Experimental Indonesian music and experiemental musical instrument.

Excellent music any way you slice it.

Jaap Kunst

Jaap Kunst was born in Groningen on August 12th in 1891. He was a Dutch musicologist and was famous for analyzing the gamelan music of Indonesia. He is the scholar who created the word ethnomusicology because it was more accurate than the existing word "comparative musicology."

He defined it as "the study of music and instruments of all non-European peoples including the so called primitive peoples and the civilized Eastern nations. Kunst is considered to be one of the fathers of contemporary ethnomusicology. He was taught the violin when he was very young. Later he also was very enamored with the folk music and dance of the Netherlands.

He made a recording called Living Folksongs and Dance Tunes from the Netherlands in 1956, which is still for sale. When performing on violin for a trio he was involved with, they toured in the East Indies as Indonesia was known then as part of the sprawling, politically and economically powerful Dutch empire. He made the decision to stay on Java.

While in Java, he found 7,500 gamelan orchestra sets in the region of central Java alone. Since each had a place for about 15 musicians he reasoned there must have been about 150,000 musicians in Java at the time. This meant that 1 in every 100 Indonesians must be a musician.

He took photos, made lists of instruments, made field recordings initially on wax cylinders and wrote books; on the music of Bali in 1925, of Java in 1934, New Guinea in 1967, Nias in 1939 and Flores in 1942.

He also wrote articles; Indigenous Music and the Christian Mission in 1947, Musicologica in 1950, Ancient Western Songs from Eastern Countries in 1934, Music and Dance in the Outer Provinces in 1946, Music of the Kai Islands in 1945 and Two Thousand Years of South Sumatra Retold in its Music in 1952, all for the museum in Jakarta.

He went back to the Netherlands in 1936 and took a post as head of the Royal Tropical Institute. Under his supervision it became the most important center of Ethnomusicology in the West at the time. Much later he also gave presentations at the University of Amsterdam on Indonesian music and began to teach there in 1958.

Jaap Kunst had originally wanted to give his entire collection to the Royal Tropical Institute in Amsterdam but, because of extenuating events, it was given to the University of Amsterdam instead in 1963.

The collection reveals his passion for his field, which contains 2,500 books and professional journals. 3,000 photos, slides and negatives, 7 films, 800 records, tapes and wax cylinders and 8400 letters describing 1250 people written between 1919 and 1960. He died on December 7th in 1960 in Amsterdam.

Gongchime CD

[Newsletter] Gongchime News
Gongchime Times

Welcome to the Gongchime Times

This is the newsletter of The Resplendent Garden of Contemplation Gongchime Rainforest Ensemble, the first Javense gamelan ensemble to reside in Korea dedicated to increasing the awareness and understanding of Southeast Asian music.

In This Issue:

Latest Release

Gongchime CD on cdbaby.

Gongchime has it's CD's address at http://www.cdbaby.com/gongchime.



It has received this review from Gerald Van Waes at Psyche Van Het Folk, Eastern Fusion Review.

A combination of gamelan with varied percussion and what seems like close, multi-colored acoustic arrangements. The feeling completely takes all elements from the east, which makes an unusual vision. A very enjoyable, fresh approach."

Others who have listened to it say they play it for meditation or martial arts work outs. If you've got Hindu gods and beings from the Buddhist pantheon in your house then you need a sound track to match.

My goal had been to create a Southeast Asian rainy jungle. People said they didn't really care much about that though. The reason they liked is was that they wanted meditation music that wasn't too slow and boring.

It turns out that you can put this on and work out or you can lie down and fall into a trance. Nothing is going to cause you to get up and turn a noisy, obnoxious part down.

If you drift into alpha or happen to see a small village in a Southeast Asian jungle in the rain among your visions, say hello to the shaman living there and tell him my job here is finished.

Gongchime: http://www.myspace.com/gongchime http://www.cdbaby.com/gongchime

Gamelan Metal Xyllophones, Bowed Rebab and Gentorag Bell Rattle

Check out the gamelan instruments you can get from Bali in page 3 of my photo albums at www.myspace.com/gongchime. Especially notice the Kendang drums,



Bowed Rebab,



and Gentorag Bell Rattle.



They're available both new and used. Very fun stuff.

On the Ethnomusicologist Mantle Hood

Mantle Hood was born on June 24th, 1918 in Springfield, Illinois. He was an American ethnomusicologist. He specialized in gamelan music.

He created the first university program in America for ethnomusicology. He recommended that students actually learn to play what they studied, which was a new idea at the time. He studied piano and played sax in jazz venues while a teenager.

