar and usually agree that one specific day is the best to perform the ceremony. So is possible to see a lot of people carrying on celebrations in the same day.

Once the day is selected by the priest, the family will settle the house with offerings, colors, and special food for the guests. Concerts will be held, usually with selonding/gender/angklung music.

Before the day of the cremation the family will leave the house mint, perfumed, full of flowers, fruits and ornaments which makes the place look really special.

In the morning of the cremation usually the family and the guests have breakfast and lunch together, and a music concert and prayers are performed. Later, all together the people will bring the corpse to the cremation field, where probably another concert is played, and the priest and family perform the cremation with prayers and rituals.

After that, all the family goes to the sea, or the river, where prayers are done and the corpse ashes are thrown to the water.

Coming back, usually traditional dances are performed, such as Topeng, and the priest and family performs rituals to celebrate the succeeded cremation, and to liberate the souls of the dead.

A lot of food is served, and people chat and dance together until after midnight, when they will go to the sea or river again to perform the last prayer.

Angklung Bali, is a small ensemble made of bronze, with only 4 notes of the selendro scale, with makes it limited but sweet. The traditional compositions are translated into a more simple way of playing.

Very few ensembles of Gamelan Angklung are seen in the island, and usually they are located in traditional villages for sacred, religious activities (Classic Angklung) or used for dance drama performances and music study purposes (Angklung Kebyar).

The format of the ensemble is also complex as it consists of many different instruments like kantil, which usually plays the melody, sulings (flutes), jublag (which reads the harmony of the song), jegog, reyong (played usually by 4 people), 2 kendangs, chencheng in the percussion, kempur and sometimes gong.

Here we can listen to a mix of Classic and Kebyar Angklung, with 4 notes scale but with Kempur and Gong, performing a Dance Drama Topeng (Masked Dance), and ritual music. The group consisted in about 12 players.

credits

released February 5, 2021

This is a documentary process of recording Balinese Traditional Gamelan music, started in the year 2020.

Traditions have changed over time, but ancient musical compositions are adapted to nowadays life.

Agustín Oscar Rissotti, an Argentinian student of the University ISI Denpasar (Bali), developed an idea to join as many rehearsals, ensembles and religious ceremonies as possible with small microphones and recording equipment, to document the authentique "Bali Gamelan Sound".

In Bali, live performances are meant to be performed for the Gods. There is no egoistic purpose in this performances, but to admire the beauty of this world through the eyes of Hindu Balinese religion.

As for his ears, this is "The authentique Bali Sound", full of conversations around, people passing by, laughs, music of different performances played together (as it is meant to be in several Balinese Hindu ceremonies where -more than 1- ensembles are playing music very close to each other -at the same time-), background noises, sounds of coffee cups and arak shoots, breath of ciggaretes, animals hollowing around, hundreds of motorbikes passing by, and even mother nature earthquakes.

With all my respect, this is the vision of a South Latin American guy who ended up studying Balinese Culture and living in the Island during the pandemic.

I hope this can translate you to the world I am living in.

Thankyou, I hope you will enjoy this music. Astungkara, matur suksema.

All the economic contributions made to this project will be spent in developing the Balinese Culture and Artists.

Please donate buying the records in Bandcamp.

Special thanks to I Pak Nyoman Sweca who invited me to this funeral ceremony.

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Bali Gamelan Sound Bali, Indonesia

Documentary project of recording the authentique atmosphere of "Balinese Gamelan Sound", for University ISI Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia.

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