Music in Central Java: Experiencing Music, Expressing Culture Book

Foreword     xi
Preface     xiii
CD Track List     xvii
First Hearings     1
Introduction     1
What Is a Gamelan?     3
Gamelan Performance Contexts in Solo: Life Cycles and Musical Cycles     4
Cyclicity and Coincidence     11
Music in the Everyday     13
Patronage and Sociopolitical Change     15
Social Status, Language, and Interaction     16
Gamelan at the Radio Station     17
Similarities and Differences     19
Categories and Cross-Cultural (Mis)Communication     21
Conclusion: Three Themes     22
Flexibility of Frameworks and Processes     22
Appropriateness     23
Interconnectedness     23
A Sense of Time     25
Making and Marking Musical Time: Gongs and Drums     27
Cyclicity and Colotomic Function     28
Drumming     33
Lancaran Drum Patterns     37
Gongs, Drums, and the Flexibility of Time     44
Gamelan, Tuning, and Instrumental Melody     48
Gamelan Tunings     52
Tuning Systems: Slendro and Pelog     53
Gamelan Instruments     55
Instrumental Melody     59
Melody and Elaboration     66
Balungan, Peking, and Bonang     66
"Ladrang Asmaradana"     69
Songs, Singers, and Gamelan     74
Social Aspects of Singing     74
Poetry, Song, and Gamelan     76
Conclusion     87
Melodic Elaboration and Training in the Arts     88
Rebab, Gender, and Other Elaborating Instruments     88
Cengkok, Variation, and the Transmission of Musical Knowledge     93
Shadows and Tales     97
Wayang in Pangkah Village     97
Javanese Shadow Plays     102
The Stories and the Telling: The Main Elements     104
Physical Setup     104
Plots and Plot Sources     107
Characters and Character Types     108
Language and Voice     111
Movement Patterns     112
Dramatic Structure: Schemata of Various Sizes     113
Conclusion     114
Music for Motion and Emotion - Wayang Kulit     117
"Brajadenta Balela"     117
Wayang Repertoire     124
Music for Expressing Emotion: Sulukan     124
Music for Accompanying Motion: Gendhing Lampah     126
Music for Setting a Scene: Gendhing     132
Return to "Brajadenta Balela"     135
Flexibility and Appropriateness     139
Conventions and Innovations     140
Java and Beyond     144
Pak Cokro     144
Interconnectedness: Theater, Dance, and Music     148
Educational Institutions     151
Regionalism and the Dominance of Solonese Style     152
Java and the Rest of Indonesia     153
Java and the World     153
Conclusion     155
Glossary     157
References     161
Resources     163
Index     167