Gamelan
in Europe and the U.S. |
According to my knowledge,
from the visits I've made, the most active gamelan experiments
are being undertaken in England, Holland, and the United States.
Each of these has its own significant features. In England, London,
and York are the main areas for gamelan experiments. Why is it
that gamelan has flourished in England, when in Paris, a center
for Orientalism in the late nineteenth century, the first such
group has only just recently been created in the conservatoire
in La Villette? It seems slightly unbelievable, but as it is
located next to Holland, one reason is geographical. Another
reason for its strong following might also be that in a land
that has given birth to the Scratch Orchestra and Portsmouth
Symphonia, there is a certain respect for anti-authoritarianism.
At present, many English universities are equipped with gamelan,
including, of course, Cambridge and Oxford.
Heading the South Bank Center group in London are two composers,
Alec ROTH and Adrian LEE. They have taken material such as Shakespeare's
plays (The Tempest, for example) and Alice in Wonderland to create
dramatic works filled with humor and added a unique color to
British gamelan. Just as texts such as the Mahabarata and the
Ramayana have become classical, dramatic works for gamelan in
Indonesia, one gets the feeling that works like these might eventually
become classical gamelan works in England. At York University,
Neil SORRELL's group has been seriously working at creating a
contemporary gamelan. (Neil has provided me with many scores
for pieces by Nyman and other contemporary gamelan works.)
The popularity of gamelan in Holland is easily explained by its
having been a suzerain state over the colony of Indonesia. In
Amsterdam, there are a number of groups that exist. The Ensemble
Gendhing, led by Jurrien SLIGTER, is making positive efforts
to promote the contemporary gamelan. As one might expect with
Holland, the gamelan world is extremely diverse, and includes
one well-known publisher of sheet music, Donemus, that supports
gamelan activities by publishing new works for gamelan. The Dutch
gamelan, based primarily on written music, has its roots in the
most European avant-garde techniques. As can be seen in works
by Dutch composers such as Will EISMA, Sinta WULLUR, and Ton
de LEEUW.
In the U.S., there are great differences between the gamelan
of the West and East Coasts. To begin with, there are apparently
over 200 gamelan groups in the U.S., and since I have only had
contact with a very small portion of this number I am somewhat
lacking in information on the subject. It is clear, however,
that as far as circulating information goes, the American Gamelan
Institute, having published over 150 gamelan scores, has created
a situation in the U.S. which is the most outstanding for gamelan
in the world.
It is the West Coast that has taken the most challenging approach
to the established image of the gamelan. This includes, in particular,
forerunners such as Lou Harrison, whose group has deservedly
received much attention for its home-made full sets of gamelan
instruments. Based on just intonation, their extremely beautiful
timbres are somewhat alien to the Indonesian gamelan, and there
is a lack of distortion as well as less elaborate scale and hum.
However, with the addition of other non-gamelan instruments such
as violin and kokyu, it has been somewhat simplified. There are
also groups that while creating original music, put greater emphasis
on process than full notation of their work. For example, Daniel
SCHMIDT's group in San Francisco. Each of the group's members
explain their own musical ideas, and through repeated rehearsals
the musicians practice each of these sounds. On the East Coast,
Barbara BENARY's group, Son of Lion, is particularly noteworthy.
(For a time, Philip CORNER, known for his work with Fluxus, was
a member of this group.) There is a particularly strong performance
element in the group's work, which serves as a strong reminder
that by working in New York they share the same territory with
many other experimental musicians. |
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