Wesleyan University

SEKAHA GONG AMERIKA AFFINITY AND THE BALINESE GAMELAN COMMUNITY IN THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA

By Ellen Jean Lueck Faculty Advisor: Dr. Su Zheng

A Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Wesleyan University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts

Middletown, Connecticut

May 2012

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Acknowledgments3 Chapter One Introduction..... 4 Chapter Two Purpose, Goals, and Ensemble Organization: Academic Groups and Community Groups . 22 Chapter Three, Elements of Affinityhood: Transmission, Performance, and the Pilgrimage to Bali.......43 Chapter Four Gamelan Dharma Swara Tours Bali: A Portrait of Three Performances...72 Chapter Five A Historical Look at the Formation of the Balinese Gamelan Experience in North America: Seven Events from 1928-1985.104 Conclusion...133 Appendix 1: Instruments in a Balinese Gamelan.... 144 Appendix 2: List of Balinese Gamelan in North America...146 Appendix 3: Gamelan Dharma Swaras 2010 Tour Schedule and Information..153 Glossary...156 Suggested Audio/Visual Media...................................................158 Discography................................................................................................................ 159 Bibliography .............................................. 160

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I am sincerely grateful to so many people who have helped guide me through the process of writing this thesis. First of all, I would like to thank my advisor, Dr. Su Zheng, for her honest and straightforward advice, for her close readings, and constructive critiques. I greatly appreciate Dr. Sumarsam and Dr. Eric Charry for their suggestions, and for acting on my thesis committee. I would also like to thank Peter Steele and Shoko Yamamuro for the many hours of discussion over issues surrounding the Balinese Gamelan Affinity Group in North America. This thesis would be meaningless and ill informed without the many collaborators who helped me out. I thank Lela Chapman, Vicky Chow, Dr. Jeremy Grimshaw, Dr. Eric Hung, Dr. Elizabeth Leininger, Michael Lipsey, John MacDonald, Dr. Andrew McGraw, Nicole Reisnour, Christopher Romero, Paddy Sandino, I Nyoman Saptanyana and his entire family, Julie Strand, Dr. Michael Tenzer, Matthew Welch, and all of the members of Gamelan Sekar Jayas Jegog ensemble. Lastly, I would like to thank all of the members of Gamelan Dharma Swara, Gamelan Chandra Bhuana, and Gamelan Wira Surya. Playing music with these groups has left me musically fulfilled and inspired.

CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION

I asked Balinese gamelan super-enthusiast, Andy McGraw why he was so drawn to Balinese gamelan in the first place.1 He responded, Its not always that case that you realize your life has changed the moment it actually does. But thats how I felt when I first heard Semara Ratih and udamani play.2 It was kind of like Ok, well now I have to change all of these things about my life. I have to figure out a way to listen to a whole bunch of this music and study some of it, and figure out how to get back here [Bali]. But what did it for me, what totally shook me up and actually kept me up all night was that incredible ensemble musicianship. Even though I had played all of these other kinds of musics, many of them more technically difficult for example, North Indian music; you cant outdo the virtuosity of that tradition. But there was something about seeing those polos and sangsih3 players do that. Thats what I hadnt realized from the recording that I heard as an undergraduate. It took a mechanical understanding to really be terrified by it. And that was a kind of listeningto-each other that I had never experienced before. So thats what it was, it was about ensemble playing. And a focus on a social musicianship over an individualized musicianship that brought attention to itself. (McGraw 2011) Since McGraws almost born again account of his moment of conversion to a life involving Balinese gamelan, he has gone on to receive a PhD in ethnomusicology with a focus on Balinese music. He travels to Bali almost every year, and even teaches his own gamelan ensemble in Richmond, Virginia. Most gamelan enthusiasts in North America dont first become enamored with this music while in Bali, or anywhere abroad for that matter. The majority are introduced to Balinese gamelan through the growing number of ensembles offered and taught
1

Michael Tenzer (2000: 450) defines gamelan as Balinese and Javanese largely percussive sets of instruments, constructed and tuned to be played together as an inseparable unit. 2 Semara Ratih and udamani are two of the best ensembles in Bali. 3 Polos and sangsih are the intricate interlocking parts that Balinese gamelan is famous for.

through university music departments, or through a number of North American produced recordings, circulated amongst classrooms, and amongst an eclectic, cosmopolitan crowd.4 Peter Steele, another gamelan super-enthusiast, remembered vividly his first encounter with Balinese gamelan as a young freshman at Pamona College in Southern California. He was taking a walk around the campus, when he happened to come upon the academic ensemble in a rehearsal. He described his experience to me. At the time, I remember that it sounded gorgeous. There was something really intriguing about how it sounded, and my girlfriend at the time, who was this huge hippy, was immediately struck by inspiration that she took out her notebook and wildly started scratching poetry on the grass next to me There were a few things that I noticed. I noticed that they were all playing from memory, and that was really amazing to me. They had learned all these songs and they werent using any kind of notation they memorized all of these things. At this point, I hadnt decided to be a music student, and I thought to myself I could never do something like that And I remember thinking that there are intervals in these scales that sounded like western intervals, and I was hearing leading tones, and was expecting the melody to go a certain way, or rest in a certain place, but these melodies werent doing that. That was interesting because it signaled to me that there were other principles at work, some other kind of grammar that structures the music. I thought that maybe for someone who is immersed in this music, it would feel right for some melody to end there. To me it defied all expectations of what a melody should sound like. (Steele 2011) Peter Steele didnt join the academic gamelan group until his junior year, but this memory stayed with him throughout that time. He has since fashioned a life for himself that allows for maximum participation in Balinese gamelan. Steele is pursuing a PhD in ethnomusicology with a focus on Balinese music. He travels to Bali almost every year. He rarely listens to anything other than recordings of Balinese gamelan. Even his family life is rooted in his affinity, as his wife, Shoko Yamamuro, is equally committed to

See Suggested Audio/Visual Media for list of these recordings.

Balinese dance.5 Peter Steele could be described as a Balinese gamelan super-enthusiast through and through. I was also bitten by the bug for Balinese gamelan in college. I had heard the famous Nonesuch recording of the gamelan piece Golden Rain as a California high school student from a fellow young music collector.6 The piece intrigued me, but the sound of the gamelan seemed so exotic and distant at that time. It never occurred to me that this was music that I could actually participate in. As a junior at Sarah Lawrence College, I saw Balinese Gamelan Angklung on the list of possible ensembles to take. I signed up immediately, remembering the recording I had heard several years before. It is hard to describe exactly what it was about Balinese gamelan specifically that overwhelmed me so. After all, I had experimented with several other forms of music, including western classical flute, jazz, bluegrass, and West African drumming, but none of these genres induced the same sort of obsession within me. On the first day of class, the ensemble at Sarah Lawrence sounded simply horrible, as no one had ever played before. It was painfully loud, and frankly, quite frustrating to practice several new skills at once, such as dampening the keys, memorizing the melody without notation, and taking cues from a very syncopated drum pattern. Musically, we were about as far from executing the swift kotekan patterns described in Andrew McGraws story as possible. However, I enjoyed that the gamelan, by definition, required a group of participants. I remember thinking how great it was going to be able to practice learning music without notation. The ensembles incredible volume and brightness made my heart race with a
5

The Balinese Dance affinity group in the United States and Canada shares a lot in common with the gamelan affinity group. However, it does have its own unique culture from the gamelan enthusiasts, and is outside the scope of this thesis. 6 Please see Discography for more information.

rush of adrenaline. Once I learned that the small angklung group at Sarah Lawrence was only one of over sixty active ensembles in North America,7 and that this was a music that I could pursue locally and with reasonable ease, I was hooked for good. Andrew McGraw, Peter Steele, and I, are not alone in our intense interest for Balinese gamelan. There are well over one thousand North Americans currently participating in their academic or local community ensemble.8 Thousands more have been involved with gamelan in the past. Of course, not all participants hold Balinese gamelan as the most important interest or activity in their day-to-day lives. However, there is a body of people who maintain an active and intellectual engagement with the music, the instruments, Balinese aesthetics, and Balinese methodology. These people (myself included) engage with these elements within North American based gamelan groups. Many members of this body also engage with a geographically distant gamelan community in Bali, Indonesia, the source for the music. This collective body of people makes up the musical and cultural affinity group under discussion. This project takes the form of a descriptive ethnography and auto-ethnography about a community of musicians, spanning the United States, Canada, and at times, Bali. These musicians are connected by their participation in Balinese gamelan ensembles. My discussions are mostly aimed at issues that immediately pertain to community gamelan groups. However, I occasionally include some sections, and bring up issues that relate more to the academic ensembles mentioned above.9 Through the use of descriptive ethnography, I seek to (begin to) answer these questions: In what contexts are these gamelan groups being organized in North America?
7 8

Please see Appendix 2: List of Balinese Gamelan in North America I am assuming that an average of 20 people are participating in each of the 61 ensembles listed. 9 Community gamelan group and academic gamelan group will be defined later in this chapter.

Have these organizational models changed over time? What Balinese elements musical, cultural, and intellectual of North American gamelan practices are particularly important to the community at large? Do these elements rank differently amongst individual groups, or even amongst individual group members? What is it that bonds these North American gamelan ensembles together? What issues or elements might separate them in certain ways? What is the Affinity Groups relationship to Bali as a physical place, a site of imagined authenticity and authentication for western groups, and as a site for exoticism? These questions help guide my descriptive lens, and narrow my discussion of what would otherwise be a seemingly endless search into the broad, less geographically confined Balinese Gamelan Affinity Group at large (moving forward, I will also use BGAG to abbreviate). My aim is to describe and tease out some of the most basic, as well as some of the most nuanced practices, opinions, concerns, and issues that occur within this BGAG, as experienced by its members. I hope to find an ethnographic balance between the broad and the specific, which will leave the reader with some essence of what being a Balinese gamelan enthusiast in North America is all about. My broad descriptions are mostly of group organization, academic or professional aims amongst group members, and other largely shared characteristics that may be found amongst other musically oriented groups as well. However, I also want to convey some of the cultural minutiae that make the BGAG unique. This includes the description of some specific events that are not necessarily shared by all gamelan enthusiasts (for example, Dharma Swaras tour to Bali, discussed in chapter four), but that get at the heart of questions and issues that many enthusiasts experience in their own way.

To achieve this balance, I try to provide ethnographic snapshots. Some snapshots are taken from higher ground, and capture a larger picture. Other snapshots are taken at a close up. Like a photograph, these snapshots can, at times, obscure the surrounding items that influence the direct subject. I apologize to those readers who may disagree with the privilege I give to certain details while ignoring others. With the decision to provide nuance comes the need to pick and choose which elements to illuminate, while leaving others in the dark. My hope is that this thesis will also cause the reader to ask some questions that are not answered within the following pages either because they are philosophically unanswerable, or because they do not fit within the limited scope of this document. Some of these questions have been on the forefront of my mind, including: What happens when affinity morphs into full identity. In other words, can non-Balinese, North American gamelan enthusiasts claim Balinese gamelan as their own music? If so, what are the possible consequences of this? How does this level of cultural appropriation affect the source? What aspects of a broader North American culture allow for such an affinity group to not only take hold, but also thrive? Surely, an ethnomusicological project about Balinese gamelan practices in the United States and Canada could be propelled into several different directions. That being said, I believe it is important to clarify what this project is not. First of all, my intent is not to compare North American gamelan groups to those in Bali. There are moments where a few comparisons are presented, but I make these comparisons only because they are expressed as important to North American gamelan enthusiasts. This project is also

not meant as a critique of the inauthenticity of the BGAG. These topics would certainly make for their own very interesting theses, however they are not included here.

Terms Throughout my discussions about Balinese gamelan enthusiasts, I use a variety of terms to describe individual participants, as well as the collective body of people that make up the Balinese Gamelan Affinity Group. The term affinity group itself deserves a proper definition and explanation. As Mark Slobin explores in his book, Subcultural Sounds: Micromusics of the West (1993), the affinity group is based upon choice individuals choosing to engage in musical activity and community which is not necessarily rooted in ones own cultural heritage or upbringing. Other factors can also be taken into account in the molding of the affinity group, including taste, aesthetics, and a desire to belong to a group (ibid: 55-57). In regards to the North American BGAG, the allure of the subculture may also play a large role in individuals choice. Enthusiasts may be drawn to gamelan precisely because it seems to evade North American mainstream musical practices. I use this term group to mean two things. When used within the term affinity group or more specifically, the North American Balinese Gamelan Affinity Group group refers to all people who are participating in Balinese gamelan within the system and culture currently at work, and described throughout the rest of this thesis. When I use group is by itself, I refer rather to individual ensembles. For example, I label Gamelan Dharma Swara as both an ensemble, and as a group (the traditional meaning of music

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group). When I refer to community groups and academic groups, I am also referring to all individual ensembles that meet the criteria for either definition. I also use the term community frequently to refer to the connectedness of the BGAG members. While this term seems simple enough, Kay Shelemay has recently pointed out that community can refer to too large a number of meanings (Shelemay 2011). I use the term to describe three different types of groups within my thesis. I write of the North American BGAG as a community-at-large, where community refers to a de-localized assembly (spanning about 4,000 square miles), connected through social media technology and shared intellectual products, such as touring performances, or ethnomusicological publications.10 I sometimes use the term North American gamelan scene to refer to the same community-at-large (ibid). I refer to regional connectedness and collectives as communities for example, the Los Angeles gamelan community, where many enthusiasts belong to several ensembles at once, many of which are taught by the same Balinese teacher, Pak Nyoman Wenten. In my discussion of a performance in the Balinese village of Jagaraga, I use community in a more traditional sense to describe people who are connected through the sharing of their lives with others in a definable place. To write about individuals, I often use the terms Balinese gamelan enthusiast, and super-enthusiast. In general, I use enthusiast to mean all individuals who choose to participate in a Balinese gamelan ensemble in North America. Of course, not all students in every academic group are particularly enthusiastic about the music, culture, or pedagogical methods. Some may be taking the class solely for credit, or to fulfill an
10

In the de-localized context of community-at-large, one could also argue that this community becomes localized and concentrated in the summers in Bali, when many gamelan enthusiasts travel there and connect face-to-face.

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academic requirement. To avoid overcomplicating the discussions and issues at hand, I generally ignore that extreme gradation of commitment to the BGAG. However, I do frequently use the term super-enthusiast to refer to the opposite extreme to those individuals such as Andrew McGraw and Peter Steele, quoted above, who choose to organize enormous parts of their lives and personal identities around Balinese gamelan. Super-enthusiasts often create for themselves an entire career driven by gamelan, such as becoming an ethnomusicologist or gamelan composer, or both. They are often called upon as leaders and mentors for the less experienced members of the BGAG. If a native Balinese gamelan expert is absent from a particular, localized gamelan community in North America, then the nearest super-enthusiast will usually act as the transmitter of Balinese music, culture, and pedagogical methods as best they can.

Methods I have been highly active in playing Balinese gamelan for the past five years, and I draw heavily from those experiences. I try to remain fully honest with myself about my personal and shared experience as a gamelan enthusiast and musician, while maintaining and expanding my critical eye gained from practice in ethnomusicology. I fully acknowledge that I implicate myself in any critique I make of the North American Balinese Gamelan Affinity Group. Since the fall of 2011, I have conducted research, drawing on methods from anthropology and ethnomusicology, including fieldwork and participant-observation. I have recorded several ensemble rehearsals in their entirety, as well as attended public performances on the east and west coasts of the United States, mostly in Oakland,

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California with Gamelan Sekar Jaya, and in New York City with Gamelan Dharma Swara. I have conducted dozens of interviews with a variety of gamelan enthusiasts, ranging from the newly exposed, to life-long super-enthusiasts such as ethnomusicologist and composer Michael Tenzer. During my time at Wesleyan University, I have also participated in the academic Balinese gamelan ensemble, Gamelan Wira Surya, led by ethnomusicologist Peter Steele.

Literature Review I feel very fortunate that there are such rich scholarly writings on affinity groups, including some previous research conducted on Balinese gamelan ensembles in North America. Mark Slobins Subcultural Sounds (1993) is the text that initially sparked my interest in affinity groups in general. In his book, Slobin discusses the affinity group comparitively, focusing on the idea and phenomenon itself, rather than on a particular case study, as I do in this thesis. He concludes that the affinity group is inextricably tied to individual choice, followed by the need to belong to a social group, which is bound by the same choice (ibid: 55-60). One of Slobins students, Mirjana Lausevic, later published a book, Balkan Fascination (2007), which brings light to the contemporary Balkan music and dance affinity group in the United States. Lausevics work uncovers the deep historical roots of the outsiders interest in Balkan music. Another book that has influenced my own thought on affinity groups is philosopher James O. Youngs (2010) Cultural Appropriation and the Arts. His work explores the many ways in which physical, intellectual, and culturally owned art can be appropriated by outsiders. He

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emphasizes the potential interaction between the originator and appropriator, and ways in which some forms of cultural appropriation may be beneficial, or detrimentally harmful to one or both parties. Youngs book is not solely about affinity groups, however this proactive, participatory type of appropriation is examined with some detail. Several published and unpublished articles, presentations, and dissertations have also been invaluable to my current research. Kay Kaufmann Shelemay has recently drawn upon Slobins work to confront the affinity group, adding that, Music proves to be a particularly powerful mechanism for catalyzing affinity communities, in which straightforward aesthetic and personal preferences may, but do not necessarily, intersect with other powerful diacritica such as ethnic identity, age cohort, or gender identity. But ultimately, affinity communities derive their strength from the presence and proximity of a sizeable group and for the sense of belonging and prestige that this affiliation offers. (Shelemay 2011: 373) There are a number of dissertations in ethnomusicology that have influenced my project as well. Maria Mendonca (2002) and Katherine Wakeling (2010) have written on Javanese and Balinese gamelan communities in the U.K, respectively. Peter Steele (2012) has been kind enough to share with me sections of his dissertation-in-progress, on intercultural collaborations in Balinese Gamelan. His second and third chapters deal specifically with collaborative musical projects involving many of the North American super-enthusiasts I discuss in my own work. Dustin Weibe (2009) presented a paper at the SEM Niagara Chapter meeting in which he provides his personal insight into the ideological and pedagogical struggles that face academic Balinese gamelan ensembles. Books and articles on pedagogy in world music have been highly thought provoking. The most influential among them is the compiled volume, Performing Ethnomusicology: Teaching and Representation in World Music Ensembles (2004),

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edited by Ted Solis. The book contains fifteen chapters each by a different author representing various experiences, thoughts, and ideological solutions to issues that arise from teaching world music ensembles in academia. Six of these chapters deal specifically with teaching either Javanese or Balinese gamelan (Susilo 2004; Sumarsam 2004; Vetter 2004; Harnish 2004; Witzleben 2004; Hughes 2004). Ethnomusicologist Michael Bakan (1993/1994) also wrote a fabulous article about traditional pedagogy in Balinese gamelan, and the ways it can be positively applied to teaching western art music. Lastly, I must recognize the published works that deal with Java and Balis artistic exchange and relationship to the West. This is a topic that has been explored by a number of scholars and writers for the past seventy years (about the same amount of time that gamelan has been played by westerners outside of Indonesia). While not scholarly works, Collin McPhees (1994), A House in Bali, and John Coasts (1954), Dancing Out of Bali, deserve serious recognition for their vivid and insightful memories that speak volumes about the early relationships between ethnomusicologists and Balinese artists, dancers, and musicians. Adrian Vickers goes on to question the idyllic image that writers such as McPhee and Coast cast upon Bali in his book, Bali: A Paradise Created (1989). In it, Vickers explores historical shifts in the way that the west (mostly Europe) has viewed Bali from the idea of Bali as an island to be feared, to the geographic and artistic paradise that is associated with Bali today. Matthew Isaac Cohen also published a book, Performing Otherness: Java and Bali on International Stages, 1905-1952 (2010), about the historical representation of Javanese and Balinese artistic forms on the Western entertainment

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stage. The American based gamelan journal Balungan has published dozens of short articles about Javanese and Balinese gamelan in North America since the mid 1980s, many of which have greatly shaped by thoughts and understanding of the history of the Balinese Gamelan Affinity Group (Benary 1985; Martin 1986; Vitale 1990; Voss 1998).