He moved to Los Angeles in the 30's and returned there after serving during World War II. For 5 years after 1945, he studied music under composer Ernst Toch and received a master's degree in composition in UCLA in 1951. He was also a Fulbright scholar and studied Indonesian music under Jaap Kunst in Amsterdam at the university.

He wrote a dissertation on pathet called The Nuclear Theme as a Determinant of Patet in Javanese Music in 1954. "He was a fellow at the East-West Center of Arts and Sciences and a Senior Distinguished Professor at West Virginia University." After his doctorate he spent two years in Indonesia and did field research through a Ford Foundation fellowship.

He became a faculty member at UCLA and made the first gamelan performance program in the U.S. in 1958. "This set of instruments (bronze gongs and metallophones) was cast in Java and given by the Javanese the honorific name Venerable Dark Cloud to describe its sound. It is widely regarded as the finest gamelan in the United States."

In 1960, he started the Institute for Ethnomusicology at UCLA. It inspired more than 100 gamelan groups in the U.S. In 1986 for his research, he received honors from the Indonesian government.

At the time, he also received the title of Ki meaning ‘venerable’ and was inducted into the Society of Indonesian National Heroes known as the Dharma Kusuma. He wrote many scholarly books, journal and encyclopedia articles. In particular he wrote The Ethnomusicologist in 1971, Music in Indonesia in 1972, and The Evolution of Javanese Gamelan and nearly 100 chapters for other books.

He could speak the Balinese and Javanese languages fluently as well as languages from the other Indonesian Islands. He retired in Hawaii in 1973 where he composed music, was editor of The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, and contributed to the Harvard Dictionary of Music and the Encyclopdie de la Musique. He came out of retirement in the 1980s to serve as Senior Distinguished Professor at the University of Maryland Baltimore County until 1996.

He also created an ethnomusicology program there as well. He was a professor of music at West Virginia University and a visiting professor at Harvard, Yale, Wesleyan, Indiana, Drake and the University of Ghana. He was also president of the Society for Ethnomusicology from 1965 until 1967.

In 1999, he was the Charles Seeger lecturer at the SEM annual conference. "In 2002, Hood was awarded the prestigious USINDO award by the United States-Indonesia Society, which recognized his contributions to U.S.-Indonesia relations." Within Organology he was the first to propose a new category called electronophones for electronic musical instruments.

He married twice. His first wife was Shirley Hood and they divorced. His 2nd wife, Hazel Chung, taught Indonesian and African dance with who Dr. Hood collaborated in his research. In addition to his wife, of Ellicott City, survivors include one son from his first marriage, Marlowe Hood of Paris; three sons from his second marriage, Maiyo J. Hood of Shanghai, Mitro A. Hood of Baltimore and Made M. Hood of Melbourne, Australia and three grandchildren.

Southeast Asian Melody

Southeast Asia's melodic development is very similar to the Indian. But it gives a straight melody with an ornamented version and variations such as a rhythmically altered version all presented simultaneously. Voice crossing is integral to gamelan music. It’s used to maintain interest.

Sometimes the melody is played at different tempos simultaneously. Western melody is very goal oriented. Gamelan melody is not like this and is supposed to create a timeless feeling which it does quite effectively. Like the classical music of India and Korea, the introduction usually has a part where there is no rhythmic beat. The Kebyar form has a melody in unison during the intro with no beat or it occasionally plays interlocking rhythms alternated with melody played by different groupings of the instruments. It plays interlocking variations in subsequent sections. It also has a grand finale beginning slow and ending fast just like Indian and Korean music.

Before moving from the intro to the first section, the rhythm can completely break down while the musicians play fast but soft and making sure their part does NOT match rhythmically with anyone else’s as a transition. In the first section it has interlocking rhythms which is also found in the music of Africa, Cuba and Haiti though not as much in a melodic form but only in a rhythmic one.

Gamelan music is based on a cantus firmus similar to the occidental sacred music that was based on the ancient melodies of Gregorian chant. The scale is based on ten equal divisions and their first scale was slendro which is about equal to C,D,F,G and A. It’s a pentatonic scale. This scale is used in temple services which are a combination of Budhism, Hinduism in Bali and Buddhism and Islam in Java. It is considered more dignified and less passionate than the pelog scale which sounds angry or sad to the South East Asians.

Pelog was created after the Dutch invasion. The native people fought bravely for a long time but were cornered and about to be captured at which point the people who were still alive, of which there were a large number, committed mass suicide. The music created using Pelog is supposed to sound like the thunder of war and the clash of armies. It became popular very quickly and the forms that use it such as Kebyar, were never elitist music played in the courts of the king. It is a very recent development.

