While researching music in Bali during the summer of 2017, I reached out to Andy McGraw, the ethnomusicology professor at UR and my research advisor, for suggestions about what to learn. He suggested that I learn all the parts to a Gamelan Gong Kebyar piece entitled "Gambang Suling" so that I could teach it to the UR community gamelan group upon my return to the US. I loved the idea, so I began to work with I Wayan Sudirana, a member of the faculty at the Bali Arts Conservatory (ISI Denpasar) and my host in Bali, in order to learn the piece part-by-part.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Ui0a-LrPBM
In the traditional method of teaching gamelan, Sudi sat on the opposite side of the gangsa (an instrument that plays fast interlocking parts and makes up a majority of the instruments in a Gong Kebyar ensemble) while I sat on the normal side, and he played the harder interlocking sangsih part while I played the more basic polos part. I began by learning the gangsa parts, then learned the simpler melodic parts on the same gangsa. I learned the parts throughout 2 months, culminating with the kendang drum part.
Back in the US, I worked together with Andy to teach the piece to the ensemble to add to our performance repertoire. Although I made notation for the backing instruments, we made it so that the most difficult gangsa parts would be learned by ear. Here's a recording of a Balinese group playing the piece:
Comments