Summary of Chapters Throughout the following four chapters, my ethnographic lens phases from a wide, landscape perspective, to a finer, more specific look at the inner workings of the BGAG and gamelan enthusiasts. I begin Chapter Two with a broad discussion of the two types of Balinese gamelan ensembles active in North America, which are the process oriented academic groups, and the often goal, or professionally oriented community groups. Academic Balinese gamelan ensembles in North America began forming in the late 1950s, starting with Mantle Hood at UCLA, and founded on his model for bimusicality as an ethnomusicological research method (Hood 1960).11 In the late 1970s, a new model for the Balinese gamelan ensemble was formed in order to accommodate the more professionally driven gamelan enthusiasts. This model the community group severed its ties to academia, and was opened up to anyone who could commit the time and effort to learn gamelan. I write about the ways in which academic and community ensembles are structurally organized, as well as differences in goals and approaches to working with Balinese music and instruments. For example, university faculty members teach some academic groups, while professional Balinese musicians are hired to teach other
11

Mantle Hoods bi-musicality model is based on the idea that an ethnomusicologist must learn to play the music that they study in order to gain a more complete understanding of the tradition (Hood 1960).

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academic ensembles. Most of these groups are more concerned with a traditional approach to Balinese pedagogical methods and appropriate Balinese etiquette. On the other hand, community groups tend to have more ambitious goals to develop a high level of musicality for Balinese gamelan, and to perform frequently however, many of them differ in their approaches to group organization. One community group might agree to function as a Balinese sekaha gong (democratic community group in Bali), while another group might appoint a single leader with a vision, and follow that individual. In Chapter Three, my ethnographic lens narrows to discuss three important components to the culture surrounding Balinese gamelan community groups in North America: the transmission of the music, public performances and professionalism, and what I label the pilgrimage to Bali, or the importance of traveling to Bali as a rite of passage for gamelan enthusiasts. These three elements play a large role in shaping the state of the BGAG, and even help define the community-at-large and its individual members in several ways. While pedagogy, public performance, and travel are certainly not elements exclusive to the Balinese Gamelan Affinity Group in and of itself, I believe the relationship that the BGAG maintains to these elements is unique. There is very strong encouragement within gamelan ensembles to learn the traditional Balinese repertoire through a traditional Balinese pedagogical method. The most important component that most community and academic group leaders focus on is the learning of the fixed piece through repetition, without the use of notation. Many enthusiasts also find that the aural/oral pedagogical method improves listening skills, as well as the ability to quickly memorize long musical phrases or passages. In the end of

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the section, I argue that this traditional method of teaching and learning is in many ways an ideal that North American gamelan groups aspire to, but often fail to carry out in full. Public performance brings another set of issues to the table for Balinese gamelan ensembles, such as the potential for misrepresentation of the music and Balinese culture to unknowing audience members. Other elements worth considering and teasing out include the frequent use of traditional Balinese clothing for performances, as well as the use of Hindu Balinese imagery and props for staging purposes. These theatrics also have the potential to blur the boundaries for the ensemble member between affinity and identity as a culture bearer (Turner 1969 in Harnish 2004: 134-135). These issues are explored through the examination of three common types of performance contexts: the self-promoted concert, the museum function, and the Indonesian cultural event. My last example of a trait that is carried out and promoted by Balinese gamelan enthusiasts in North America is the importance of traveling to Bali. Bali is the place of origin and tradition, the source of the pedagogical method used to teach it, and the place where the instruments were made and blessed. Above all, Bali is the place where gamelan is not part of a subcultural scene or affinity group, but the place where gamelan can be heard, practiced, taught, lived, and breathed every single day in its traditional (and contemporary) homeland. Yet, I argue that the frustrating and unrelenting cultural barriers between enthusiasts and their Balinese teachers and collaborators is also a key element in the success of the BGAG as a whole in the United States and Canada. Chapter Four narrows the lens even further to an auto-ethnographically detailed profile of three performances by New York Citys Gamelan Dharma Swara, on their 2010 tour to Bali. There, we performed traditional pieces as well as new American works for

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kebyar (20th century Balinese gamelan style) in front of Balinese audiences. The three performances discussed in this chapter provided particular insight into the relationship between gamelan enthusiasts myself included and Bali as a physical place, a site of imagined authenticity and authentication for western groups, and as a site for exoticism. To complicate things further, these complex relationships are often experienced openly and reflexively by the North American participants, who are either ethnomusicologists themselves, or have been deeply influenced by ethnomusicological thought. The first profile describes Gamelan Dharma Swaras competition-style performance in the northern village of Jagaraga the birthplace of kebyar against the local youth gamelan ensemble. Dharma Swara, and an accompanying group from Richmond, Virginia, were the only western tourists at the rural event. This created an environment ripe for exoticization of the experience, which for many of us evoked a sense of nostalgia for some imagined past Bali, represented in the texts and photography of Colin McPhee (1944), Margaret Meade (1942), and John Coast (1954), that may or may not have ever existed for the Balinese people (Vickers 1989). The second profile explores the ways in which the members of Gamelan Dharma Swara came face-to-face with their philosophical, historical, and cultural relationships to other North American groups as they competed in a competition against Berkeley, Californias famed community ensemble, Gamelan Sekar Jaya. I suggest that as much as the North American Balinese Gamelan Affinity Group is bound together by their mutual interests, they are also separated by rivalries and ideological differences. The experience was further distanced from the romantic imagination by the Balinese audience from the

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town of Ubud a region where the novelty of hosting western gamelan groups has long worn off. The final section of Chapter Four deals mostly with the meaning of repertoire, and the relationship between Gamelan Dharma Swara and the cosmopolitan audience at the Bali Arts Festival, as we competed in the popular gong kebyar competition against Balis Jembrana regency. Our set repertoire included both traditional works and newly composed pieces by American and Canadian members of the New York based ensemble. A discussion of our performance of the classic lelambatan piece Tabuh Pisan (composed by I Wayan Beratha, 1978) is followed by an account of Andrew McGraws kreasi baru, Sikut Sanga (2009-2010),12 and Pan Wandres colossal work Kebyar Legong (1914). The final piece under the scrutiny of thousands of Balinese audience members was Sudamala (2009-2010) a music and dance collaboration between several members of Dharma Swara and master Balinese artists.13 My final chapter, taking the form of historical snapshots, provides a historical look at seven events that drastically shaped the course of the North American Balinese Gamelan Affinity Group as it is today. These events took place between the years 1928 1985. They include: early recordings and Colin McPhee, the 1958 Dancers of Peliatan tour through the United States, the establishment of the first gamelan program at UCLA in 1959, Bob Browns 1971 study trip to Bali with his students, the American Society for Eastern Arts and the establishment of the Center for World Music in California in the mid 1970s, the founding of Gamelan Sekar Jaya in 1979, and their subsequent professional tour to Bali in 1985. I argue that Sekar Jayas tour marks the last major event to form the
12

Ethnomusicologist Pete Steele provides another detailed analysis of McGraws Sikut Sanga (Steele 2012). 13 Sudamala (Aryani, Fung, Mellon, Reisnour, Steele, Sudarta, Welch: 2009-2010)

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way in which Balinese gamelan ensembles in North America are conceived of, organized, and experienced as of 2012.

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CHAPTER TWO PURPOSE, GOALS, AND ENSEMBLE ORGANIZATION: ACADEMIC GROUPS AND COMMUNITY GROUPS
Balinese gamelan ensembles in North America can generally be characterized as one of two types: academic groups, or community groups. My hope is that this distinction between the academic group and the community group will be helpful for a more complete understanding of the active Balinese gamelan ensembles available to North American gamelan enthusiasts. The first type the academic group is usually found in college and university music departments, and takes the form of a class. These ensembles tend to be processoriented, or geared toward providing basics for students to begin to expand their musical horizons beyond the western idiom. The basics include playing technique, and an elementary understanding of the musical language in which gamelan music functions (gong cycles, elaborating melodies dependent upon skeletal melodies, etc.). The academic group harkens back to Mantle Hoods (1957) study group,1 also discussed recently by seventeen contributing authors in Performing Ethnomusicology (Solis, ed. 2004). The second type of ensemble under discussion is what is commonly referred to as the community group. These Balinese gamelan ensembles are generally not affiliated with an academic institution. Sometimes the instruments used by a community group are housed at a college or university where they also practice, but may otherwise remain an
1

Ethnomusicologist Mantle Hood created the study group at UCLA in the 1950s. The study group was developed to enable students of ethnomusicology to learn to play the types of music that they also observe (very intertwined with Hoods concept of bi-musicality), before real proficiency was developed.

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autonomous entity. Community groups are usually geared towards performance, and their members have more concrete, semi-professionally oriented goals, developed after reasonable mastery of the process.2 These community groups are self-run, either by the entire group as a whole, or by particular members.

Academic Groups As mentioned above, academic groups are usually housed and sponsored by college or university music departments.3 Most commonly, these gamelan ensembles are run by ethnomusicologists or world music faculty members, and are offered either as a club activity (not for academic credit), or as an official class (for academic credit) (Sumarsam 2004: 81-82). In addition, many schools choose to hire visiting or permanent Balinese musicians working or studying in North America, to come and teach repertoire, technique, and Balinese social etiquette associated with playing gamelan (this etiquette will be described in further detail later in this chapter). The ethnomusicologist instructor is usually charged with organizing the class, grading, and providing the students with a social and cultural framework in which to contemplate their involvement with such an unfamiliar music.4 In cases where the school is located too far away for a professional Balinese musician to travel, or where the schools budget does not allow for an extra teacher, then the ethnomusicologist faculty
2

Most community groups hold workshops that provide a process-oriented atmosphere to those who wish to join the ensemble, but have no prior experience with Balinese gamelan. 3 The Sierra School gamelan in El Cerrito, California is based in an elementary school. This is the only example I know of a group based out of a primary school. 4 Of course, in some instances, the Balinese instructor is also an ethnomusicologist working or studying in North America. For example, I Wayan Sudirana, a PhD candidate in ethnomusicology studying with Michael Tenzer at University of British Colombia, provides both the musical practicalities and the Balinese cultural elements associated with gamelan within an ethnomusicological framework.

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member must teach the gamelan on their own, even if their knowledge of gamelan repertoire, technique, and social etiquette is limited. The most common type of Balinese gamelan ensemble amongst academic groups is the angklung, a small, portable, four-tone (occasionally five tones) ensemble generally associated in Bali with music for cremation ceremonies. There are several reasons for the angklungs prevalence in schools. One clear reason is the size of the instruments. The angklung is designed to be easily transported and stored, making them less of a problem to house in a crowded music building or instrument room. (For example, at Wesleyan University the entire angklung set is stored in shelves against the wall of the World Music Hall, taking up very little space.) Because of the angklungs small size and conservative use of bronze, the instruments also cost less than some of the other larger types of ensembles prevalent in Bali.5 A decently made angklung set can cost as little $5,000 (U.S.) to commission. Meanwhile, a full set of kebyar instruments could cost $20,000 for the same quality. For the coast of a piano, a university music department can buy an entire gamelan, which can create a class for fifteen to twenty students. Because of the angklungs price and portability, some ethnomusicologists who specialize in gamelan can afford to purchase a set for themselves. (This can also be beneficial to the ethnomusicologist in search of a job where there is no gamelan already in place.) Finally, the fact that the angklung ensemble has only four to five tones for each instrument can make playing the music feel more manageable, and therefore less intimidating for beginning gamelan students who may be entirely unfamiliar with the style and the techniques needed to be able to play it.
5

A full kebyar set (the most popular large ensemble in Bali), which includes ten keys on each gangsa (refer to Appendix 1), uses about three times as much bronze as a set of bronze angklung.

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Of course, not all academic groups are run the same way. Some Balinese gamelan programs require more commitment from their students than others. Some groups are encouraging of non-student community members to join (whether they are members of the university community such as faculty and staff, or the regional community). Continual participation from community members in an academic group can gradually increase the overall performance level, since students may only take the gamelan class for one or two semesters, while the dedicated community members continue to improve. Some academic groups focus on challenging repertoire and high performance quality while foregoing the opportunity to learn the music through the notation-free Balinese method,6 and use either western notation, or more commonly the Javanese cipher notation.7 Others focus on learning the music aurally, and may sacrifice a tight sound at the end-of-semester concert. Due to the time constrains of the academic calendar, along with the fact that most students in a school gamelan group are at the novice level, it can be quite the challenge to achieve high performance quality and to instill in the students an unfamiliar method for learning music (Weibe 2009). The Balinese gamelan ensemble at Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, New York also known as Gamelan Chandra Bhuana is a an example of an academic group that faces the realities and challenges listed above.8 The course is organized and run by Professor Jonathan T. King, the music departments sole ethnomusicologist. Professor King came into his faculty position after the Balinese Gamelan Angklung class was
6 7

Please See Chapter Three under Transmission Javanese cipher notation uses numbers corresponding to instrument keys to represent melodic material. The space between the numbers represents rhythmic material. Example: 1 4 3 2 1 4 3 2 132432 1. 8 I was a student member of Gamelan Chandra Bhuana from 2007-2009. I have kept frequent communications with Professor King and Nyoman Saptanyana (with whom I played in Gamelan Dharma Swara in New York), and this information has been updated through those communications.

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already put in place.9 His main area of study is bluegrass music, and he had no prior experience playing Balinese or Javanese gamelan (though, to his credit, he had certainly done his reading on the subject). The music department at Sarah Lawrence is also able to hire a professional Balinese gamelan musician, I Nyoman Saptanyana, to teach in the class on Thursday evenings from 7:00pm to 9:00pm. This is the only group rehearsal that Gamelan Chandra Bhuana holds in the week. The Sarah Lawrence angklung is only open to current students. For a number of years, the website suggested that the group was also open to any interested community members. Despite its openness, no community members ever joined. Now the website clearly states the guidelines for participation in the gamelan. Any interested student may join; no previous experience with music is necessary. Participation in Gamelan Angklung Chandra Bhuana (fall) is required for all students taking Structures of Music and Structures of Power: Ethnomusicology of Africa, Asia, and the Middle East; occasional exceptions may be granted by the instructor.10 Since the fall semester group (there is no gamelan class in the spring) is made up entirely of college students some of whom are required to take gamelan in order to study other musical favorites in Professor Kings ethnomusicology course the group as a whole remains at a beginners level. Many students take gamelan for only one or two semesters, so each year most of the group is made up of students who have no gamelan experience whatsoever. This leaves the class in a perpetual state of learning the basics. I Nyoman Saptanyana teaches the repertoire, the technique, and plays kendang (drum that leads and cues the ensemble) for Gamelan Chandra Bhuana. He used to allow
9

Jonathan T. Kings predecessor was David Novak, an ethnomusicologist and distinguished gamelan enthusiast. 10 Gamelan Angklung Chandra Bhuana http://www.slc.edu/catalogue/creative-and-performing-arts/music/courses/2011-2012/primary/gamelanangklung-chandra-buana.html

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the students to use cipher notation to learn their part, but now he and King encourage them to learn the material through observation and repetition with no notation. Professor King usually fills in on one of the less technically challenging parts, such as the kajar (beat keeper) or gong (marks cyclical structure of the music). Once King has learned the elaborating parts from observation, such as the melody and the kotekan pattern, he makes himself available to help the other students who may be having a difficult time learning their part. Nyoman Saptanyana (called Nyoman by the Sarah Lawrence students) does very little talking. He also leaves most of the cultural etiquette instruction to King. Professor King explains to the students before the first class of the semester that all participants must remove their shoes at the door. They must not step over or touch their feet to the tops of instruments that would be an action showing disrespect. The main idea behind this instruction is that the instruments have been blessed, and therefore should be treated according to Balinese Hindu cultural customs. If a student accidentally infringes upon these instructions, then the student must purchase a few flowers, some fruit, and a stick of incense to prepare a small offering to place before the gamelan. This is not done out of a genuine belief in Hinduism (although it could be), but to instill in the students a sense of responsibility and respect for the opportunity to learn and appropriate a music from another culture. Not every school ensemble goes so far as to require an offering to be made to the gamelan after an etiquette infringement, but most groups are at least insistent upon the removal of shoes before playing, and resisting the urge no matter how efficient or convenient it may be to step over the instruments.

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I Nyoman Saptanyana and Jonathan T. King have chosen to emphasize these opportunities for cultural and pedagogical understanding, rather than focusing on having a great sounding performance. To clarify, this does not mean that Gamelan Chandra Bhuana works less on musicality than other groups. But teaching trained musicians of western music to learn without notation, or taking the time to teach students who have limited musical experience how to subdivide a beat, will take time away from the class that could be used to tighten up a kotekan pattern or work on fluctuations in tempo and dynamics. The emphasis on culture, and learning gamelan according to Balinese cultural values can be very fruitful for students perhaps more so than an emphasis on sculpting a virtuosic sound. (After all, skill, technique, and musicality can only be improved upon so much in a single semester, particularly within a gamelan perpetually filled with beginners.) Not all of the students will come out of the class obsessed with gamelan (as I was when I graduated from Sarah Lawrence), but all of the students will come out with the experience of learning an unfamiliar music without the use of notation. They will all have been challenged to display respect for the instruments and the music according to Balinese norms, whether or not they believe in the spiritual and religious implications of these Hindu based norms.11 All members of the gamelan will have been challenged to remain patient and help their peers who dont learn the music as quickly. Jonathan Kings ethnomusicology students will have been challenged to be reflexive, and to put the critical theory gained from coursework into personal considerations. Whether or not the

11

Sarah Lawrence College is a socially liberal institution with a strong focus on individual beliefs. The request that all members of the gamelan respect etiquette founded upon religious values can be a personal challenge for those socially and culturally rebellious college students.