Pelog has three forms known as patet. The first is roughly equal to C, Db, Eb, G and Ab a kind of Phrygian pentatonic scale. Anything played in pelog immediately sounds exotic to westerners because of the flat second degree and the strange skipping of F and B(b). One instrument in the ensemble plays neighbor notes around the cantus in a tenor voice where the cantus note is the middle of three notes. There are several different kinds of interlock! ing rhythms in gamelan music. The first is just a repeated note. The second is in the range of a fifth and where the two rhythms coincide, they meet on the fifth. The lower voice of the interlocking rhythm is comosed after the cantus. The upper voice is composed after that.

The music has breaks and fill to add variety and to mark sections. Gamelan music has a colotomic structure where the largest gong marks the beginning and ending of large sections. Usually only the most experienced musicians play it, since its placement is so important. It plays every 32 or 64 beats, for example depending on the structure. Gongs for the colotomic structure are often gloriously out of tune with the rest of the ensemble. There are higher gongs which divide the structure further.

One set of gongs plays on the last beat of every measure. This is similar to Korean music which places the accent in the same place and very different from western musical practice which usually places the accent on the first beat of every measure. The rhythms usually coincide on the last beat of a measure and meet on the fifth as I said before. When the music gets fast the players divide the music between them in hockett so that each person takes a turn playing each note of the interlocking rhythm. This technique is applied to all instrumental ensembles even one made up only of flutes. The higher pitched and fastest instruments are played by the youngest members of the ensemble.

Playing in a gamelan orchestra is considered a community service. Songs are often named after the doings of animals. The cantus has definite methods for targeting destination notes. Just like classical and jazz. The most senior musician plays the drums and/or rebab, a bowed string instrument. Flutes play in unison with the rebab.

Gamelan Music

This article is about gamelan music. A Gamelan is a bronze orchestra found in various cultures in Southeast Asia which uses upwards of about 13 people.

Core Melody:

It has a core melody calledl Pokok in Bali and Balungan in java. It acts as a skeleton on which all the other parts are based. This is called heterophony but Southeast Asian heterophony is very unusual in that it doesn't have just a melodic line and then another with simple embellishments. It has several simultaneous embellishments that make the original melody virtually unrecognizeable in the new part to the uninitiated. Anyway, the skeleton is played on the Calung in Bali and the Slenthem in Java. It's also played on the Kenongs and Kempul in Java if there are enough of each. The skeleton is related loosely to the Cantus firums of church music and Gregorian chant where a sacred melody was placed in the bass and played two or three times as slow as the original then this became the basis for a new composition.

Melody:

Bali and Java have melodic cadences which are encluturated and not at all what westerners would consider to be a melodic cadence such as the leading tone in classical music going to a member of the next chord or chromatic notes resolving as in jazz. Bali and Java utilize a scale known as Slendro which was and is used in the religious services and edifices for Buddhist and Hindu in Bali and Buddhist and muslim in Java. The Slendro scale is considered to be more dignified and less passionate than the newer scale known as Pelog which sounds angry or sad to the Indonesians because it was developed after the Dutch invasion and a mass suicide of Indonesians upon the prospect of being captured. Pelog is thought to sound like the warfare and soldiers in an altercation. It quickly became popular and is a fairly recent development. The music of pelog of which the Kebyar style in Bali is an example, was never an elitist music of the courts. Balinese Kebyar using pelog is loud, fast, has a grand finale and uses a rhythmic breakdown as a transition after the introduction.

In Bali there are a set of instrumnts that play an interlocking rhythm which are tuned about a quarter step apart and this produces binaural beats. Bali also utlizes cymbals called Ceng Ceng which are not normally used in Javanese music.

The gamelan in Java accompanies performances of the puppet show known as Wayan Kulit usually retelling the Ramayana.

Gamelan composition is colotomic. In processs... More later....

Thai Music: Central Instuments

The Saw Samsai is also a spike fiddle made from a coconut shell with an animal skin soundboard. It is only played in the Mahori ensemble. It has been in use since the Sukhothai period (c. 1350). King Rama II was fond of it.

The Saw U has two strings, a coconut body and an animal skin soundboard. Similar to the Chinese Hu-hu but without frets.

The Saw Duang is another fiddle but it has a small tubular hardwood body and a snake skin soundboard. It can use 2 silk, gut or metal strings. It is the leader of the string ensemble.

The Jakae is a plucked instrument. Its first two strings are made of silk and the last is made of brass. It is played while the instrument is layed horizonatally on the ground like the Japanese Koto but has a banjo like body and high frets like the Korean Komungo. The right hand plucks with an ivory pick.

The Khlui is a bamboo recorder with seven holes covering one and a half octaves. It comes in several sizes and is used in the Mahori and string ensembles.

