4/13/2024, Emory Gamelan Ensemble

WELCOME TO THE DEPARTMENT OF MUSIC AT EMORY UNIVERSITY

WITH GRATITUDE

The Department of Music is profoundly grateful for the Friends of Music and their generous support of Music at Emory.

Emory Javanese Gamelan Paksi Kencana

ABOUT TONIGHT’S PERFORMANCE

The purpose of the Emory Javanese Gamelan Ensemble Paksi Kencana (Sacred Eagle) is to provide students and community members with the chance to learn about Javanese music and culture through performance. The learning experience is our primary consideration – not the giving of concerts – and as we are all beginners, we would like to emphasize that our performance is only a shadow of the real thing. The instruments arrived on the Emory campus in 1997.

We are grateful to Emory University’s Department of Music, First Year Flourishing Initiative, LINC initiative, Emory Arts, and the Provost Initiative Fund for supporting our performance this evening. This performance is part of Asian Arts @ Emory concert series.

Finally, special thanks go to American Indonesian Cultural and Education Foundation (AICEF).

ON JAVANESE GAMELAN

The term gamelan refers to musical ensembles from the islands of Java, Sumatra and Bali in the Republic of Indonesia, and by extension to the music that is played on them. Javanese gamelan primarily consists of bronze percussion instruments – gongs and gong-chimes of various size, suspended either vertically or horizontally, as well as different types of metallophones. The gamelan ensemble also includes suling (bamboo flutes), gambang (a wooden xylophone), rebab (a string instrument), and kendhang (drums).

Javanese gamelan normally includes two sets of instruments in each of the two tuning systems, laras pelog (7 notes per octave, used pentatonically) and laras slendro (5 notes per octave). Within each tuning system, there are three modes in which gamelan pieces are written. Tonight’s performance uses the slendro set.

The ensemble comprises three groups of instruments, the framework instruments, balungan instruments and elaboration instruments. The balungan instruments (the family of saron and slenthem) play the core melody. The elaboration instruments ( gender, suling, gambang, rebab, and bonang) are played semiimprovisatory, elaborating the core melody. The framework instruments (gong, kempul, kenong, kethuk and kempyang) give the form of gamelan pieces. A set of drums (kendhang) controls the tempo of the whole ensemble.

Source: Traditional Music in Modern Java: Gamelan in a Changing Society by Judith Becker, 1981, the University of Hawaii Press

PERFORMERS

Emory Javanese Gamelan Ensemble Paksi Kencana comprises students from Music 301 (The Emory Gamelan Ensemble), Music 370 (Music and Shadows), community gamelan members, and Emory faculty.

Grace Chen

Nikeese Daniel

Neil Fried

Soju Hokari

Dorian Huang

Vex Hutton

Christopher Jang

Kaitlyn Kaminuma

Cat Kerr

Nick Keung

Patricia Liehr

Korte Maki

Wambui Ngugi

Perdana Aysha Puteri

Ruby Rodriguez

Delia Savin

Miles Straw

Robert Tauxe

Mufdil Tuhri

Maho Ishiguro , Department of Music

Scott Kugle , Department of Middle East and South Asian Studies

Directed by Darsono Hadiraharjo

The Acehnese dance is performed by students from Music 190 (Dance as Cultural Knowledge) taught by Maho Ishiguro.

Sophie Au

Kidist Bizuneh

Ben Do

Robert Hudson, Jr.

Brandon Lee

Isabella Lin

Alice Liu

Daisy Liu

Candice Wong

Grace Yu

Eika Zhou

Today’s concert is blessed with the presence of our guest musicians:

Anne Stebinger (Co-Director of Gamelan Kusuma Laras, NYC)

Phil Acimovic (Director of the Yale Gamelan Suprabanggo)

Wayne Forrest (American Indonesian Culture and Education Foundation, and Gamelan Kusumo Laras, NYC)

Genevieve Tauxe (Member of Gamelan Pacifica)

ON JAVANESE SHADOW PUPPETRY THEATER

Shadow puppetry is an important traditional art form in many parts of Southeast Asia. Javanese shadow puppetry—Wayang kulit—is one of the main forms of this art which circulated widely and transformed into local forms in other parts of Southeast Asia. While there are other local and indigenous stories told through shadow puppetry and music, the two Sanskrit epics called Mahabarata and Ramayana are the major sources and inspiration in this art form.

Central Java is a hub of shadow puppetry in Indonesia, and this tradition has historically been cultivated in villages, cities, and in the courts of the regional nobility, especially in the cities of Surakarta and Yogyakarta. Wayang kulit performance is not only considered an intricate and creative performing art form, but also an important social event. It is an occasion to laugh together because, as part of the fabric of ancient tales, the dalang (puppeteer) delivers light-hearted social commentary on current events as well as comedic interludes. Because the epics of Mahabharata and Ramayana are too long to narrate in a single performance, the dalang chooses one lakon (episode) from these epics. Performances customarily last eight hours – from around 8:30 pm to sunrise – giving the puppet master enough time to creatively tell the story through singing, poetry, narration and movements of the puppets. This evening, we will perform a shortened version lasting about two hours.