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student likes Balinese gamelan at the end of the class, the student will emerge armed with a new experience and insight into music making. Other academic groups take different approaches to their gamelan program. The Balinese gamelan ensemble at Brigham Young University in Provost, Utah, for example, foregoes the tiny, welcoming angklung for a full set of semaradhana (seven-tone, twelve keys per gangsa) instruments.12 Founded in 2008, the BYU gamelan also known as Gamelan Bintang Wahyu has a strong focus on performance. This could be in part because the gamelan has no regular Balinese teacher. Professor Jeremy Grimshaw, the ensemble director, is only able to occasionally bring in guest artists.13 This leaves him in charge of teaching repertoire, technique, and cultural responsibility to the instruments and music. Though professor Grimshaws primary academic interest has been in the works of experimental composer, LaMonte Young, he is also a Balinese music scholar and enthusiast.14 He has traveled to Bali several times. While he understands very well the customary etiquette expected from Balinese musicians in a gamelan, he does not hold the position of a traditional Balinese culture bearer (Nettl 1964). Given professor Grimshaws situation, I would argue that his choice to emphasize performance is more appropriate than trying to transmit all of the nuanced details of traditional Balinese learning experience to his students.15 As a cultural (and in some ways professional) outsider to Balinese gamelan, Jeremy Grimshaw has found a balance between running his
12

Semaradhana is a modern ensemble, created in the 1980s. It can play in both slendro and pelog. It is a common medium for new Balinese compositions. 13 Gamelan Bintang Wahyu has worked with I Ketut Gede Asnawa and family, Edmundo Luna, Ayu Putu Niastarika, and Wayne Vitale. 14 Jeremy Grimshaw is currently writing on Christian music in Bali. 15 At a university with religious affiliations, such as BYU (primarily Mormon), asking the students to act according to Hindu Balinese customs (such as making an offering of flowers and incense to appease multiple deities) could be considered inappropriate.

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gamelan like a western-style orchestra rehearsal and running it like the classic study group. Unlike the gamelan at Sarah Lawrence College, Gamelan Bintang Wayhu is open to students and community members. Their website states, Gamelan Bintang Wahyu is an ensemble of musicians, from all across the BYU community, dedicated to learning and performing the traditional and contemporary music of Bali, a small but artistically rich island in the Indonesian peninsula Gamelan Bintang Wahyu performs at various events and venues in the community, and gives a performance on campus near the end of every semester. The ensemble accepts a limited number of new members each semester; no prior experience with gamelan is required, though a high level of commitment and effort is.16 When I asked Jeremy Grimshaw why the website only claims membership from the BYU community, and not from the larger regional community, his response brought up another issue that surrounds school gamelan groups across the North America rehearsal space and scheduling. I would love to have more truly community-based ensemble, but because of the ridiculous facility scheduling situation at BYU, the only place I could store instruments and have rehearsals is in the room directly below the stage of the main concert hall. This forced us into a very unfortunate rehearsal time slot: Tuesdays and Thursdays, 7:30-9:00am. As a result, we can't really draw members from the wider community (beyond campus) as much as I'd like (and as much as, say, Eastman's Lila Muni [the Balinese gamelan ensemble at Eastman] does, or my little angklung group at Denison did). (Grimshaw 2012) Many school gamelan groups are forced to negotiate and compromise with their respective university music departments regarding time slots, space, and priority level of the ensemble. Some departments are more supportive of their gamelan class than others. Sarah Lawrence, for example, holds gamelan rehearsals from 7:00pm-9:00pm on Thursday evenings. 7:00pm is a perfectly reasonable time to rehearse (particularly for
16

Gamelan Bintang Wahyu http://music.byu.edu/performing_ensembles/gamelan/

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nocturnally inclined undergraduates), and there are few academic classes scheduled that late in the evening. This also allows time for Nyoman Saptanyana to travel by train to Bronxville after work. Yet the Gamelan Bintang Wahyus early rehearsal time and inconvenient facility has the potential to drastically affect the membership, and the ability to practice. While there might be dozens of students interested in learning Balinese gamelan, only a handful of them would even consider registering for a 7:30am class. This also makes it unlikely for regional, off-campus community members to join, as most will be getting ready for a day at work. Also, with the instruments housed beneath the main performance stage, the students have limited access to the instruments during the week and weekend. Despite the contrast in scheduling support between BYU and Sarah Lawrence College, a sense of apathy from the music department administration is a challenge to the gamelan classes at both schools, and many other academic ensembles around North America. Jeremy Grimshaw mentioned to me that he often feels that his gamelan class is thought of as a token ensemble. David Harnish, an ethnomusicologist and gamelan specialist at Bowling Green State University, expressed similar frustrations with the administration regarding his gong kebyar class. Ethnomusicology and non-Western ensembles (the gamelan plus an AfroCaribbean ensemble taught by my colleague, Steven Cornelius) are firmly established at BGSU, yet we find little internal acknowledgment of our existence. Most members of the administration and faculty beyond my immediate department neither expect nor encourage students to study in these ensembles. Consequently, the ensembles are marginalized and attract mostly marginalized students. (Harnish 2004:126) Of course, there is nothing wrong with a class full of marginalized students. However, when I was involved with the music department at Sarah Lawrence a school that prides

31

itself on being a haven for misfits it was an entire year before I even became aware that there was a gamelan ensemble on campus (the music department had only seventy students in total). When I was signing up for ensembles at the beginning of my junior year, the head of the music department rolled his eyes when I said that I wanted to try the Gamelan Angklung class. He asked if there was another ensemble I would rather take instead. This is the same man that was responsible for bringing an ethnomusicologist onto the faculty, and for purchasing the gamelan in the first place. No senior faculty attended our end-of-semester performance during the two years that I participated in the gamelan ensemble. These grievances having been said, I feel very fortunate and even grateful that the administration at Sarah Lawrence and other institutions have continued to at least fund these gamelan classes. Whether or not other faculty members personally believe gamelan to be an important part of the curriculum or even if the class was designed merely to make the department appear more progressive I believe that these classes can deeply impact these marginalized students, often for the better. There have been many other students like myself (and most of the great North American gamelan musicians that I know), who found themselves drawn to music, but simply did not fit in to the classical ensemble or rock band model. I was desperate for an alternative to the soloistic, uptight, pressure-driven western musical training that I received as a young flute player, and even as a serious five-string banjo student. Whatever the Sarah Lawrence administrations agenda was in regards to the gamelan class, it was highly successful on an individual level.

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Gamelan Bintang Wahyu and Gamelan Chandra Bhuana are merely two examples amongst scores of college and university run Balinese gamelan ensembles in North America. Each school and each gamelan teacher will choose to emphasize different elements of Balinese cultural etiquette, gamelans connection to Hinduism, traditional or contemporary repertoire, and even the basic elements of the musical form and its construction. (For example, one teacher may emphasis kotekan patterns, while another may emphasize tempo and dynamics.) Some groups want to reach out to their greater, regional community, while other groups prefer to keep the group insular. But how does a person continue playing gamelan after graduating from college and moving to another location? How does someone begin playing gamelan if they missed out on their college ensemble, or never went to college at all? What do people do who have worked through the process, and want to play more challenging repertoire than an academic group can offer? These questions have largely been attended to by the founding of Balinese gamelan community groups.

Community Groups As previously mentioned, some community gamelan ensembles are housed on college or university campuses (such as Michael Tenzers Gamelan Gita Asmara, housed on the UBC campus, or Gamelan Galak Tika, housed at M.I.T). However, I generally define these ensembles as maintaining a separation from academia.17 Many of these
17

Some community groups housed on college or university campuses share instruments with academic groups. For example, University or British Colombia and Eastman School of Music house two Balinese gamelan ensembles. One is designed as a class just for students, while the other is a pure community group, not administered by the school.

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gamelan groups are hosted by Indonesian consulates (such as Gamelan Dharma Swara), the Indonesian embassy, and arts organizations (such as Gamelan Mitra Kusuma, hosted by the World Arts Focus in Mount Rainier, MD). A few groups, including Gamelan Sekar Jaya, are able to remain independent from outside affiliations. Generally, the expectation of musicianship amongst community groups is higher than that of academic groups. The community group is not doomed to perpetually fill itself with beginners, as an academic group is. Many people in well-established community groups have life-long goals as Balinese gamelan musicians, and have been playing for decades. As a general community group rule, anyone who is willing to dedicate themselves to the study of Balinese gamelan is eligible to join, regardless of age, gender, ethnicity, or educational background (though some groups require beginners to take preliminary lessons or workshops, and then audition for the main ensemble). Yet community groups still tend to attract similar types of people as the school ensembles do. Most gamelan enthusiasts in North America are white and college educated.18 Some Indonesian or Indonesian American participants are also drawn to these ensembles as a way to connect to their heritage and ethnic identity, but for the most part, the community groups are made up of non-Indonesian enthusiasts. Community members generally hold politically and socially liberal viewpoints, and show a broader intellectual interest in multiculturalism and art. Many members of these groups are also professional musicians by means of performance, music teaching, and music scholarship (or all of the above). Most community groups that I have observed have a very diverse age range within its regular membership.
18

While most members of a community gamelan group are white, I dont believe that Balinese gamelan in a North American context is necessarily a symbol of whiteness, but perhaps a symbol of the privilege that comes with higher education, particularly private education.

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As an example, in 2010, Gamelan Dharma Swara the only community Balinese gamelan group in New York City had twenty-four active members. Three members considered themselves professional composers. Seven members were mainly performers of music (particularly of new music). There were five members who were already tenure track professors in ethnomusicology, or were/are still Ph.D. students in ethnomusicology. Five members had jobs working in the arts (not necessarily musical arts). Only three of the musicians in Dharma Swara at that time worked in a field completely outside of music and the arts. One of them had previously been a professional percussionist, and the other two had studied music at the university level. Only one member had no profession in the arts and no prior musical training to gamelan. The age range within the group was wide, spanning from I Nyoman Saptanyanas thirteen-yearold son, to a member in their late fifties. Community gamelan groups are generally more active performers than academic groups. They play more gigs and receive wider recognition from the regional community where they are based. This is due in part to the fact that community groups need to raise enough money to be able to support their gamelan. Instruments need tuning and repairing, teachers and guest artists need to be paid, and large vehicles need to be rented in order to travel for performances. In many cases, rehearsal space is also a significant cost to the group. Another explanation for the higher level of activity is that most community gamelan members are dedicated to learning more challenging and exciting repertoire than one might get in a semester-bound academic group. Gamelan enthusiasts want to reach a high level of musical virtuosity. For this reason, many community ensembles play on a

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full set of kebyar instruments (ten keys) rather than the four-tone angklung. A wellplayed kebyar piece is truly an impressive showstopper, but this requires more time to reach proficiency than a school gamelan class has to offer. After all of the effort put into learning such complicated repertoire, most Balinese gamelan enthusiasts want to be able to show off their skills to their friends and family. Of course, not all Balinese gamelan enthusiasts are life-long devotees of the music. Community groups inevitably have a lot of turnover in their member roster. Some newcomers try it out and end up not enjoying it, or the experience of playing Balinese gamelan (or the community experience) isnt what they thought it would be.19 Some cant make the necessary time commitment to the group. Their long-term success as a community group is often reliant on the dedication and perseverance of a small handful of super-enthusiasts who have made Balinese gamelan a part of their occupation (such as ethnomusicology or professional music composition), or their primary interest above all other interests.20 The fact that a significant number of these super-enthusiasts are ethnomusicologists or composers, working in academia, has contributed to the spread of both school and community based Balinese gamelan ensembles in North America. Many super-enthusiasts of the Baby Boomer generation (born 1946-1964)21 got their first real taste of domestic gamelan ensembleship in the early and middle years of Gamelan Sekar Jaya (founded in 1979). Later in their careers, these leaders were able to find jobs in
19

Some people come to their first Balinese gamelan rehearsal and expect a New Age drum circle kind of scene. They are usually quickly disheartened. 20 In some cases, the community groups are held together and run by a Balinese artist working in the states, such as Nyoman Saptanyana in Gamelan Dharma Swara and Nyoman Suadin in Gamelan Mitra Kusuma. Surely they count as a super-enthusiast in the literal sense, but I use the term mostly to describe a particular type of Westerner, or more specifically, North American. 21 Population Profile of the United States http://www.census.gov/population/www/pop-profile/natproj.html

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colleges and universities around the country, where they started their own school and community gamelan groups. Even the co-founder of Gamelan Sekar Jaya, Michael Tenzer, eventually left the group for other career opportunities. He received a faculty position on the east coast at the Yale School of Music, where he attempted to gather together enough students for a Balinese gamelan following.22 He later returned to North Americas west coast to take a faculty position in the ethnomusicology department at the University of British Columbia. There, Tenzer was able to start a student group and a community group Gamelan Gita Asmara both of which remain very successful and highly supported by the university and the community-at-large. Evan Ziporyn was also one of the early members of Gamelan Sekar Jaya. As a well-known composer, he received a position in the music department at M.I.T. in Boston. Ziporyn was able to start his own community group Gamelan Galak Tika which has a much stronger focus than Sekar Jaya on playing new works and collaboration projects for Balinese gamelan (from both North American and Balinese composers).23 The student and metropolitan populations amongst gamelan enthusiasts has also contributed to the successful spreading of Balinese gamelan groups, as well as to maintaining the overall quality of the playing. For example, very few of the members of Gamelan Dharma Swara are originally from New York City or the surrounding region. Most of them were first introduced to Balinese gamelan through playing in a school ensemble. For example, Liz Leininger first learned at Swarthmore College, Lela
22

Unfortunately, the enthusiasm for Balinese gamelan did not stick at Yale once Michael Tenzer left for another faculty position at University of British Columbia. They currently have a Central Javanese gamelan (taught by Sarah Weiss), but no Balinese ensemble. 23 Gamelan Sekar Jaya continues to be hesitant about playing new North American works for gamelan.

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Chapman first learned at Bard College, and Peter Steele first learned at Pamona College in California, and then at UBC with Michael Tenzer. Nicci Reisnour was first a member of Sekar Jaya while she was an undergraduate in composition at Mills College in Oakland. She began graduate school in ethnomusicology at Cornell in Ithaca, New York, and commuted over four hours (each way) to New York City every week to play in Dharma Swara. For a variety of reasons including graduate school, performance opportunities, and good jobs in the arts, these college graduates made their way to the New York metropolitan area with a thirst for more Balinese gamelan, and joined Dharma Swara already knowing the basics of how to play. The same situation was true for many members of Sekar Jayas jegog group. Paddy Sandino originally learned at Pamona, and then at UBC before moving to the Bay Area specifically to join Sekar Jaya (Sandino 2011). Two jegog members had learned to play gamelan at Florida State Universtiy, and then moved to the Bay Area for graduate school in the sciences at U.C. Berkeley.24 The frequent movement of North American gamelan musicians not only supports the quality of the playing amongst community groups, but also supports frequent connections and dialogue between the ensembles particularly the ensembles located on the east and west coasts. Most gamelan enthusiasts who have been playing for a number of years will be aware of large projects being prepared and produced by groups other than their own. This communication is not solely due to the physical movement of people, but also through maintained friendships between leaders and members of different ensembles. The Balinese gamelan scene also maintains an Internet presence on social networking sites such as Facebook.com and the Gamelan Listserv.25
24 25

Personal field notes for Gamelan Sekar Jaya Jegog rehearsal on July 7, 2011. http://listserv.dartmouth.edu/scripts/wa.exe?A0=GAMELAN

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A large body of repertoire is inevitably shared through the movement of gamelan enthusiasts. For example, the traditional kebyar works Tabuh Pisan, and Taruna Jaya, were played by Gamelan Sekar Jaya in the mid 1980s for their first tour to Bali. Through Sekar Jayas dispersed lineage of super-enthusiasts, other community groups have also learned these two pieces. In fact, Taruna Jaya has in many ways become a marker of a dedicated community Balinese gamelan group. The piece has become a symbol for technical virtuosity, and being able to play it signifies that that group is serious about their commitment to Balinese music. Of course, these shared pieces of repertoire can also be used indirectly in a competitive nature. For example, when Dharma Swara played Tabuh Pisan and Kebyar Legong (a longer piece which Taruna Jaya was derived from) on their 2010 tour to Bali. One unspoken goal was to make those pieces sound better than when Sekar Jaya played them on their famous tour in 1985. This inevitably caused some tension between the two groups when they competed against each other in Bali (see chapter four under the section Ubud).

Community Gamelan Organization and Leadership Most community groups continue to support their ensemble by joining or establishing a non-profit organization either dedicated to a wider arts initiative, or to the gamelan alone. This allows the community group to establish their own expectations from their members, as well as their own musical and fundraising goals. The non-profit organization also allows for members of the gamelan to act as officers within their own administration. Some organizations are larger than others, and they dont all function in the same way, or have the same goals.

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The largest non-profit organization for a community gamelan in North America is Gamelan Sekar Jaya. The group is not affiliated or hosted by any other entity such as an Indonesian consulate or embassy. Their primary organizational goal is to run the group like a sekaha, a village based Balinese community group where all members share organizational and administrative responsibilities, and where decisions are made through a democratic process. They manage to raise enough money to rent their own space, pay their staff, and support their visiting artists-in-residence through member fees, workshop fees, arts grants, performances, and private donations. Sekar Jaya began with a single kebyar ensemble, but the organization has grown over the years to also include angklung, jegog, gender wayang, and Balinese dance.26 Gamelan Sekar Jaya has a Board of Trustees consisting of ten people. Some of these members of the board no longer play with the group, including its two founders, Michael Tenzer and Rachel Cooper. The Board of Trustees includes a president, vice president, treasurer, and two co-secretaries. The group is also able to hire a few members as paid staff. This category includes a director (currently Emiko Susilo), and a general manager (currently Sarah Gambino-Balknap). The steering committee consists of fourteen unpaid active members. They oversee and help in the decision making process for the group as a whole. The steering committee makes up almost 25% of the sixty active members that play amongst the five ensembles.27 Since 1979, Gamelan Sekar Jaya has been able to invite and fund forty-five guest artists from Bali to teach the various
26

Gamelan Sekar Jaya: Performing Ensembles. http://www.gsj.org/performance_ensembles 27 All five ensembles play under the same name, Gamelan Sekar Jaya. Gamelan Sekar Jaya: Office/Staff/Coordinators. http://www.gsj.org/board-and-staff

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groups. (Many of whom are known as some of the best gamelan musicians in the world, including the current guest I Dewa Putu Berata, I Made Subandi, I Wayan Dibia, and I Nyoman Windha.28) Despite the large number of Sekar Jaya members with leadership positions, and despite the groups commitment to a democratic process, the realities of leading such a large ensemble can take a toll on those most involved. In an interview with Sekar Jaya member-at-large Paddy Sandino, he discussed some of the frustrations that come with these responsibilities. You have to do more in this group than any other group by far... The groups that Ive been in before you show up and you play... In this group there is so much volunteer work, its absurd. And its the most expensive group to be in by far... And every single gig you need 15 people to be handling massive amounts of responsibility, whereas in L.A. Wenten [Pak Wenten, the Balinese gamelan teacher at UCLA, Pamona College and CalArts] somehow just took care of it. And in Vancouver, for the most part, Michael [Tenzer] just kind of took care of it. And here, we have a completely over stretched staff who are incredibly talented and they do so much. But they are paying bills, balancing the budgets, raising our quarter million dollar a year budget, dealing with angry people, calling and answering angry emails all day, every day about, ah, I dont want to pay my dues or you are going to have to send me a letter, not an email because I dont like to check my email Its a hard group to be in for people who become an officer like vice president. Basically if you are vice president, its a death sentence. The burnout factor is too high. But at the same time, its the most rewarding group. (Sandino 2011) The difficult and large tasks demanded from the Sekar Jaya staff particularly when it comes to managing performances and gigs have reportedly caused some tensions amongst the group. For some members, their desire to play and perform gamelan at the highest level possible deems the administrative frustrations, time commitment, and the financial sacrifice, worth the inevitable stress. For others (particularly the long-time
28