The central Pi is one of the oldest Thai instruments. It is an oboe usually made of hardwood with six holes. It is an instrument capable of a wide range of _expression.

The Ranad Ek is a xylophone whose 21-22 bars are strung together and "hang" down making a curve which gives the instrument the appearance of a barge. The bars are either made of bamboo or hardwood. It is the leader of the ensemble. It is higher in pitch than the Ranad Thume.

The Ranad Thume is a xylophone with 18 bars. It accompanies the Ranad Ek.

The Gong Wong Yai plays the main melody. It contains 16 gongs similar to those used in gamelan ensembles except arranged in a circle. It is played with mallets.

The Thon is a drum whose body is made of wood or clay it is originally from Arabia though the Thais acquired it by way of China.

The Rammana is a thin/short frame drum played together with the Thon also originally from Arabia.

The Glong Khaek is a drum that plays in the Mahori, Piphat and Krung Sai ensembles. It is played with two hands. It is originally from Java.

The Glong Song Na is a drum always associated with the Phiphat ensemble.

Thai Music, Rhythmic Structure

Rhythmic Structure
Thai music is in duple meter and progresses from slow, to medium to fast, similar to Indian and Korean music. Accents fall on the last beat in a group of four, the same as Korean and gamelan music of Java and Bali. The accents are played by open and closed cymbal patterns. These can be further subdivided. This relates to the rhythmic structure of gamelan music but which is played by gongs instead.

Thai Music: Tuning

The Thai tuning system is originally derived from the Javanese which in turn was derived from Chinese music theory. The Thai system is based on seven pitches an equal distance apart from each other. This results in a scale which not only does not have a perfect fifth but also has no notes which will be the same as any in the western scales. In Thai music, the fourth and seventh pitches are usually avoided, a practice similar to the avoidance of the 3rd and 7th in China. They function as ornaments or passing tones.

Thai Music: External Influences

Actually, India and Persia were already having an influence on music in China by 126 B.C. China had a book on Indian music within 5 years prior to 642. Indian music also was having an impact in Java at least by the thirteenth century, so any instruments or music borrowed from there at that time may also have been affected by India. Not much is known about Malaysian history prior to the 15th century since little was recorded except that Hinduism was having a strong presence there obviously coming from India. China records contact with Malaysia at this time and up until 1824 it was predominantly under Thai control.

Thai Music: Instruments

The Thais had instruments of their own and some were from China such as the khim dulcimer,

malaw cymbal and klawng jin drum. The music of India had penetrated into the Mon (southern Burma) and Khmer (Cambodia) cultures previously. Later, the Thais also came in contact with Indian music. They successfully copied many of the Indian instruments. The Thai's also created their own instruments from this interaction, namely the phin, sang, pichanai, krachappi, chakhe and thon. These are mentioned in one of the oldest books to come out of Thailand called the Tribhunikuthai and also on a stone inscription called the sila-ja rerk created during the reign of king Ramkhamhaeng who was considered the father of the nation during the Sukhothai period 1283 A.D. (Sukhothai translates as Dawn of Happiness since they overthrew the Khmer rulers).
At this time they adopted some instruments such as the glawng khaek from java, the klawng malayu from Malaysia, the perng mang from the Mon people and the glawng yao from Burma.

My Bio IV

I have written more music than I can count, as well as published articles on music composition, aesthetics and ethnomusicology (http://www.paradisemoon.com/thai_main/Huahin/thai_instruments_intro.htm). My music combines melodic motives from jazz, rhythmic motives from the Middle East, India, Africa, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Bali,

World Music Project with Robert Plant's guitarist wants me to play on their next world music CD

Some people making a world music project that has Led Zeppelin's singer's guitarist wants me to play on their next world music CD but it's not possible without a computer. My computer got a short and a small fire and is still in Ubud. The reason they want me to do it is because my music on Myspace sounds great and other examples like this.



It's composed to sound like Japanese folk music. I've got other examples in Thai, Chinese, Indonesian and Middle Eastern Styles.

I sent a message to Mark Slaughter asking him to endorse my music composition course. In the message to Mark it mentioned the opportunity with Robert Plant's guitarist emphasizing why they would want me and it also said,

"I was wondering if you'd be interested in having a look at the music composition course I'm currently marketing. It has the tools I used to put together all of my compositions. It's at www.thewritesongcourse.com. I could really use someone with your credentials to give their endorsement.

Free copies are below.
http://www.lulu.com/content/e-book/the-write-song-course-ebook/6607644

http://www.lulu.com/content/multimedia/the-write-song-course-audio/6633066

Just listen to the audio while you passively scan the text. What could be easier?

I think we could both make a decent amount of money."

Best regards,

Greg Turner