The Emory Javanese Gamelan Ensemble acquired a full set of Javanese traditional shadow puppets in December 2023, thanks to a generous grant from American Indonesian Culture and Education Foundation (AICEF). In previous semesters, the ensemble rented a small set of puppets from other institutions in the US, including Wesleyan University and Yale University. This is our first year performing shadow puppetry with our own set of puppets!

SYNOPSIS

Lakon Bima Bumbu

This episode comes from the Mahabharata, one of the oldest Sanskrit epics. The Mahabharata story tells of a conflict between two sets of siblings, the Kurawas and the Pandawas, over the kingdom of Hastina. The Kurawas are ninety-nine brothers and (in the Javanese version) one sister, born to Gendari and Destarada after Gendari’s two-year pregnancy and with help from the Hindu goddess Durga. The Pandawas are five brothers born to Kunthi and Pandu. Pandu and Destarada are brothers and both heirs to the kingdom of Hastina, making the Kurawas and the Pandawas cousins. The Kurawas were raised to rival and take over Hastina from the Pandawas. The origin of the family feud lies in an archery competition.

During the long course of the epic, the Kurawas play many tricks to sabotage and eliminate the Pandawas. One night, the Kurawas throw a festive party for the Pandawas and their mother, Kunthi, as a sign of friendship. After the party, the Kurawas burn the villa in which the Pandawas are sleeping. The eldest of the Kurawas, Duryudana, believes that the Pandawas all burned to death and becomes the new king of Hastina. However, the Pandawas miraculously escaped from the fire and return to reclaim the kingdom. Surprised and enraged, the Kurawas declare war against the Pandawas.

Thus begins tonight’s episode, Lakon Bimo Bumbu. As the Pandawas flee the burning villa, they find refuge at a village, called Manahilan, which sits at the outskirts of a powerful kingdom, Ekacakra. Ekacakra is ruled by Prabu Boko, a raksasa (giant ogre), who has taken a liking to eating human meat. Prabu Boko used to only eat the criminals but as he ran out of the criminals, he commanded the surrounding villages to surrender their villagers, one by one, to feed his great appetite. At Manahilan, the Pandawas meet Ki Deman Ijirapa, the head of the village, who is profoundly sad because he must send one of his villagers as a human sacrifice to Prabu Boko. The mother of the Pandawas asks Bima, her son and the strongest warrior of the entire realm, to end this cruel practice. So Bima, accompanied by his younger brother Arjuna and Ki Deman Ijirapa, willingly goes into the Ekacakra to confront Prabu Boko.

SYNOPSIS

At his palace, Prabu Boko waits for his human meal. Irritated that it has not arrived, his female servant, Emban Kepet Mega, suggests that his ogre army descend on the village of Manahilan to demand a human sacrifice. On the way to the village, the raksasa are challenged by Bima, Arjuna and Ki Deman Ijirapa. They battle in the forest. Bima triumphs and continues to travel deeper into the kingdom. He enters the palace and finds Prabu Boko dancing happily as he anticipates his long-waited human meal. Challenging Prabu Boko, Bima uses his divinely endowed weapon—his powerful magical nails—to fight a duel and slay Prabu Boko. Peace is restored in the kingdom and its surrounding villages as no more humans will be turned into meat! With this problem solved, the Pandawas continue to travel back to their home Kingdom of Hastina, where many more adventures await them.

This evening’s performance by dalang Darsono Hadiraharjo stops here. However, the story of the Mahabharata does not end peacefully. Each time the Kurawas wage war against the Pandawas, ambassadors of peace (such as the Hindu god, Krishna) intervene. Many attempts at diplomacy fail, and the Pandawas and the Kurawas start the great war of Baratayuda. The conflict kills all of the Pandawas’ children and their families, and all of the Kurawas, with the exception of the eldest brother, Duryudana. At the very end of the Javanese Mahabharata, the grandson of Arjuna, the third eldest Pandawa brother, finally becomes the king of Hastina.

ARJUNA NAKULA SATYA

UPCOMING MUSIC EVENTS

Emory University’s Department of Music presents the following free events. For a comprehensive list and the most current details, visit music.emory.edu.

Emory Concert Choir

Emory Big Band

Emory Wind Ensemble

Student Recital: Doowon Kim, violin

Emory Concerto and Aria Competition

Spring Composition Showcase

Jazz on the Quad

Emory University Symphony Orchestra & University Chorus

Student Recital: Taekyu Lee, piano

pm

Student Recital: Kimiko Darcy, piano Schwartz Center for Performing Arts

Emory Quadrangle (in front of Carlos Museum)

Schwartz Center

Performing Arts Studio

Performing Arts Studio

MUSIC AT EMORY

Music at Emory brings together students, faculty, and world-class artists to create an exciting and innovative season of performances, lectures, workshops, and master classes. With more than 150 events each year across multiple Emory venues, audiences experience a wide variety of musical offerings.

We hope you enjoy sampling an assortment of work from our student ensembles, community youth ensembles, artists in residence, professional faculty, up-and-coming prodigies, and virtuosos from around the world.