Gamelan Sekar Jaya: Guest Artists. http://www.gsj.org/guest-artists

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members, who may have already reached their life-long goals as a gamelan musician), they just want to play in a lower stress community group, where engaging in their affinity for Balinese culture within their immediate community takes precedent over performance (ibid.). Solutions to this conflict of interest have been suggested. Some members have proposed that Sekar Jaya get rid of their angklung ensemble, or their jegog ensemble, and just go back to a single kebyar group. But this would surely alienate more than half of the current members, many of whom have no interest in playing kebyar, but enjoy playing angklung or jegog more. Others have proposed that Sekar Jaya be split into two main groups, a professional group, and a community group. This would surely relieve some of the tensions. But Paddy Sandino is quick to point out that this would only put an even larger burden on the Balinese guest artists, whos schedules are already completely filled with the Sekar Jaya agenda. [To split the group into two] means you have to have another rehearsal and our guest artists are already stretched to the brim. We really work our guest artists, you know? Monday night is angklung, Tuesday night is jegog, Thursday night is gong kebyar, Sunday night is gong kebyar teach gender, teach sectionals, and five dance rehearsals a week. In the meantime, Oh now its time for our five-week workshop series on Saturdays, and can you please conceptualize this hour and a half long retelling of the Ramayana epic with shadow puppet projections and song and translate everything and project it in supertitles and so its a lot, and to add on to it is difficult. (ibid.) Due to these scheduling concerns (and the fact that their current rehearsal space is equally booked), it seems that splitting Sekar Jaya into two groups is not a possibility, at least for now. However, this conflict of interest amongst the community members does provide an excellent example of how idealistically minded these community groups can be. People want to be part of a Balinese gamelan that is a reflection of what they see as the best parts

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of Balinese culture and Balinese music, whether that is a reflection of the ideal community aspects of a Balinese gamelan where everyone works together in harmony for the good of the village or whether that is a reflection of Balinese musicality at its best where the groups dynamics, tempo fluctuations, and kotekans are tight, crisp, and intense. Gamelan Dharma Swara is organized a bit differently from Gamelan Sekar Jayas self-made model. Dharma Swara consists of only one ensemble, and thus has only twenty-five to thirty members at a time (vs. Sekar Jayas sixty plus members).29 The kebyar set is owned and housed by the Indonesian consulate in Manhattan. The group is not required to pay rent to the consulate, and the gamelan is able to rehearse free of charge. One drawback to the situation is that Dharma Swara has very little control over their rehearsal schedule. The consulate dictates to the group when they can practice. If the consulate has an event that overlaps with regular gamelan rehearsals, then the rehearsal gets canceled. This can be a point of frustration, particularly in the weeks leading up to a big performance. Gamelan Dharma Swara manages itself through its own non-profit organization Arts Indonesia Incorporated.30 The organization is lead by long-time Dharma Swara member (and previous member of Sekar Jaya) Chris Romero. His wife, Jennifer Mangles, serves as the treasurer. There are no other officers. The group itself positions several people in different leadership roles. The Artistic Director, I Nyoman Saptanyana, is in
29

Dharma Swara has both a full kebyar set and half of a semaradhana set. Both sets of instruments have the same rehearsal time, and any member who plays in the semaradhana ensemble also plays in the larger kebyar ensemble. 30 Arts Indonesia Inc. started as the non-profit organization for Kusuma Laras, the Indonesian consulates Central Javanese gamelan ensemble. The two gamelan groups have now split off. Dharma Swara is under Arts Indonesia, and Kusuma Laras has its own organization, Kusuma Laras Inc.

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charge of choosing the repertoire and teaching it to the group. Unlike Sekar Jaya, which invites different Balinese guest artists to come to California and teach for a few months, Nyoman Saptanyana lives in the New York metropolitan area and is Dharma Swaras permanent teacher. His wife, Ida Ayu Ari Candrawati, serves as the permanent dance director. The groups Executive Director changes more frequently, and the position is usually passed on to a Dharma Swara member-at-large (currently Eric Hung). The Executive Director is in charge of maintaining group organization, and acts as the main contact for the group. This member also works with the consulate to schedule rehearsals, and organize performances. The Music Coordinator (often a young but highly dedicated, active member of the ensemble) is placed in charge of seating charts for each piece of repertoire (people tend to switch parts on each piece). The Music Coordinator is also charged with emailing the group with announcements and taking care of other small-scale administrative or logistical tasks.31 There are no paid positions in Gamelan Dharma Swara. Even I Nyoman Saptanyana, who was brought to New York to run the Balinese gamelan (with the condition that he receive another hired position at the consulate), is not paid to teach the group.32 Occasionally, the individual members of the gamelan do receive some money. Starting from 2010, the profits from each performance are split in half. One half of the money goes strait to Arts Indonesia, but the other half is split amongst the twenty five (give or take) members who played in the gig. Rarely is this amount exceeding $25. For almost twenty years, Dharma Swara required no dues or fees to be paid by its
31

Gamelan Dharma Swara: About Us http://www.dharmaswara.org/about.html 32 Members often take lessons from Nyoman Saptanyana. In these instances, members will negotiate a price for lessons.

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members (another benefit of occupying a rent-free space). In the past year (2010-2011), the group has begun charging a small fee ($75) per semester in order to increase the annual budget, and to encourage higher commitment levels and consistent attendance. In a regular year (when the group is not planning a tour), Dharma Swara brings in $10,000 $15,000 from performances, arts grants, workshops, T-shirts, and recordings. The money is spent on guest teachers, guest artists, transportation (vans for transporting people and the heavy instruments), musical instrument repair (which must be sent out to Bali), costumes (also ordered and shipped from Bali), and the occasional pre-performance meal (Romero 2012).33 Unlike Gamelan Sekar Jaya, Gamelan Dharma Swaras organization is less democratic. The individual members generally have little or no say over who becomes Executive Director once someone steps down. Nyoman Saptanyana generally chooses the Executive Director. The Music Coordinator is also chosen via private communication. Most meetings that concern the overall direction of the gamelan are held in private between the Executive Director, the Artistic Director, and the President. At times, this privacy can cause tension between members of the group. For example, in 2009 when the leaders of Dharma Swara decided to prepare the ensemble to compete at the 2010 Bali Arts Festival in Denpasar, they also made the instrument seating decisions in private, and agreed that those positions would not move from piece to piece, as is common practice in gamelan ensembles in North America. There were no tryouts held. Some members of the group were very frustrated with their seating arrangement and wanted to play something more challenging than the part they were
33

Christopher Romero is the president of Arts Indonesia Inc.

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given. One member who had been playing with Dharma Swara for a number of years was put on the cengceng. He had wanted to be a part of the tour to Bali, but also knew that he didnt want to solely play the cengceng for the rest of the year. He reluctantly quit the group. Not unlike Sekar Jaya, the leaders of Dharma Swara were also interested in molding a group that reflected their ideal vision of Balinese gamelan music. I Nyoman Saptanyana and Andrew McGraw (the executive director at that time) wanted to produce the best and most characteristically Balinese sound possible regardless of whether or not the group was run like a traditional Balinese sekaha gong. Pak Saptanyana and Andrew McGraw gave the best players the most complicated parts, and the inexperienced or less skilled players the less challenging parts. Seniority played no role (as far as I could tell). If a member wanted to participate on the tour, they had to take the part they were given or not play at all. Some group members questioned this method of governing the group, and wanted all of the members to have some say in such organizational and structural procedures. This desire was not granted. However, in the end Dharma Swara did sound the best that the group ever had, and the tour to Bali was highly successful (described in detail throughout chapter four). Of course, each gamelan has their own method of organization and their own goals. Some groups work under clear, formal structures, like Dharma Swaras and Sekar Jayas models described above. Others have less leadership personnel, or the leaders play a role behind the scenes, such as the Michael Tenzers Gamelan Gita Asmara in Vancouver, and Pak Nyoman Wentens Gamelan Burat Wengi in L.A., as described above by Paddy Sandino. Some groups are run like a Balinese sekaha gong, while others

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are run more like a western orchestra. Despite the differences between academic groups and community groups, variations in group organization, leadership, membership, goals, and location, these ensembles all strive to encourage people to take part in Balinese gamelan, and serve as a light at the end of the tunnel for those who are seeking an alternative musical path.

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CHAPTER THREE ELEMENTS OF AFFINITYHOOD: TRANSMISSION, PERFORMANCE, AND THE PILGRIMAGE TO BALI

The previous chapter looked at the broad scope of Balinese gamelan ensembles in North America, grouping them into two categories: academic groups and community groups. This current chapter narrows the ethnographic lens to view three important components to the culture surrounding Balinese gamelan community groups in North America. The first component is transmission, or the ways in which North American Balinese gamelan enthusiasts choose to teach and learn the music. The second component looks at various contexts for performance, and the different affects they may have on a group, as well as the way these differing contexts may shape North American gamelan culture. The last section will briefly discuss the significance of traveling to Bali as a gamelan enthusiast, and the ways in which those trips can affect the individual enthusiast, as well as the entire identity of the North American BGAG as a whole. I have chosen these three seemingly disparate components of Balinese gamelan affinityhood in order to present a series of close-up snapshots. I believe that these elements transmission, performance, and traveling to Bali are highly influential to the Balinese gamelan community in the United States and Canada. Isolating them, as I do here, can present a more nuanced look at some of the ways in which gamelan enthusiasts relate to certain elements of their affinity from mastering new learning skills, to

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presenting Balinese music to a variety of audiences, to the importance of experiencing Balinese gamelan at its source (Bali itself). Despite my decision to analyze these three elements individually, it must be kept in mind that these snapshots are still part of a much larger picture. They are nevertheless connected through dialogue, practice, and shared sentiment within the North American gamelan community. For example, the use of the notation-free, traditional method of transmitting gamelan music to gamelan enthusiasts can greatly affect performance practices in that notation is not used in front of audiences, and also in that the ensemble can represent themselves to skeptical audiences as having learned the repertoire through traditional Balinese means. Using this method of transmission within the groups in North America also maintains closer ties to the Balinese source. This reverence to Bali and Balineseness is an important intellectual component to the North American BGAG, and is most clearly expressed through the desire to travel to Bali. The multi-faceted experience of being a participating gamelan enthusiast is only partially represented here. However, my hope is that these three elements will provide complexity to the much broader discussion, presented in the previous chapter.

Transmission There is very strong encouragement within community gamelan groups to learn the traditional Balinese repertoire through a traditional Balinese pedagogical method. But what exactly is the Balinese method? The most important component that most community and academic group leaders focus on is the learning of the music without the

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use of notation. But there is much more to it then this. Or is it less? As Colin McPhee wrote of Balinese teachers, The teacher does not seem to teach, certainly not from our [western] standpoint. He is merely the transmitter; he simply makes concrete the musical idea which is to be handed on, sets the example before the pupils and leaves the rest to them He explains nothing, since for him, there is nothing to explain. (McPhee 1970: 232-233) While the teaching method may seem rather simple, the learning process is another story. The ensemble learns the music together as a group, generally without individual preparation before rehearsals (except perhaps listening to a recording of the piece being taught). The learning is done mostly through aural and visual indications given by the teacher or group leader. Most Balinese teachers keep speech and verbal explanations to a minimum.1 Each part is played over and over again until the student has memorized it and can play it back correctly. Often, the teacher will play the part on the students own instrument, sitting on the opposite side and playing backwards, inviting the student to mirror the teacher.2 This activity promotes aural, visual, and physical components to learning the material. The correct sound comes directly from the students instrument hence from their own, immediate personal space which can minimize the distraction from the multitude of other sounds resonating from the rest of the gamelan, as everyone tries to learn their parts at the same time. The visual component seeing exactly where the teachers pangul (mallet) strikes the keys or gongs while the student mimics (on the same keys) can
1

When I was studying rindik with Pak Terip in Munduk, Bali, he would only correct me verbally if I made the same mistake three times in a row. Otherwise, he would simply demonstrate. 2 Under normal circumstances, the gamelan musician sits at the instrument with the pitches ascending from left to right, like a piano. When a teacher is demonstrating on a students instrument, they sit on the opposite side of the instrument, playing the same melody, but with the pitches ascending from fright to left backwards. This is one skill that an aspiring teacher must learn.

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quickly connect the sound to the physical action required to make it. The visualized physical distance, and sonic intervallic relationship between the sounding keys or gongs within a part is also connected visually through watching the mallet move between them. The physical component can aid in the development of more advanced dampening technique3, particularly in the gangsa section. While the student mimics the movement of the teachers mallet, they also continue to dampen the appropriate keys with their other hand. The student is able to evaluate their own dampening technique by feeling for the stop in vibration of the keys against the fingers. If the key is still actively vibrating when the student dampens, they know that the tones are being clipped too soon. If the student tries to dampen a key that has already been stopped by the teacher, this indicates that their phrasing is too open. The hope is that the student will develop a sharp memory associated with the physical sensation produced by the teachers advanced dampening skill. While this intimate pedagogical exchange takes place, the other participants pay attention and try to learn as much as they can from observing (aurally and visually) the interaction. In a Balinese gamelan, the teacher is responsible for the transmission of ten parts (give or take a few) from memory.4 For the sake of efficiency, it is expected that the stronger and more experienced members of the group help the less experienced. This component affects the physical arrangement of the instruments, which is designed to aid in communication amongst the group members during performances and for learning the music. The most experienced players are usually seated in the front row of gangsa
3

The bronze keys or pitched gongs in the Balinese gamelan will sound for a long time when struck. In order to stop the sound, the musician must damp the key or gong with their hand. Dampening technique is particularly important for the fast kotekan patterns, and for executing proper phrasing. 4 Sometimes North American gamelan teachers (especially those who are new to teaching) use notation as a memory aid while they transmit the piece to their students using the Balinese mirroring method.

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pemade with the ugal placed in the center. The ugal leads the whole metallophone section by giving cues for dynamics, tempo shifts, and section changes, which is in turn reacting to cues given by the kendang drummers. The gangsa pemade are generally responsible for playing the same elaboration parts as the second row of gangsa kantilan (one octave higher than the gangsa pemade). This way, the second row can easily see what the more experienced players5 are doing in front of them.6 The teacher will often begin the whole pedagogical process by demonstrating the gong structure and establishing the gong cycle for the given section of the piece. The kajar (beat keeper) is also introduced to maintain a steady tempo. The gong and kajar can expect to repeat the cycle while the rest of the ensemble learns their material. Next, the pokok (skeletal melody) part is taught to the jegogan, calung, and penyacah players, who are seated near the back of the ensemble. Once these basic elements are running smoothly on a continuous loop along with the gong and kajar the teacher will begin to demonstrate the elaborating parts. The more advanced players in the front row of gangsa pemade are shown their parts through mirroring the teacher at their instrument, as described above. The gangsa kantilan look on and gradually learn from watching the more advanced players. After the elaborating components in the gangsas are more or less under control, the ugal player will take over leadership of that section and the teacher will move onto the reyong players to show them their part again through the mirroring method.7 Finally, the kendang enter the piece, and expressive details such as dynamics
5

It should be mentioned that in the high profile, virtuosic groups in Bali, the gangsa kantilan section will not necessarily be weaker or less experienced players to the gangsa pemade section. In these groups, all of the members can hold their own on all of the parts. 6 See Appendix 1: Instruments in a Balinese Gamelan. 7 According to Nyoman Saptanyana, the reyong section in Bali will often just have their own separate sectional apart from the group to learn their part.

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and fluctuation in speed and energy can be practiced. The gong cycle continues until the parts are engrained in the musicians memory and in their hands (or until people become bored and impatient). A teacher uses expressive body language to convey the level of energy desired in the music, to encourage a musician who is playing well, or to clearly let a member know that they have made a grievous mistake. For example, if a section within a gong cycle goes from soft to loud, the kendang and ugal player might hunch their body over their instrument for the soft section, keeping their mallet close to the instrument, and then elongate their body and distance their mallets to give the signal to increase in volume. Many North American gamelan musicians fear and complain about a particular expression that traditional Balinese players sometimes make when a member of the ensemble makes a noticeable error. It is often simply referred to as the face, and involves a scrunched nose, flared nostrils, furrowed eyebrows, and widened angry eyes. The face often resembles a look that one might possess having unexpectedly encountered a very foul odor. Newcomers to gamelan (particularly younger musicians) can be sensitive to this intense reaction. (We grew up in a generation where teachers do not harshly criticize the artistic endeavors of young people.) As an example, in my first year in the Sarah Lawrence College angklung ensemble, one young woman became upset that Nyoman Saptanyana had given her the face after she missed a gong stroke at the end of a cycle in the rehearsal before our final performance. She almost refused to play in the show. Now, after five years of practicing Balinese gamelan regularly, I am known to give something like the face at a missing gong the most grievous error a gamelan

53

musician can make. To me, a missing gong can induce a very physical reaction, as though a steady swimming stroke is suddenly interrupted by rapidly draining water. The support is lost. Many other North American gamelan leaders have also developed the expression. Peter Steele and Andrew McGraw, the Balinese gamelan instructors at Wesleyan University and the current director of the community group, Raga Kusuma (based out of University of Richmond in Virginia), respectively, are frequent providers of the face, particularly in circumstances of a missing gong or misplaced rhythmic emphasis. As previously mentioned, a gamelan teacher rarely gives verbal comments on how to play a piece or on technique.8 For North American newcomers, this can be rather frustrating, as they havent yet learned exactly what they should be looking for during the transmission process. However, the lack of verbal communication eventually forces the learner to pay close attention to the teacher and to remain observant. Once patience and observation skills have been mastered, the student will have far less need to ask questions. They learn to quickly abstract the information they need from the mirroring technique, or even from watching the teacher play at another instrument. With practice, the notation-free pedagogical method also improves listening skills, as well as the ability to quickly memorize phrases or passages particularly phrases or passages which are idiomatic to traditional Balinese repertoire. These skills developed in gamelan can be easily applied to other forms of music making. In an article exploring the benefits of the Balinese pedagogy in a western music context, Ethnomusicologist Michael Bakan suggested that the method, can promote greater selfreliance, enhanced stylistic comprehension, improved ensemble playing, a better sense of
8

Perhaps this lack of verbal communication between teacher and ensemble has something to do with the volume of the music. Gamelan, especially kebyar, is so loud that it would be very difficult to try and speak over the sound of it.

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musical continuity and flow, and better memorization skills (1994: 2). As an example, I found that after a year or so of learning to play with Gamelan Chandra Bhuana and Gamelan Dharma Swara, I could easily pick out banjo parts from recordings of Earl Scruggs and play them back without a struggle, and without using transcriptions. Vicky Chow a pianist trained at Julliard, and a former member of Gamelan Dharma Swara expressed to me that she hadnt been playing Balinese gamelan very long before she noticed the positive impact it was having, not only on her work as a pianist, but on her entire attitude towards playing music. Learning anything new, you are always so afraid and embarrassed. You are afraid to even just dive in and make mistakes. But because of this [Balinese gamelan], the way it is taught and the way it is learned... you are just thrown into the deep end, and you have to find your way out of it. And in order to do it you have to get over your fear the fear of performing in public, the fear of just making the noise, and playing things even if you don't know if its correct. Through that process, it makes it easier to get straight to the heart of the music easier than floating through vices and slowly making your way to the deep end. (Chow 2011) Indeed, the traditional Balinese method of teaching gamelan does throw an inexperienced newcomer into the musical deep end. Plenty of beginning students have given up in frustration and impatience over this sink or swim mentality. It can be embarrassing particularly for accomplished musicians of other types of notated music to make so many noisy mistakes in the beginning stages of learning. But for those who manage to work through it, they find that the deep end becomes shallower with practice. Nevertheless, the process can move slowly. This is in part due to the fact that most individuals dont own personal gamelan instruments. Even if they are able to practice on their own, the most difficult part of playing gamelan is learning how to

55

connect musically with such a large group of people who must play together as a single mechanism. Long-time Dharma Swara member Liz Leininger commented to me that, In gamelan there is an emphasis on working as one unit. So there are twenty-five people playing like one person. In a traditional band, sure, there needs to be a unity in the sound. But I feel like you could go home and practice on your own, and if everyone else practices on their own it will turn out okay. But in gamelan, I wouldnt just go home and play gangsa by myself and call it music. Personally, I like to blend. I dont like to play in a solo fashion. (Leininger 2011) For many gamelan enthusiasts like Liz Leininger and myself, the necessity for playing the music with others is what draws us to the tradition and to the learning process. When it comes to practicing music, I benefit from the self-consciousness that comes with playing around other people. I find that I am more likely to push myself further, and concentrate a little bit harder when other members are present. The fact that the rest of the gamelan is also reliant upon every other member to not only play their part correctly, but also to lock in to the music, provides another incentive to remain at a high level of focus. Practicing individual gamelan parts in private would/does (for those who have their own gamelan instruments at home) quicken and maintain progress in technique and speed. But even practicing with a metronome will not fully prepare a gamelan musician for playing in the group setting. No part is truly independent from another, and each should be locked in to the group as a whole, rather than obsess over the pulse and its subdivisions. For most North American groups and individual gamelan enthusiasts, it can take a long time to learn just a single piece by using the Balinese method of transmission.9 In an academic group full of inexperienced players, it can take half of a semester to learn a
9

Traditional Balinese gamelan repertoire is usually anywhere from six minutes to thirty-five minutes.

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simple, short piece such as Gabor on the angklung. It took almost seven months for the experienced members of Dharma Swara to learn the thirty-minute kebyar work Kebyar Legong. This slow pace of learning can affect an individuals repertoire as well. For example, I have been continually playing Balinese gamelan for over five years, but I have only learned twenty pieces (give or take a few) out of hundreds from the available repertoire. The long process also limits the number of pieces that a North American gamelan group can maintain at any given time. For this reason, many performances showcase the same material over and over again throughout the season, and even throughout several years. Classic and standard dance pieces such as Baris, Barong, Rejang, and Gabor, are often kept by gamelan teachers and leaders as an arsenal of simpler material that can be learned, and worked up to an expectable level by experienced members in a week or two (if they dont know it already). This way, the group can spend most of their rehearsal time learning one or two difficult pieces, and then fill the rest of the performance time with simpler classics. It must be made clear that this Balinese method of transmitting the music is in many ways an ideal that North American gamelan enthusiasts aspire to. In reality, not all groups are able to pull off this method in its entirety. Some gamelan musicians make their own notation, and eventually memorize the material before a performance. Sometimes parts and scores are handed out to musicians when a non-idiomatic piece is taught. (This is particularly common when a North American enthusiast writes the piece.) Some North American gamelan teachers/enthusiasts answer musically related questions with plenty of well thought out verbal explanations. Occasionally, each instrument section is taught on

57

its own in a separate sectional, without the distraction of the rest of the group. Sometimes teachers and experienced members grow impatient with the less experienced participants, and the second row of gangsa kantilan get left in the dust to be given the face for the rest of the season. North American enthusiasts sometimes imagine that all Balinese teachers adhere to this supposed Balinese method of teaching. But this is not so cut-and-dry either. There is no official way of transmitting gamelan music to others. Just like teachers of classical music in the west, there are some generally consistent pedagogical methods (such as the use of notation and the encouragement to practice rhythms with a metronome), but any teachers individual level of patience, musicality, expertise, and personality will shape the teaching style and the subsequent learning process.

Performances As mentioned earlier, most community gamelan groups are goal oriented (vs. process oriented). These goals are most often leaning towards the desire to increase technical skill, deepen personal and group understanding of Balinese music, and maintain a high-level performance standard. Performances also help bring in funding to support the gamelan. But how do these North American groups perform? Where do they perform, and for who? Most ensembles begin learning their seasons repertoire early in the fall and early in the spring (most groups take a break during the summer, when many gamelan enthusiasts travel to Bali to take lessons, purchase and repair instruments, and listen to the most advanced Balinese gamelan groups in the world). The full ensemble will usually

58

have to rehearse for a month or two to be able to perform new material. If concerts occur early in the season, the group will prepare a recent seasons material, along with pieces from the standard repertoire. Sometimes just the advanced gamelan members will perform with a small gender wayang ensemble. Clothing, costumes, and props can play an important role in most concerts as well. North American community gamelan groups take after the Balinese model of having a uniform outfit in the traditional Balinese style (different articles of clothing for men and women, but usually the same color scheme). The main articles of clothing for men are the jas (long-sleeved jacket with buttons), sarong (large piece of cloth wrapped around the waist and ending at the ankles), saput (cloth draped around the sarong), and udeng (headpiece worn to represent the Hindu concept of the third eye). The main articles for women are the kebaya (long-sleeved fitted top), selendang (thin strip of cloth tied around the waist over the kebaya), and sarong. In Bali, these outfits are usually very bright, and incorporate a color scheme that most North Americans would consider clashing. For example, lime green with neon orange, or royal blue with bright pink, are common color pairs. Ensembles in the United States and Canada tend to plan uniforms that are bright, but not as loud as they are in Bali (groups still want to appear professional to western audiences). For example, Gamelan Sekar Jayas uniform consists of a vibrant royal purple jas or kebaya, with a batik patterned, earthy orange sarong. Gamelan Galak Tika prefers a slightly more casual look. They wear a solid purple top (same design for men and women) with the same color sarong. The outfit has gold color highlights throughout. For many years, Gamelan Dharma Swara performed in black tops with magenta sarongs. This was often considered a faux pas because black would be considered an inappropriate

59

color to wear for a performance in Bali. Since black is always appropriate in New York City, the group wore it anyway.10 Some ensembles also perform with a painted cardboard cutout of a candi (Balinese temple entrance) behind them, as though they were playing at a temple ceremony in Bali. This creates a pretend authentic context for performance presumably to offer the audience a glimpse of what it would be like to see a performance in Bali. An offering of flowers, fruit, and incense is also placed near the gamelan. For the non-Hindu members of the ensemble and the audience, this can be interpreted as yet another attempt at creating an imagined authenticity, and perhaps nostalgia for spiritual moments spent in Bali. Or, it could be a gesture of respect for the religious customs in which Balinese gamelan is very much a part. Yet, if a Balinese artists runs the ensemble, or if there are guest artists from Bali present, then the offering can be a sincere and necessary religious element to the performance. Along these same religious lines, a Balinese teacher will often perform the Hindu tradition of sprinkling blessed water onto the heads of the gamelan members with the pedals of a flower before an important performance. Usually, the repertoire learned in a single season is meant to be played in a final concert, or in performances scattered throughout the season. Because it can take so long for a North American gamelan group to learn a new piece, they generally repeat the same repertoire for each performance. This can make it difficult to accumulate a recurring audience. Many western concert attendees have not developed their ear for Balinese gamelan or the ability to even distinguish between individual pieces. Therefore, many
10

Since Dharma Swaras 2010 tour to Bali, the group now wears royal blue (with sparkles on the womens kebaya) with maroon and gold sarongs.

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feel that if they have seen a Balinese gamelan performance once, then they dont need to see it again. For example, my own mother, while continuing her support for my subcultural interest, hears only the intense volume and brightness of the music and is unable to differentiate between pieces, except to say that one piece is slower or faster than the other. When she watches me perform two shows with no overlap in repertoire, she finds it difficult to distinguish between them. Yet other friends, family members, and past devotees to the gamelan scene who have developed a taste for the music, can grow weary of seeing the same performance set list over and over again in a season. Despite these difficulties with audiences, Balinese gamelan groups in North America play in a wide variety of venues and performance contexts from dim, basement bars to grand concert halls. A common space for a gamelan group to perform in is the location in which they practice. (If a gamelan is kept and rehearsed in a basement, or practice room of a school, the gamelan might be moved to that institutions main performance hall.) For example, Gamelan Dharma Swaras most common concert venue is the main hall of the consulate of the Republic of Indonesia, in which they perform at least once per year. This is also their bi-weekly practice space. There are many benefits to holding a concert at the consulate. First of all, the group does not have to pay to rent vehicles to haul the gamelan and the musicians, which can be expensive and tiring for the participants who have to carry the heavy instruments in and out of the van (not to mention the fear of wear and tear on the instruments). Secondly, Dharma Swara is able to keep 100% of the money made from the suggested donation fee at the door.11 The hall at the consulate is fairly small, and
11

The consulate of the Republic of Indonesia is not allowed to officially sell anything. The price of all tickets to events at the consulate must be advertised and treated as a suggested donation.

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a sold out show with about one hundred audience members fills the space, which is good for the morale of the performers. Announcements for performances at the consulate are also more likely to reach the wider Indonesian community in and around New York City. (There are very few Balinese people living in the United States, and most members of the Indonesian community are more likely to support the community Javanese gamelan group, which is also housed at the Indonesian consulate. However, most Balinese gamelan concerts at the consulate still attract a few Indonesian families.) The downsides to such home turf performances are minimal. One common complaint about them is that they are not very high profile venues. Indonesian cultural events also attract Indonesian audiences to gamelan performances in North America, as there are usually many other items of entertainment on the program. For example, on July 23, 2011, Gamelan Sekar Jaya and Gamelan X (an experimental beleganjur group, also based in the Bay Area of California) played for Indonesia Day in San Franciscos Union Square. It was a very large event complete with covered tents and booths for selling Indonesian food (which had long lines all day), crafts, and clothing. There were also several booths for representatives from travel agencies, eager to sell trips to Indonesia. The main, uncovered stage had multiple acts performing throughout the day. These acts included an Indonesian fashion show, traditional dancers, comedians, and pop stars flown in from Indonesia.12 The announcements were made in a mixture of English and Bahasa Indonesia. Gamelan Sekar Jaya and Gamelan X were the only acts that included a majority of non-Indonesian
12

Indonesia Day 2011 San Francisco http://www.indodaysf.com/

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performers. Nevertheless, the mostly Indonesian audience (there were some tourists as well) was attentive to the performance, and they seemed impressed. Gamelan Dharma Swara was asked to participate in the Yale Southeast Asia Studies Council Spring Festival in 2008. The event was very much a social gathering for the Indonesian community in and around New Haven, Connecticut. There was a giant Indonesian food potluck, as well as fine clothing and craft vendors. Dharma Swara was also the only group at the event that consisted of mostly non-Indonesians.13 The Spring Festival being a much more intimate event was not quite as successful as Sekar Jayas performance at Indonesia Day. The members of Dharma Swara had a wonderful time eating their favorite Indonesian dishes and conversing in Bahasa Indonesia (those members who know the language). But the attendees of the party seemed less impressed by Dharma Swaras performance. It was clear that some had hoped that the evenings party would truly be a gathering for Indonesians not for a group of mostly white New Yorkers who play Balinese music. Dharma Swara was not asked to return the following year. Nevertheless, it was fun for the group to travel a few hours north, and to gain some exposure to an Indonesian audience. Another common venue and performance context for Balinese gamelan in North America is the museum. Visual arts and culture museums often host concerts or musical demonstrations. The incredibly exotic sound of Balinese gamelan (and exotic movement of Balinese dance) combined with the beautiful clothing and props, can make gamelan a good choice of performance to a museum who is hoping to wow an audience with something artful, different (from western music), and culturally relevant (in the sense that
13

Since, 2011, the annual Yale Southeast Asia Studies Council Spring Festival has stopped inviting western groups to perform for the event. Apparently, the community wanted to keep it Indonesian only with the exception of western family members.

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gamelan is still a vibrant part of modern Balinese culture). For example, Gamelan Dharma Swara played at the New York MoMA on June 5, 2011 as part of the museums night series. The information about the performance on MoMAs website states, I Nyoman Saptanyana and Ida Ayu Ari Candrawati lead one the most respected gamelan ensembles outside Indonesia. In Java and Bali, gamelan music is as popular today as it was a thousand years ago. It is the musical background to every social and cultural gathering, from religious rituals to mainstream radio broadcasts. At the core of gamelan culture is the belief that music is meant to evolve and adapt its repertoire. The New York Citybased Dharma Swara is no different. Its repertoire draws from classical gamelan literature and incorporates contemporary pieces specifically written for the groupa perfect example of tradition redefined by contemporary interpretation.14 The New York MoMA clearly plays on the draw of gamelan as both an ancient tradition (though gamelan as we know it did not exist a thousand years ago, as the website suggests), as well as a modern one (hence the appropriateness of the MoMA as a venue). While it certainly exaggerates the role of gamelan in contemporary Java and Bali, it does place Dharma Swara within the tradition, but redefined by contemporary interpretation as both cultural ambassadors to Bali, and as its own legitimate group of talented enthusiasts. Many gamelan members in North America do feel that they and their affinity for the music and culture belong to the living tradition (especially for those enthusiasts who are heavily involved with the gamelan scene in Bali). These museum gigs can validate those feeling of belonging rather than feeling like a poser or a reenactor. Gamelan Sekar Jaya performed at the San Francisco Asian Art museum in July, 2011 for the exhibit, Bali: Art, Ritual and Performance. The website also places Sekar Jaya firmly within the gamelan tradition by listing their Dharma Kusuma award given to them by the Indonesian government as well as noting their heavy involvement with
14

Tonights Music Performance: Gamelan Dharma Swara http://www.moma.org/visit/calendar/events/12610

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Balinese artists.15 Another reason why performances at museums can be exciting is that the audience is not the regular collection of friends and family that show up to other types of gigs. But museums reach tourists, local museum members, and people in the art world who may not be tuned into the local music scene. Music venues such as small stage clubs, bars, and the occasional large concert hall, also constitute a portion of the performance spaces used by gamelan ensembles. These performances can be very fun for gamelan enthusiasts for several reasons. For those enthusiasts who are not professional musicians specializing in other traditions and genres, performing in music venues can personally validate their claim to musicianhood. I certainly experienced this while playing in Dharma Swara. In 2009 and 2010 (the year leading up to the tour to Bali), we played at several venues in downtown Manhattan including Joes Pub, Fat Cat, and Le Poisson Rouge. While I considered myself a musician, I had not performed for very many audiences, unlike most of my friends who played experimental music at hip downtown venues all the time. But after playing in those spaces, I finally felt like a worthy performer. The ethics of playing for money as an affinity group which appropriates repertoire from a tradition that is not our own, has been brought into question by scholars and critics (Young 2010). However, booking gamelan performances at music venues can be important for the professional musicians in the group. Many of them, have spent a lifetime building up physical (mostly manual) skill, and a deep sense of musicality, which can be translated into professional level gamelan playing after taking the time to understand and appreciate Balinese music. For those who make a living from performing
15

Gamelan Jegog with Gamelan Sekar Jaya http://www.asianart.org/bali/performances.htm#jegog

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music, being a member of a community Balinese gamelan can be a huge commitment with little to no monetary return. Performing gamelan in music venues can at least elevate participation in the group to semi-professional status, even if the money from the show goes to the gamelan organization, and not into individual pockets. Even if a North American gamelan lacks some of the nuanced musical elements expressed in the best gamelan ensembles in Bali, it does not imply that the North American group is unprofessional, or unworthy of an attentive, paying audience. Gamelan musician Liz Leininger commented on the subject, Its an issue of people underselling themselves. I dont care as much, as a scientist, but for the sake of the group and the professional musicians in the group, its not good to sell oneself short (2011).

The Pilgrimage to Bali The first trip to Bali is one of the most important steps that most North American Balinese gamelan enthusiasts take as their interest in the music grows stronger. As superenthusiast Peter Steele put it, Going to Bali really felt like a pilgrimage of sorts (2011). Bali the place itself holds very significant meaning for North American gamelan musicians. It is the place of origin for gamelan music and the tradition surrounding it, the source of the pedagogical method used to teach it, and the place where the instruments were made and blessed. Above all, it is the place where gamelan is not part of a subcultural scene or affinity group, but the place where gamelan can be heard, practiced, taught, lived and breathed every single day. All enthusiasts I have encountered have been encouraged to travel to Bali and study gamelan. This pilgrimage is encouraged by both North American enthusiasts who

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have gone themselves, and by Balinese teachers who agree that the music cannot be fully understood until it is experienced within Balinese culture. When I asked Nyoman Saptanyana whether or not he finds it important for American gamelan students to visit Bali, he replied, Ya sebaiknya selain tahu main gamelan, mereka tahu juga kebudayaan Bali, sehingga mereka tahu apa fungsi gamelan Bali tersebu. Akan lebih bagus kalau semua murid2 yg belajar gamelan Bali pernah ke Bali, sehingga mereka tahu bagaimana orang Bali main gamelan dan banyak halyg bisa diketahui setelah datang ke Bali. (Saptanyana 2012) Yes, the best thing is that Americans learn how to play gamelan, but they also learn about Balinese culture. They are then able to understand the function of Balinese gamelan. It would be better if all gamelan students went to Bali, so that they know how Balinese musicians play. There are many things that can be learned after coming to Bali. (Translation by Peter Steele) Of course, this is easier for some to mange than others, given the cost of travel, and the busy lifestyles that so many North Americans lead. For this reason, people end up going for the first time at different stages of their interest and dedication. I was fortunate enough to travel there for the first time after only a year and a half of playing. My mother was looking for a good excuse to spend time with me before I graduated college and started a new, busy life. She was glad that I had found such a deep interest in something, so she took me to Bali during the spring of 2009. I didnt speak the language at all (other than apa kabar? terima kasih, enak sekali, and gamelan, gong, reyong, etc.), and I was not yet very good at any of the instruments. Nevertheless, in Bali I had the opportunity to take several lessons, including double mallet rindik playing with Pak Terip in Munduk, and gangsa lessons with Dewa Rai in Pengosekan. The trip completely solidified my interest in Balinese gamelan. To see the vibrant role that gamelan music has in everyday Balinese life, to be saturated with rame (the Balinese

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aesthetic of space constantly filled with multiple sounds), bright colors, and to be so warmly welcomed into the homes of my gamelan teachers who were asking me the whereabouts of mutual friends back in the United States officially hooked me on gamelan. After such an experience, I could not imagine the metaphorical hook ever being removed from the mouth of my musical life. Dharma Swara member Liz Leinigners first trip to Bali took place eight years after she had been introduced to gamelan at Swarthmore College. Since her original introduction, she had moved to New York for graduate school in biology, and joined Dharma Swara as a way to maintain an extracurricular interest. There, she served as Music Coordinator for a number of seasons, and developed a strong sense for the music and technique. She even began taking classes in Bahasa Indonesia at Columbia University. By the time she finally traveled to Bali, she already spoke the language, was very familiar with the music, and had been hearing stories about other enthusiasts travels for years. Plus, she already knew many of the Balinese musicians involved in the North American gamelan scene from guest artists visiting Dharma Swara over the years. She mentioned to me that her first trip, like mine, was touristy with lots of sightseeing, and a few gamelan lessons interspersed throughout her two-week stay. But still, in true biologist form, she explained that, Understanding the culture will help gamelan make more sense It was really cool to go play it in its natural habitat (Leininger 2011). Despite the warmth and kindness from Bali that many enthusiasts feel when they go for the first time, most experience an equal amount of awkwardness, selfconsciousness, and the feeling of being an outsider (particularly for those who do not

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speak Bahasa Indonesia). Peter Steele expressed to me his memories from both sides of his first experience in Bali. Bali had acquired this sort of mythological significance because my whole subcultural life was structured around Balinese music anyway I had built it up. Part of it was an age thing. I was twenty-four, I had found what I wanted to do, and this was the event that will crystallize the potentiality of the person Im becoming. This will be my gamelan puberty happening in Bali. Thats what the significance was in my mind. Even in retrospect thats really what it was. (Steele 2011) But Peter also describes those first weeks in Bali in less inspiring terms. He remembers the fear and the intimidation of watching udamani, one of the best groups in Bali, rehearsing. He remembers being afraid to try to talk to anyone or ask for lessons, and how the language barrier was so straining (though he is now fluent in Bahasa Indonesia). He spent those first weeks mostly communicating with his friend and travel companion, Paddy Sandino, another gamelan enthusiast on his first trip to Bali (ibid). Nevertheless, Peter Steele has traveled to Bali for extended stays each year since his first trip in 2004. He takes various lessons in dance and on various instruments every day. He collaborates with Balinese artists whom he now considers his very close friends. I asked him how long it took before his trips to Bali stopped feeling so awkward. His response was very telling. Bali is always awkward because you are marked. You are always marked. As a woman, probably even more so. But even just as a bule you are marked. No matter how good your Indonesian is, or even as a fluent speaker of Balinese, I would still be marked to a certain extent when I go there. (ibid.) Peter Steeles response gets at the essence of what many Balinese gamelan enthusiasts even the super-enthusiasts experience time and time again as they travel to Bali. No matter how hard a westerner may try to assimilate into Balinese culture, or try to

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appropriate a purely Balinese sound in their playing and within their group, the western identity will never be removed by musicians and friends in Bali. The differences in culture and upbringing between Bali and North America are too vast, from the nuanced differences in the way North Americans walk, crave eye contact, and perceive personal space, to the knowledge that one party must boil their drinking water every day, and the other does not. When I asked Pak Nyoman Saptanyana if a North American student could be as good as a gamelan musician from Bali, he replied similarly. Mereka bisa memainkan gaya seperti orang Bali, tetapi tidak akan bisa sama dengan gaya orang Bali, karena latar belakang yg berbeda. (sedikit berbeda). (Saptanyana 2012) They can play like a Balinese person, however it will not be the same as Balinese style, because of their different background. (a little bit different). (Translation by Peter Steele) This unrelenting cultural barrier can be a frustrating experience for those superenthusiasts who spend their lives thinking about Balinese gamelan, playing Balinese gamelan, planning the next trip to Bali, and once there, pushing through the awkward moments in order to master a deeper understanding of Balinese culture in general. However, this lack of complete acceptance from Balinese friends and musicians is, perhaps, part of what continues to make the North American Gamelan Affinity Group as successful as it is. After all, a North American gamelan ensemble is not just about keeping up ones gangsa, reyong, or kendang chops until the next trip to Bali. The North American ensemble is its own experience, with its own familiar culture, in which to enjoy playing music from Bali. Most college educated, white, male or female, academic or community group members can lumber to their own gamelan rehearsal, have a conversation about a

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funny new episode of some American television show or viral YouTube video, while making extensive eye contact with the other member of the conversation. It is a comfortable place to study gamelan where other members are struggling with similar difficulties, such as memorizing long passages at a time, or being able to listen to the whole ensemble while also focusing on an individual elaborating part. It is also a place where those who spend their lives studying gamelan music can feel like their knowledge and skill are worth something to beginners. A gamelan super-enthusiast may never know as much about the tradition and repertoire as Pak Subandi, Gusti Komin, or Wayan Sudirana. But when the Balinese masters are on the other side of the globe, or when Pak Saptanyana is stuck in traffic in New Jersey, or when Pak Suadin is simply too busy teaching another academic group, the rest of us still feel like we can play gamelan at least for at time on our own. The North American gamelan ensemble is a place where the execution of Balinese gamelan repertoire belongs to the enthusiasts themselves. This collective experience of playing gamelan on our own turf, versus playing gamelan in Bali, is the difference between being an insider and being an outsider. Both are important for the full experience of being a North American gamelan enthusiast.

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CHAPTER FOUR GAMELAN DHARMA SWARA TOURS BALI: A PORTRAIT OF THREE PERFORMANCES

In the summer of 2009, ethnomusicologist Andrew Clay McGraw was in Bali. He was out to dinner with two of his friends, I Kadek Suardana a well-known theater producer and his wife Mari Nabeshima, when the idea was conceived for Gamelan Dharma Swara of New York City to compete in the kebyar competition at the Pesta Kesenian Bali (Bali Arts Festival) against representatives of one of Balis nine regencies. Andy McGraw recounts the story. We were all out to dinner and Suardana was talking about needing the pendamping, the tenth group (to play against the last odd numbered regency), and he said well it should just be a foreign group, wouldnt that be exciting? We always have to bust our butt looking for some group to be the tenth group, and they get less money so they complain. But a foreign group wont complain. They would be happy just to get the opportunity. And he turned to me and said, would you guys want to do it? and I said, yes. (McGraw 2011) Andy McGraw quickly discussed the idea with I Nyoman Saptanyana the Balinese artistic director for the American community group. From the moment the tour was approved, the members of Dharma Swara were committed to preparing for the biggest gamelan event most of us would ever participate in. Repertoire had to be chosen quickly. With Dharma Swara taking a break for the summer, most of those decisions were made in Bali without a group discussion. In order to compete in the competition, we had to prepare four works that would fit within the guidelines for the 2010 festival. These guidelines specified that all groups must have: (1)

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a traditional kebyar piece,1 (2) a tabuh lelambatan,2 (3) a kreasi baru,3 and (4) a fragmen tari based on the story of Sudamala from the Hindu epic the Mahabharata.4 The hefty piece Kebyar Legong was chosen as our kebyar.5 It is one of the oldest pieces in the styles repertoire, and had never been performed outside of Bali. According to Pete Steele, Dharma Swara had originally hoped to compose a new lelambatan. However, for the purpose of conserving time and energy, the piece Tabuh Pisan was chosen, which the ensemble had already learned in 2008.6 Andy McGraw composed a kreasi baru, and the fragmen tari became a collaborative project between several active composers in the gamelan, and master artists in Bali.7 The proceeding ten months after the decision to compete at the Pesta Kesenian Bali proved to be an incredible test of dedication, skill, and group dynamics. The entire organizational structure of the gamelan was changed from previous years. The members of Dharma Swara had once made a point to switch instruments for different pieces, allowing everyone an opportunity to learn new parts and develop new skills. But for the looming occasion, each participant was required to specialize in a particular instrument and part. We spent far more energy than in the past playing gigs, and fundraising to cover as much of the travel expenses as possible.8 Each member sacrificed some aspect of their lives in order to devote six hours of rehearsals per week at the Indonesian consulate in midtown Manhattan. Some members traveled weekly from cities as far as Ithaca, NY,
1

Kebyar is a 20th century style of Balinese gamelan music. It is characterized by rapid tempos, unmetered explosive melodies, and virtuosic dance. 2 A lelambatan is a long form composition, rooted in pre-kebyar court and temple traditions. 3 Kreasi baru literally means new creation. 4 A fragmen tari is a work that tells a story through drama and music. 5 Kebyar Legong was composed in 1914 by Pan Wandres. 6 Tabuh Pisan was composed by I Wayan Beratha in 1978. 7 Sudamala (Aryani, Fung, Mellon, Reisnour, Steele, Sudarta, Welch: 2009-2010) 8 Dharma Swara raised almost $50,000. Each member paid $360 extra to cover the cost of the flights to Bali.

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and Richmond, VA. The allure of this competition, which eventually grew to include a larger tour of Bali, was too great for many gamelan enthusiasts and super-enthusiasts on the East Coast to pass up. Reflections on the ten-month preparation for the tour could easily produce an entire chapter of this thesis. Yet the events that I participated in on the tour itself provided particular insight into the relationship that this group of North Americans has to Bali and its music. Issues surrounding cultural ownership and identity, exoticization of an imagined past Bali, and even territorialism with another American group, became highlighted in these concentrated, sensory events that occurred over 10,000 miles from our home. My hope is that my auto-ethnographic presentation of three contextually varied performances in Bali will bring these issues into open discourse and shed light on the nature of the affinity for Balinese gamelan in New York, if not North America in general. I choose to profile our first competition/performance in the village of Jagaraga, followed by a profile of a temple ceremony competition/performance against Gamelan Sekar Jaya, another touring group from the United States. Finally, I discuss the competition against Balis Buleleng regency at the Pesta Kesenian Bali in Denpasar.9

Jagaraga Setting the Stage On Thursday, July 1, 2010, a large bus filled with over thirty members of Gamelan Dharma Swara, pulled up into a dirt lot outside of the town center of Jagaraga, a
9

See Appendix 3: Gamelan Dharma Swaras 2010 Tour Schedule and Information for a full itinerary.

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village in northern Bali. We had spent the past three hours traveling from Ubud. Willa Roberts who played kajar taught the group a few Bulgarian folk songs in hopes that it would take our minds off of the winding, sickening drive through the mountains. We were excited and overflowing with anticipation for our first performance on tour in Bali a competition with the local children's gamelan. We were surprised to see what appeared to be the whole village waiting for us to disembark from the tour bus. Families were standing back, watching us in amusement. It was clear that Jagaraga had not received a lot of tourists, let alone tourists who play gamelan in competitions against their children. We received the impression that this was a big day for the town. Jagaraga is a fairly small village in the regency of Buleleng near the coastal city of Singaraja. It is recognized as the site for one of the most gruesome battles in the long fight against Dutch occupation, known as Puputan Jagaraga. In 1849 the Balinese resistance, lead by Gusti Ketut Jlantik, fought the Dutch in Jagaraga. The inhabitants of the town were nearly wiped out by Dutch force (Pringle, 2004). Jagaraga is also known as the birthplace of kebyar in the early 20th century. Pan Wandres of Jagaraga composed one of the first iconic kebyar pieces, Kebyar Legong in 1914. His grandson I Made Keranca, who still resides in Jagaraga was the main reason for our visit. He had passed Kebyar Legong on to several of our group members and dancers who were studying in Bali the previous summer.10 It is one of the most challenging pieces in the kebyar repertoire running over thirty minutes, with half of the piece played at breakneck speed and in complicated interlocking kotekan patterns.
10

See Chapter Three for more information about gamelan enthusiasts pilgrimage to Bali.

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Dharma Swara made their way to the center of the town where the main performance center stood. Many members, both men and women, smoked kretek cigarettes in the back of the audience space, trying to relieve the physical stress from the long day of travel.11 Large gatherings of villagers stood around us staring, as though we were fictional characters that had come to life. I wandered around to find a stand where I could buy some bottled water. There was an older woman running a small corner store. I said air basar, meaning large water (my Indonesian was limited). The woman smiled a huge toothy smile and handed me the water. She asked me a question in Bahasa Indonesia, which I did not understand. As she gathered that I did not speak her language very well, she maneuvered her arms into a position typically expressed in a female Balinese dance style and nodded to me, asking if I were a dancer with the American group. I shook my head no, and positioned my hands as though I were playing the suling, the Balinese flute. Her smile widened even further. Suling, I replied. She looked surprised. She inhaled a deep breath and held it as she shook her head, as though suggesting that she was incapable of playing the suling. When I arrived back at the stage, Dharma Swara was being led to Pak Keranca's house. We walked through the small commercial center of the town, and made our way through residential neighborhoods. It was not at all like Ubud a bigger, wealthier, tourist driven town with a very large arts scene, where we were living and practicing. Jagaraga did not receive the same economic benefit. The homes were compact, with very low roofs. They were all lined up in a row, close together. The path we walked was not

11

Kretek cigarettes are a blend of cloves and tobacco. It is the preferred cigarette of most Indonesians. Many American gamelan musicians also smoke these while in Indonesia, even if they generally refrain from smoking at home.

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wide enough for a car only a motorbike could fit.12 Some families came outside and watched us as we lumbered past. We arrived at Pak Keranca's house, and were seated on the floor of an empty room with two open walls. Pak Keranca warmly welcomed us, and we were handed a small cardboard box of food for dinner that looked like it had been packaged by an airline company. Yet inside was a homemade, Balinese meal. Each box contained a different cut of spiced meat with rice, noodles, and some vegetables. My meat was something I could not identify. It was chewy and gelatinous, but extremely delicious. More than anything, it was appreciated after the long day.13 This was the first of many boxed dinners we would eat. Andrew McGraw, the executive director of Dharma Swara with long-term experience staying in Bali, had warned us that one of the most difficult parts of the tour for the fast-paced New Yorkers might be the extensive waiting around, and the lack of control over our schedule. Indeed, the anticipation for the first performance combined with the lack of information about the evenings schedule was taking its toll on a few members. Several of us began to feel restless. After what felt like hours of waiting, the group was moved back down to a large house across the street from the performance venue, so that we could change into our full pakian adat (traditional Balinese formalwear). Our new outfits consisted of a bright sequined blue top and a metallic gold and red sarong, with matching selendang for the women, and udeng for the men.14 The material was uncomfortable; I felt like I was encased in a plastic sheet. I was hot, and sweating, and dehydrated in the humid, tropical
12 13

Motorbikes are the most popular mode of transportation in Bali. I believe I have since identified what I ate as a pig's knuckle. 14 Please see Glossary and Chapter Three for more information about pakian adat.

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weather. The summer is supposedly the dry season in Indonesia, but in that moment, I was skeptical. The clouds of kretek smoke made the hot, wet air even thicker. Mosquitoes stuck to my skin. Despite these discomforts, there was no turning back. Dharma Swara was finally ready and waiting to perform in Bali.

In the Moment As we walked onto the stage, the multi-colored lights shown bright in our faces, partially blinding us from the packed venue. Some people in the audience were cheering, and some heckling us in support of their local children's group. The youth ensemble was already seated and prepared to play on their gamelan set, which was arranged on the opposite side of the stage from Dharma Swara. Two, long tables, lined with judges, took up the front row of the audience (one of the judges was Pak Keranca). Each judge had a very stern expression on their face heightened by the constant stream of kretek smoke escaping their nostrils. A very large video camera and TV crew was positioned between the tables. Dharma Swara had been completely unaware that this event was being broadcasted. The Jagaraga children's gamelan kicked off the competition, playing a kebyar piece. Their gaya (physical accentuation of music style meant to intimidate opponents and entertain the audience) was particularly impressive. Even the smallest children some looked as young as seven or eight made frequent eye contact with us, accompanied by a confident smirk. After they finished their first piece, the audience shouted wildly. One loud, male voice could be heard shouting Jagaraga! with glowing

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pride.15 As Putu Saptanyana our Ugal player made the gesture for us to prepare for the first note of Tabuh Pisan, the audience fell quiet. After the first tone was struck, cheers rang out. Dharma Swara did not play their best performance that night, but we hardly cared. Part of what made the experience so vivid was the interaction with the rowdy audience in Jagaraga. Gamelan enthusiast Eric Hung commented, I was shocked by how courteous they were because when the other group was playing, there was this older women who was literally balancing herself on my shoulder. But somehow when it was our turn to play, she got the other people to move back and give us the space (2011). When we werent playing, audience members were crowding the stage and practically sitting at the instruments with us. One man even crawled under the stage and poked his head through a hole in the floor to watch the performance. The audiences reaction to the music was also an exciting and new experience for Dharma Swara. Most of the ensemble had never played in front of a Balinese audience before. In the States, it is rare to have even a few people in the audience who are familiar with Balinese gamelan, and the subtleties that distinguish an advanced group from an amateur group.16 But the audience in Jagaraga knew exactly what we were playing and what the music was supposed to sound like. John MacDonald commented on this unusual interaction between audience and performer. If you screw something up, they [the Balinese audience] just jump right on you. They laugh at stuff, and you can't figure out what they are laughing at, and they cheer at odd times that you don't understand (2011). Andy McGraw had warned the members of Dharma Swara about the sporting event
15

Now shouting Jagaraga! at Dharma Swara performances in the New York area has become somewhat of a tradition. 16 See Chapter Three for a discussion of North American ensembles playing for Indonesian cultural events.

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atmosphere present at most gamelan competitions, like the one in Jagaraga. Being a participant on the receiving end of it was a big wake-up call that this tour was not going to be anything like playing gamelan in the United States. Some female members of Dharma Swara were made highly aware of the fact that gamelan is not an activity that men and women usually participate in together in Jagaraga. Dharma Swara's gender blind ensemble seemed novel to the audience. Some group members experienced more positive embodiments of this issue than others. One man reportedly shouted at the group that we had too many women, and that was why we sounded bad. Lela Chapman, a woman in Dharma Swara, reflected on her experience in Jagaraga, I was aware of being female, and that they thought I had something to prove. That kind of thinking is never good in a performance (2011). Yet Liz Leininger, described an interesting encounter she had with another female member of the crowd. I remember this one woman in the audience she was maybe sixty or so and I made eye contact with her maybe six times throughout the performance. She had this huge smile on her face, and she was just staring at me. I felt really happy that she seemed to be into it [the music]. This made me aware of the whole issue surrounding gender and playing kebyar in Bali. Its more that men play it. Maybe she was surprised or happy to see me onstage. I can't really say what she was thinking. But she did have a huge, beaming smile on her face. (Leininger 2011) With some notable exceptions, Balinese women and girls are not encouraged to pursue gamelan (Downing, 2010).17 Women are encouraged to become dancers, or maybe singers. Yet in Dharma Swara, we had women playing and executing very complicated parts of the music. Every sangsih player in the gangsa section was female, as were two of the four reyong players. When performing for audiences in New York, it was easy to
17

Downing mentions Ni Wayan Mudiari, Ni Made Berati and Ibu Desak Suarti Laksmi as three grown women who have pushed the gender limitation norms for gamelan in Bali.

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think nothing of this arrangement. In Jagaraga, it was clear that mixing genders in an ensemble was a big deal. Despite the tensions surrounding the co-ed nature of the group, the competition in Jagaraga was a very encouraging event for Dharma Swara. This experience was heightened by the sense that the village took something positive from our brief encounter as well. Larger towns further south like Ubud and Denpasar are magnets for virtuoso kebyar musicians. They have received dozens of Western gamelan enthusiasts and touring groups throughout the years. Yet Jagaraga, the birthplace of kebyar, is largely out of the spotlight. Andy McGraw commented that, No matter how good we played, it felt good because that (Jagaraga) is a historically marginalized community that in fact invented a lot of this repertoire, but doesn't really get the credit. So seeing a group from New York play up there was exciting for them and exciting for us. (McGraw 2011) While it felt good to be able to recognize Jagaraga's contributions to the music that we love and practice, there is evidence that the community in Jagaraga also used this event as a catalyst for taking back that pride for their own. John MacDonald heard from members of the village about the positive effects of the competition on the community. I felt really proud because we were taking this music back to them. And I think that people were really sincere when they said that it really reinvigorated the youth group in that community, because they suddenly had this goal to work towards. And it has got to be a unique experience playing against these big Americans [as children]. They were really proud that they could best us and hold their own. It was a real contest. (MacDonald 2011)

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The youth groups re-invigoration surely paid off. While a formal announcement of the results from the competition were never revealed, it was clear that the youth group won fair and square.18

Reflections While the experiences taken from Dharma Swaras visit to Jagaraga were mostly positive, there were some problematic thought processes at work that warrant deconstruction. The visit to the village was closely tied to the imagined dream of being a Western musician in Bali. We were able to experience an exotic place more remote than Ubud, and less comfortable than the tourist driven cities. But we were also the exotic in this situation. The gamelan enthusiasts were the only tourists there.19 Many of us had read Colin McPhees famous memoire, A House in Bali, and had imagined what it would have been like to come to Bali back in the early half of the 20th century before the hoards of tourists, before djembe drums lined the front windows of gift shops (Gold 2005: xvxvii). There is a longing to have such a cultural exchange with some imagined past Bali that is unspoiled by the modern west, unmarked by Walter Spies and the Balinese idyll (Vickers 1989: 105-115).20 I have heard from several western scholars of Balinese music that they inevitably hope each time they go to a fieldwork site that they will be the only ethnomusicologist at the event (I am implicating myself in this discussion and will switch to the pronoun
18

Kebyar competitions in Bali used to announce a winner. Due to intense, growing, and sometimes violent rivalries between gamelan groups, the judges have stopped formally announcing winners. Nonetheless, the competitive spirit remains. 19 Gamelan Raga Kusuma, another Balinese gamelan from Richmond, VA run by Andrew McGraw was also there. But they shadowed most of Dharma Swaras tour (though did not participate in competitions), and are included in the we in this instance. 20 Walter Spies (1895-1942) was a German born artist who came to live in Bali in the 1930s. He emphasized Bali as a pure artistic paradise.

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we). There is a secret longing to be able to document Balinese music and culture, separated from western influences. We want to engage with Balinese people who are not already inundated with western culture and Western scholarship. Yet, as contemporary scholars in this popular field, we know that this is impossible. We understand that in most Balinese villages there is ultimately no separate Balinese life free from western influence. We know that there will most likely be another western scholar at the field site, and that we will most likely have a conversation in English or Indonesian (not Balinese) with this other scholar. While I would argue that the terms imperialism and colonialism are too strong to use due to the self-reflective and restrained processing of these thoughts, it is clear that they often lurk underneath the surface for these scholars and myself. The magic contained in Colin McPhees nostalgic description of Bali and Balinese gamelan does not exist in the present, and probably never existed for the Balinese people (Vickers, 1989). Yet Jagaraga provided a small taste of the nostalgic atmosphere longed for by many travelers to Bali. After all, the tour members were the only westerners in the town at that time. Dharma Swara was engaged with a community that exhibited few signs of jadedness towards tourism. The town members were curious about the group. Perhaps more important than the problematizing of these thought processes is the fact that both the Dharma Swara community and the local community in Jagaraga engaged in a real, experiential and cultural exchange that probably could not have been replicated in any other time and place. Another very meaningful factor for Dharma Swara in participating in the competition is that we finally performed within the Balinese context we had been

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preparing for. We had not only drilled fast kotekan and unmetered kebyar passages to prepare for the tour, but also worked to culturally prepare ourselves for the experience of playing the music according to Balinese terms (except of course, for the inclusion of women in our ensemble). We had practiced gaya, which stretched the physical comfort zones of our own cultural and social etiquette near their limits (Howson, 2004). We choreographed skits and jokes into the new pieces that we hoped the Balinese audiences would find amusing. We also tried to mentally prepare ourselves for the possibility of heckling and taunting from viewers. The competition in Jagaraga proved to us that we could live up to our own high expectations. We did play fast kotekan. We did move our bodies in a manner that felt awkward. The audience both laughed and heckled. The performance was broadcast on Bali TV without the written consent of any member of Dharma Swara. We were so proud that our hard work had paid off. We had succeeded in passing our own test. It was the type of experience that most American Balinese gamelan enthusiasts hope to have, and what keeps them coming back for more.

Ubud
Setting a New Stage Almost one week after our performance in Jagaraga, Gamelan Dharma Swara played for a temple ceremony in Ubud, just down the street from where we had been rehearsing. What made this event particularly interesting was the fact that we were to play in a competition style performance against Gamelan Sekar Jaya, another community gamelan ensemble from Berkeley, California. They were on tour with their jegog (giant

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bamboo ensemble from North Bali) group at the same time that Dharma Swara was on tour with the kebyar ensemble. Sekar Jaya is one of the oldest Balinese gamelan groups in North America, and was the first western gamelan to tour and perform in Bali. Since their original tour in 1985, many other North American groups have traveled to Bali as well.21 When we first arrived at the temple, there was no sign of Sekar Jaya. Dressed in full pakian adat, we were shuffled into the jeroan or inner courtyard to wait in line to pray and receive blessings before our performance.22 When the large group preceding ours was finished, the members of Dharma Swara along with dozens of other people from the town knelt on the ground with our sandals tucked under our knees. The Hindu priest began speaking through a muffled PA system from a bale,23 and the crowd began the established prayer ritual. Luckily for me, fellow group member and ethnomusicologist Nicci Reisnour was highly familiar with this ritual, and happened to be kneeling next to me. She whispered each step of the procedure when to pick up the flowers from the small offering before me, when to place the wet rice on my forehead as a symbol of the third eye, and when to be silent. The temple was just down the road from the family compound belonging to the Saptanyana family. This was their banjars (local neighborhood) temple ceremony and it was highly important that we take part in the event to the fullest capacity. Event though the Saptanyanas were the only Hindus in Dharma Swara, we all understood that participating in the prayer ritual was important as a group activity, and out of respect for
21 22

See Chapter Five for more a more detailed description of Gamelan Sekar Jaya and their tour in 1985. The inner courtyard or jero (deepest of three courtyards that make up a Balinese Hindu temple) is the most sacred space within the temple, meant only for pleasing the gods (Gold 2005: 20-24). 23 A bale is a raised, shaded platform for escaping the sun and rain.

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our Balinese host community. In this circumstance, it was not considered disrespectful for non-Hindus to pray and be blessed in the temple. We were, after all, requested to play gamelan for this religious event. After the prayer, we made our way down to the jaba or outer courtyard of the temple where the staged area was already packed with people watching other performances.24 In a temple ceremony setting, gamelan and dance is performed well into the night, and features multiple ensembles, often all sounding at the same time.25 As we approached the stage, the popular masked dance Topeng Tua (old man mask) was being performed by a Balinese gamelan. The mostly Balinese audience was standing around with their friends and families, laughing at the comedic dance. Though I was familiar with Topeng Tua, it hadn't occurred to me that the piece was supposed to be funny. Lela Chapman also had an interesting memory of this realization earlier on as a student of gamelan. To me, when I was first playing Topeng Tua at Bard [College], it always seemed like such a sad, somber piece of music. I remember seeing it for the first time in Bali, and the audience was in hysterics. They thought it was the funniest thing ever. There is the part when the old man almost falls over the gamelan, and the moment when he pulls a louse of his hair... It took me a while to get that kind of humor. (Chapman 2011) Watching Topeng Tua performed in its intended context reminded me of how much I still had to learn about Bali. (And I still do!) Just when I was mistakenly feeling confident that I understood the culture, my misinterpretation of one of the most common gamelan pieces proved me wrong.
24

The jaba, or outer courtyard is the most secular space in the temple, meant for the entertainment of people. This is where a gamelan performance in a competitive context would be appropriate at a temple ceremony (Gold 2005: 20-24). 25 Many gamelans play at the same time to express the Balinese sensibility of rame or busy, crowded sociability. (Geertz, 1994)

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Dharma Swara was lead into a large backstage area, where we could eat and hang out before the competition. There was still no sign of Gamelan Sekar Jaya, which was unusual in such a social occasion as a temple ceremony. Hot, sweetened coffee was brought out on large trays for us, as were plates with packets of kreteks fanned out into an eye-pleasing array. We were grateful for the hospitality, but we also took the gesture as a sign that we might be waiting backstage for a long time. Once Sekar Jaya did arrive at the venue, they sat far away from us, with several other Balinese groups in between. Very late into the night, it was time for Dharma Swara and Sekar Jaya to play. As we walked onstage, the size of the jegog instruments struck us. Our kebyar ensemble was crowded up against the right wall of the venue, while their jegog took up the majority of the stage. Neither group pulled off a particularly memorable performance partially due to the 2:00am time slot. The competition between Dharma Swara and Sekar Jaya was set up mostly for fun. There were no official judges, nor could there have been Dharma Swara and Sekar Jaya were playing on two completely different ensembles, from two different traditions in Bali: kebyar, the bronze gamelan originating in north Bali, and jegog, the bamboo ensemble from west Bali.26 Andy McGraw claims that he also arranged this specific event for the amusement of the Balinese audience in Ubud (2011). Unlike Jagaraga, the people of Ubud have been hosting western groups since the 1980s. Though many express that they are happy and proud to see foreigners so actively engaged with Balinese music and culture, the novelty of watching them perform at a much lower level than the top, or even average gamelan ensembles in Ubud has worn off. However, to watch two American groups play in a
26

Another difference between gamelan kebyar and gamelan jegog is the modes used in each ensemble. Kebyar uses a mode derived from pelog called selisir, and jegog uses its own mode called jegog (Vitale, 2002:18).

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Balinese style gamelan competition against each other was something new. The audience did seem amused, though many people had left earlier in the evening.

Reflections What is most interesting to me about this particular performance has less to do with the details of the evening, or the performer/audience exchange. Nor does it feed into the western musicians unspoken, exoticizing fantasies of playing gamelan in Bali, as it did in Jagaraga. In fact, the performance at the temple ceremony in Ubud was for me at least the most sobering event of the entire tour. In a sense, it was the opposite experience from what we had in Jagaraga. But the established philosophical, historical, and cultural issues between Dharma Swara and Sekar Jaya manifested themselves in that temple performance in Ubud, and sparked my interest. Although both Gamelan Dharma Swara and Gamelan Sekar Jaya are American groups, they have some very fundamental differences in their historical aims and thoughts about maintaining a gamelan ensemble. Sekar Jaya has always promoted the idea that a gamelan should be organized like the ideal Balinese community where everyone must come together as one unit in order to function, and where the performance of gamelan brings this harmony into focus for the member of the ensemble, and for the audience. Sekar Jayas director Emiko Susilo commented to the San Francisco Classical Voice, that, When a gamelan group performs in a temple ceremony, they are not just performing, they are bringing that community together, binding themselves to that community by expressing their commitment to it as they play music, dance, sing sometimes in the blazing sun, sometimes in the pouring rain, sometimes shivering in the cold at midnight on the crest of a volcanic crater. (Susilo in Campbell 2011)

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Dharma Swara is well familiar with the idea that in order for a Balinese gamelan to sound good, the ensemble must come together in cooperation. There is no individual part that can be separated from the piece as a whole. It is also true that certain contexts for gamelan in Bali (like the temple ceremony described by Emiko Susilo, and by my earlier description of the ceremony in Ubud) are meant to bind a community. Yet Dharma Swara has also tried to embrace other realities of modern gamelan performance, including the competitive nature of contemporary gamelan practice in Bali, and submitting to a group leader. Andy McGraw told the New York Times, Bali still serves as an icon of the mysterious pre-modern East... It satisfies a neo-liberal nostalgia for community and spirituality. Gamelan in the U.S. is as much, if not more, a story about us than an accurate representation of Indonesian culture (McGraw in Pellegrinelli 2010). One member of the gamelan was very articulate about their strong opinion of Sekar Jaya's community theme in philosophy and in performance after a discussion about Sekar Jaya's resistance to perform with Dharma Swara in Ubud. Part of the Sekar Jaya thing in imagining the utopian community is that its a homogenous community, and totally harmonious, and there is no room for chaotic dissensis, which is just the definition of every nonauthoritarian community in the world. So competition is going to be a part of change and a regular cultural fact, and to deny the sometimes-violent competition, which is at the heart of the history of 20th century gamelan music, is just to be really blinded... They are trying to portray an ideal community on stage to express that it (an ideal community) may really happen in the future. But that too can easily get confused in the audience's mind with the presentation of some pre-modern other. So its a mess that doesn't really get addressed enough. And I think that the whatever you want to call it between Sekar Jaya and Dharma Swara did address that. (Interview 2011) This issue of community portrayal is something that Sekar Jaya promotes through their performances, organizational structure, and representation in the media. However, just

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because members of Dharma Swara problematized these issues for other North American gamelan ensembles and even for themselves, it does not obliterate the fact that Dharma Swara most certainly also feeds into the neo-liberal nostalgia. For example, Dharma Swara usually wears full pakian adat for performances. While not all members agree, some feel that as a group of mostly white Americans, wearing pakian adat on American stages is inappropriate because it can misrepresent Bali to unknowing audiences (Harnish 2004: 134-135). It can also confuse the identity of the western performer who might feel that they become a more authentic carrier of the music when they put on authentic, exotic looking Balinese clothing (ibid). But a Balinese family, the Saptanyanas, leads Dharma Swara, and in their presence, wearing pakian adat becomes acceptable. While it is certainly a valid and perhaps preferable decision to follow the wishes of the group leader particularly a group leader who is an authentic carrier of the gamelan tradition it still does not erase the potential for problematic misrepresentation for white audiences, or for misguided feelings of cultural authority amongst performers. In the end, the respect for our group leaders, as well as respect for the currently established ritual of putting on the pakian adat as a community event before a performance, overrides all other problematic considerations. Other issues besides the philosophical ones described above were also highlighted at the temple ceremony in Ubud between the two American gamelan groups. The ensembles identity as it relates to territory, certainly played a part in the creation of tension. Here were two groups, both of which were accustomed to playing the role of cultural ambassadors of Balinese music in New York City and the San Francisco Bay Area, respectively. Each gamelan had been active in their individual territory separated

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by 3,000 miles where they were able to represent themselves as a unique element to their community-at-large. Yet, here we were, in Ubud, a Balinese town that had already been heavily exposed to touring western groups, hence eliminating any feeling of being a unique element. Each group was hoping to have some imagined authentic gamelan experience. Yet the presence of another North American gamelan of comparable skill and dedication compounded with the spectacle of the competition setting for the audience drained the chances for that imagined authentic experience to occur at the temple.27 Gamelan Dharma Swara and Gamelan Sekar Jaya also had their reputations at home and in Bali on the line. Sekar Jaya has been called, the finest Balinese gamelan outside of Indonesia by Jakarta's Tempo Magazine.28 They have generally been considered the best non-Indonesian Balinese gamelan group by other North American ensembles since their first tour to Bali in 1985. Yet, since Dharma Swara set the goal to play at the Pesta Kesenian Bali, our skill, musicality, dedication and overall sound had dramatically improved from previous years. Where the name Dharma Swara had been unknown to many in the Balinese gamelan circles in the States and Canada as well as Bali, our reputation for being able to play well was spreading in the months prior to the tour.29 So, the big question on everyone's mind was, which group is better? There was no official determination of this. There were no judges, and the competition was between two different ensembles with completely separate repertoire.
27

Andy McGraw jokingly compared this event between audience and performer to the spectacle and interest in midget wrestling in the West. 28 This quote is used in a number of reliable sources, but I have not been able to find the complete citation from Tempo Magazine. I found it first quoted here: American Gamelans Pioneering Flower Still in Full Bloom. Brett Campbell. San Francisco Classical Voice. August 15, 2011. 29 When I first visited Sekar Jaya in late 2008, some of the members had not heard of Dharma Swara, during my visit in the summer of 2011, even the new members who had not been on the 2010 tour had heard of Dharma Swara.

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Either way, for the first time, Sekar Jaya had to question whether they were the best gamelan in North America (or even out of Indonesia), and Dharma Swara was finally able to showcase their extreme efforts in front of an American group that understood the musical challenges of being a bule (Indonesian term for foreigner) gamelan. Once the competition was over both groups congratulated each other on the quality of their respective performances. Although it wasnt the idealized situation for playing gamelan in Bali, it was worthwhile nonetheless. Sekar Jaya continues to at least maintain their unofficial title as the most accomplished gamelan outside of Indonesia. Dharma Swara left the performance with their newly acquired virtuosity witnessed by other North American gamelan musicians and peers.

Denpasar (at the Pesta Kesenian Bali)

Setting the Final Stage It was the night before our final performance at the Pesta Kesenian Bali (henceforth referred to as the PKB). A group of Dharma Swara members decided to take the forty-five minute trip down to Denpasar from Ubud to see that nights kebyar competition Gianyar regency vs. Buleleng regency.30 Our tour bus driver dropped us off at the entrance to the festival grounds, and we all hurried to the Ardha Chandra stage to try to get a good seat before the show started.31 Andy McGraw called a friend of his and we were escorted by security to seats positioned near the front and center of the open-air stadium.
30

Gianyar (where Ubud is located) is known as the best regency for gamelan. Buleleng (where Jagaraga is located) was clearly the underdog in this competition. 31 The Ardha Chandra stage is the largest stadium in Bali.

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As we looked up into the rows and rows of ascending seats, we saw a fully packed house of about 6,000 people mostly Balinese, with some western and Japanese tourists. Everyone was talking loudly, and the thick, humid air almost vibrated with commotion and excitement for the high profile performance about to take place. The stadium lights were bright and intense. Sitting in the first row below us were several tables of judges, dressed in very fine pakian adat. Some of them wore sunglasses, even though the sky was already dark. The gigantic candi32 framing the stage was illuminated from the bottom, and the stone structure shot up into the dark like the famous Sleeping Beauty Castle at Disneyland. It was immensely intimidating to think that Dharma Swara and the Jembrana regency would be at the center of all of this attention the following evening. Two sets of gamelan were arranged on either side of the enormous stage. The kebyar instruments were set up on risers with the gong set, jegogan, and calung. The second tier down held the gangsa kantil and the reyong. The last riser held the gangsa pemade, the kajar, and the ugal. The kendang, suling, cenceng, and trompong were set up on the ground.33 This was the only setting in which I have seen gamelan instruments arranged in such a way. Usually, all of the instruments are situated on the ground. But the risers made the gamelan seem even bigger than usual. The audience could see each instrument individually, not to mention the television cameras that would be filming for Bali TV once the musicians made their entrance. The announcer came on the PA system speaking in Bahasa Indonesia. The voice echoed off the crescent shaped stadium. It seemed that just as the audience had hushed, it
32 33

A candi is an ornate temple gate. See Appendix 1: Instruments in a Balinese Gamelan

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began to roar again as the members of the Buleleng gamelan walked stately onto the stage and stood by their instruments. Next, the musicians from Gianyar pranced on stage sporting very elaborate outfits, and wearing a facial expression just like the proud youth gamelan in Jagaraga, as if to wordlessly tell the other group its on! The following competition was quite the spectacle. The audience reacted strongly to certain musical passages, cheering and shouting. The gaya was well rehearsed, particularly from Gianyar. It was incredible to hear such high levels of virtuosity in kebyar up close, and in such an extreme context as the PKB complete with high budget productions (Gianyar's newly composed fragmen tari was complete with strobe lights, pyrotechnics, and even a baby hoisted up on a man-held bamboo crane, dressed as a giant lotus flower), media coverage, and Bali-wide reputations on the line. For the group of Dharma Swara members who were witness to this event, it was important to see just what we were in for the following night. We had watched countless YouTube videos of kebyar performances at the PKB. We had been warned that this would be the largest audience some of us would ever play for in our lives. We were prepared for this to resemble nothing like our performances in New York, or even anything like the gamelan performances we had been participating in throughout the rest of Bali. But to be there, and to experience the spectacle and volume of the Bali Arts Festival was a big wake-up call. All that we had worked for, all of the emotional obstacles, the physical strains and the intensive learning of a musical and cultural

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language, different from our own, came down to this final competition against Jembrana the reason for our tour to Bali in the first place.34 That pride was highlighted for us as we left the stadium. Through the echoing, muffled announcements in Bahasa Indonesia, the sound of New York, Amerika and Jembrana clearly rang out. The audience members near us looked surprised and bewildered as we cheered at the realization that our performance was being announced.

In the Moment After a long day of rehearsing and sound checking on the uncovered, sun drenched Ardha Chandra stage, Dharma Swara sat in a crowded dressing room, putting on our already sweaty, smelly, and in some cases, moldy outfits for the last time. We lined up back stage in order of accessibility to the instruments (highest riser to ground level), but for one exception. We had decided as a group that one of the female members of the gamelan should be the first to walk out onto the stage. It had come to our attention that not only was Dharma Swara the first non-Indonesian group to perform in this PKB context, but it was also the first group to compete in such a competition with so many women represented. After the comments in Jagaraga (along with several other incidences not discussed in this chapter) Dharma Swara thought it appropriate to honor the women in our group, even if it was slightly controversial. Willa Roberts our kajar player and long time member of Dharma Swara agreed to be the first to walk out. As we began our own stately procession to our kebyar instruments, the announcer began reciting our names or rather, attempted to recite our names correctly from a
34

Some gangsa players were having pain in their hands. I went through a long period of headaches and dizziness from learning to circular breath. Not to mention the potential hearing loss from playing kebyar indoors for a year.

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written list. Phoebe Dawkins, one of our dancers, was called Pobi Daukins, and even Andrew McGraw was pronounced Andrew M.C. Grau. These goofy but innocent mistakes definitely encouraged a lighter mood upon the nervous, focused ensemble, as we prepared to sit and play Balinese music in front of thousands of Balinese gamelan lovers. The lelambatan was the first form played in the competition, and Jembrana was chosen to perform first. Some of us were surprised when Jembrana flubbed a part of their lelambatan. John Macdonald remembers thinking, Wow, that kind of stuff really happens here! They made a really obvious error, so then I felt like this was a real competition (2011). Until that point, Gamelan Dharma Swara had not even considered the possibility that the competition at the PKB might be somewhat of a fair fight. We had expected our presence to be more honorary than anything else. Yet after hearing Jembranas first performance, it became clear that we actually had a chance to impress some people. Of course, we also flubbed the very first line of Tabuh Pisan, which we had messed up so many times in rehearsal. Soon enough, it was time for Jembrana to play their kreasi baru. Like most places in the world in 2010, the budget for the arts had been significantly cut, and most groups did not have the money to commission a new piece from a composer. Instead, Jembrana recycled a piece that had been performed a few years back. Andy McGraw had written the kreasi baru for Dharma Swara without a commission. His piece Sikut Sanga, incorporated traditional Balinese elements spun out in new ways, such as a mashup of key moments in common gamelan pieces, such as Topeng Tua, Baris, and Legong Lasem. Equally significant was his use of musical Americanisms including the theme

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from the game show The Price is Right, and afro-American rhythms. Richard Marriott, who had written the suling parts, included quotes from the American jazz standard, Night in Tunisia. The choreography of gaya was an important aspect of this piece. Balinese ensembles generally incorporate elaborate, and highly dramatized uses of more traditional gaya for the kreasi baru pieces. These sorts of expressive body movements were highly awkward for Dharma Swara to try and mimic, as it is so far removed from our own cultural norms of body expression (Howson, 2004). After a group discussion before the tour, we decided that rather than try to mimic the Balinese style of gaya, we would create our own comedic, theatrical skit gaya complete with props to reflect the cross-cultural musical material. For example, in the Night in Tunisia segment, two of Dharma Swaras kantilan players Michael Lipsey and Liz Behrend stood up from their instruments. They enacted a flirtatious scene, as though from an old film. He lit a cigarette for her, and filled a wine glass with wine (it was really water). He pretended to whisper something in her ear and she shyly laughed. As the segment reached its climax, Michael whispered again to Liz, and she gave him a look of shock and threw the glass of wine in his face. This was designed with the knowledge that the cosmopolitan crowd in Denpasar would pick up on and appreciate references to western images from classic films. In the section leading up to the mashup of traditional Balinese pieces, one of our reyong players, Peter Steele, walked from his instrument, and onto the dance stage, holding a cell phone and pretending to talk on it loudly, while gesturing to the gamelan to play more softly presumably like a tourist in Bali. As the mashup began, Steele

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transformed into a Balinese dancer, and did a dance mashup accompaniment. Steele purposefully danced awkwardly to evoke the physical movements of untrained western tourists who try to learn Balinese dance.35 The audience at the PKB roared with laughter and appreciated that even at our level of playing, we could still poke fun at ourselves.36 Another less humorous, but significant part of Dharma Swara's gaya in the kreasi took place during a transition section near the beginning of the piece. As the melody slowly alternated between two tones, the members of the gamelan held up two souvenirsized flags the U.S.A. flag in the left hand, and the Republic of Indonesia flag in the right.37 With each alternating note, Dharma Swara raised up one of the flags. This action represented our tour. It also demonstrated our gratitude for the opportunity to be the first non-Indonesian kebyar ensemble to participate in the largest gamelan competition in Bali. The audience in the stadium at the Ardha Chandra stage reacted very enthusiastically to these three skits in particular. The next piece in line for us was Kebyar Legong, which was our longest, and most difficult piece to play. Most of the members of Dharma Swara had been working on it for ten solid months, but a few members had started learning it in Bali from Pak Keranca an entire year before the tour. The speed and energy required to perform Kebyar Legong deters most Balinese groups from attempting it, and therefore is rarely played. But in our zeal to impress Balinese audiences, the musicians and dancers in Dharma Swara charged ahead with the piece.
35 36

See Suggested Audio/Visual Media, for a link to the YouTube clip that shows this performance. Not all of the audiences in Bali caught on to what a mashup was, but for those who did, this was particularly funny since the mashup included female dance parts like "Condong" from Legong Lasem. To see this danced by an adult male was humorous. 37 We chose this because the left hand in Balinese culture is considered obscene. Andrew McGraw thought it would be offensive to position the Indonesian flag in the left hand.

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In many ways, Kebyar Legong became representative of all of our hard work. We based our initial instrumentation, skill level, musicianship, gaya, and progress upon that piece. It was composed in a time of drastic musical change for Bali, as the war with the Dutch was finally being won, and local government systems were taking the place of court structures (Tenzer 2000). Such drastic musical changes are occurring in Bali today, in part due to constant artistic exchange between Balinese artists and western collaborators, many of whom have deep interests in the avant-garde and experimental musics. But playing a rare piece like Kebyar Legong, which existed as a radical piece of music before Colin McPhee, before Walter Spies, before the west took an artistic interest in Bali, made us feel like we were truly giving something special back as an act of gratitude. After a long event, it was time for the final segment of the competition the fragmen tari on the theme of Sudamala. This was Jembranas longest piece in the competition, complete with a chorus of women to accompany the theatrics on stage. Because Dharma Swara played such a long kebyar piece, our fragmen tari had to be shorter than most.38 It only lasted about twenty minutes (Gianyar's fragmen tari the night before had lasted about forty minutes). Dharma Swara had only performed the fragmen tari twice while on the tour, and it was received with a mix of interest and confusion from the villagers in Tulikup and Kerambitan. Of the four pieces in our repertoire, the music for the fragmen tari was by far the most experimental in terms of instrumentation and style, which included bowed wine glasses, group singing, chromatic suling parts, dissonant kotekan patters, and clear cross
38

Each group is usually limited to 1- hours of music at the PKB.

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cultural influences from Scottish and Balkan music. The theatrical drama was also quite different in that it used traditional wayang shadow puppets, live-action shadows (people performing behind the illuminated screen), and experimental dance choreographed and performed by Ni Kadek Dewi Aryani. These elements were narrated by the extraordinarily talented dalang, I Gusti Putu Sudarta.39 While we hoped that audiences would appreciate our rendering of Sudamala, it was definitely geared toward a specific group of experimental Balinese gamelan composers, collaborators and enthusiasts. With this in mind, we were actually quite surprised that it was so well received at the PKB. The audience did not react as they had in our other kebyar pieces, nor did they react as enthusiastically as they had for Jembranas fragmen tari. But people stayed to watch it. John MacDonald remembered the audience reaction at the end of the piece. People were loosing interest because they wanted to get to the parking lot before the rush. People were filing out during the dance drama. But when Willa started singing, people stopped to watch and listen (2011). The final section of our fragmen tari featured chromatic suling chords with Willas masterful Bulgarian style singing over it. Most fragmen tari pieces in Bali tend to end in a dramatic, energetic blast of show-stopping music and theatrics. Our piece ended with a slow fade from the gamelan, leaving only the eerie suling chords and the dark vocal lines sung by Willa and the dalang, Gusti. We stood up after almost three straight hours of sitting cross-legged on the stage and lined up to greet and congratulate the gamelan from Jembrana. They looked proud of us. The bravado attitude exuded in the beginning of the competition was gone. Many of
39

A dalang acts as both shadow puppeteer and narrator for the wayang shadow plays.

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them commented on how impressed they were with our performance. One young man commented to me that he thought our playing was really amazing. He did not think it was possible for an American group to play as well as we did. Of course, if a real winner of the competition were officially announced, Jembrana would have won. They clearly sounded like a professional gamelan. However, if winning the competition were based upon surprising the audience and performing better than expected, Dharma Swara would have had that in the bag.

Final Reflections In my interviews with Dharma Swara members who were in Bali that summer of 2010, I asked them about their favorite highlights from the tour. I was not surprised to hear vivid memories of positive experiences recounted. Liz Leininger reflected, As an amateur gamelan musician, its kind of amazing that I played for that many people as part of a group it kind of amazing that I actually did that (2011). For Leininger, Balinese gamelan is the only musical activity she claims to practice. In one year, she went from playing to a maximum audience of two hundred people at downtown New York clubs, to a crowd of five thousand at the Ardha Chandra Stage. Andy McGraw also commented on the PKB as being one of his most memorable moments on the tour. My favorite moment was playing Kebyar Legong on stage at the Bali Arts Festival probably after the first note. You hear the audience make that sound and it was together, and that was really exciting, because you dont really know. With an American group you can practice for ever and ever and ever, and it can still be the case that one kantilan will get there a 32nd note before everyone else, and that will then color the entire piece. So the moment before that is really scary. I thought that sounded really good. (McGraw 2011)

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Given how much energy and pride Andy McGraw had put into performing Kebyar Legong, it was not unexpected that this was his favorite moment. I was surprised to hear that some members had regrets. No one I spoke with had felt that way about the tour as a whole, but a few wished they could take a few moments back. Peter Steele expressed regret for having danced in the mashup skit during the kreasi baru. It was embarrassing. I was embarrassed to do the dance in front of people that I knew. Dewa Alit [a Balinese composer who is close to members of Dharma Swara] is serious and takes art very seriously. I was worried some might think it was poking fun. (Steele 2011) Most of the Balinese audience responded positively to the mashup skit. However, Steele also feels the obligation to consider his specific Balinese teachers and the Balinese artists who collaborate in his personal and scholarly work. At the time he agreed to do the dance mashup, Peter felt like he was taking one for the team. He was the only western male member of the gamelan who had experience in Balinese dance (we figured that the skit wouldnt be as funny to the Balinese audience if it were a woman performing the same skit). So, Dharma Swara pressured him to perform it. While Peter Steele had a lot to gain from being a part of the tour, he also risked engaging in activities that might compromise aspects of Balinese art that are not only valued by his teachers, but valued by himself. Lela Chapman had mixed emotions about the time she spent dedicating herself to gamelan in 2010. She had been playing Balinese music for many years, but had recently started a family. Throughout the year, she had expressed that the decision to play on the tour was difficult and straining. She wanted to do it for her own enjoyment and passion, but she hesitated spending energy on things outside of work and her very young son. Its

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not that often in the United States that you are going to get that many people together to really commit that much, and work that hard. That was amazing. But the tour ended up being at odds with my regular life. It was hard to give up that much of my job and that much of my life to do that (Chapman 2011). The tour was meaningful in different ways for different people. But all of us confronted issues surrounding our affinity for gamelan that had not been addressed before. For those of us who had had the privilege of studying music in Bali before the tour, we were faced with the responsibility of presenting our own work, separate from our Balinese teachers and collaborators who often act as advisors on sensitive issues regarding cross-cultural musical contexts. (Of course, we were working with Balinese artist Nyoman Saptanyana in New York, but he had been living in the United States, and therefore outside of the intense gamelan scene in Bali since the 1990s.) For those who had not yet taken their pilgrimage to Bali, they were tossed into the deep end of the traditional and contemporary context for the music complete with differing thoughts on gender, performer/audience relationships, ritual practice, competitive atmosphere, and cultural ownership. In North America, it is all too easy for gamelan ensembles to ignore these issues and focus on gamelan solely as it relates to their own daily lives away from extensive contact with Balinese carriers of traditional and contemporary gamelan. Placing an American gamelan in Bali forced these issues to the foreground of our awareness.

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CHAPTER FIVE A HISTORICAL LOOK AT THE FORMATION OF THE BALINESE GAMELAN EXPERIENCE IN NORTH AMERICA: SEVEN EVENTS FROM1928-1985

While accounts of representation of Javanese gamelan outside of Indonesia has been well documented and plentifully written about (Cohen 2010), a project recounting the history of the Balinese Gamelan Affinity Group in North America has yet to be given full attention. For the purposes of this chapter, I will focus on historical events that revolved around Balinese gamelan as experienced and played in North America. I choose seven different types of events from this rich history to discuss from the sale of an early recording of Balinese gamelan in 1928, to the first professional tour of Bali by an American community gamelan ensemble in 1985. I provide snapshots of these particular events because I believe they have contributed most directly to the development of the current state of Balinese gamelan in the United States and Canada. Although these events vary significantly in type for instance, one event revolves around an individuals encounter with gamelan, while another revolves around an international tour they have each played their own significant role in shaping the gamelan enthusiasts multi-faceted relationship with Balinese music and culture. These events are organized chronologically, but they also demonstrate how the BGAG has become more accessible, and more active over time. According to my findings, late 1920s recordings of Balinese music in the hands of particularly influential 104

people were the original catalysts for what would eventually become a flourishing spread of ensembles throughout North America. In 1952, a troupe of Balinese musicians from the village of Peliatan was brought on a successful tour of Europe and the United States. This tour exposed Balinese gamelan and dance to thousands of American audience members. From the establishment of these academic ensembles to the present, more students of ethnomusicology and composition have developed a taste for Balinese gamelan.1 Many have graduated with PhDs and have received jobs at other universities, where more gamelan instruments have been purchased and brought to North America to create more classes. Indonesian consulates have also maintained gamelan instruments both Javanese and Balinese and have developed thriving, accessible community groups, where all who are interested and dedicated to gamelan are welcome to participate.2 North American students have been traveling to Bali extensively since the 1970s to study gamelan. However, 1985 marked a new standard and expectation for professionalism, virtuosity, and ambition amongst community ensembles when the first American gamelan toured Bali with their own show. These snapshots I present below fit in to a larger, continuous historical narrative that extends well beyond the limits of this chapter. Each of the seven event types recordings, international tours from Bali, ethnomusicology programs, workshops, travels to Bali as an individual, and travels to the Bali as a group play an intricate and interactive role in maintaining and developing the activities of the BGAG. Yet, stepping away from the inherent complexity of these interacting elements and instead, focusing
1 2

See Chapter Two for more information on academic groups. See Chapter Two for more information on community groups.

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on them as types can properly highlight each events historical impact on the big picture, as it is experienced by participants today. The history of Balinese gamelan in North America is certainly much richer than these seven events combined. The story is heaving with extraordinarily charismatic figures, and seemingly miraculous chance orderings of events some of which are described below where the right enthusiast or super-enthusiast was in the right time and place to mobilize a group of people to take a serious and proactive approach to Balinese gamelan. Yet, hundreds of names, dates, connections, and figures are omitted from this chapter not from a lack of importance or influence. My sincere apologies go to those whose voices are not included here.

1. Early Recordings and Colin McPhee (1928-1938) In 1928, the European company Odeon and Beka records sent several representatives to Bali to record music on 78-rpm disks. These recordings contained a wide range of repertoire from early kebyar works to solo vocal pieces. The 78s were originally made for a local Balinese market, yet few Balinese people owned a gramophone, which was needed to play these records. Even the few wealthy Balinese families who did own a gramophone did not bother to buy these records (Herbst 2009). (Why buy the grainy sounding recordings when you can hear the music live, in your own village every day?) At least one American, Claire Holt, bought these records in Bali while conducting anthropological research. She brought them back with her to the United States in 1930 between extended visits to Bali.

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It was in New York City that she played these 78s for composer Colin McPhee and his wife, anthropologist Jane Belo, during a dinner party in Manhattans East Side (McPhee 1944). The two were completely taken by this music, which they were hearing for the first time. McPhee subsequently bought these records for himself, but was the only one in North America to purchase the collection from the record dealer within the span of an entire year. The story goes that in a fit of frustration for lack of commercial interest, the dealer smashed all of the remaining merchandise (Herbst 2009). These recordings enticed Colin McPhee and Jane Belo to take a trip to Bali the following year. They stopped in Paris on their way to Indonesia where they saw a Balinese gamelan live at the 1931 Colonial Exhibition in Paris (McPhee 1944). This only fueled their interests. McPhee remained in Bali for eight years.3 He studied Balinese music extensively during this time and gathered the material that would eventually make up his two great published works: his memoir, A House in Bali (1944), and his musicological work, Music in Bali: A Study in Form and Instrumental Organization in Balinese Orchestral Music (1974), which was published after McPhees death in 1964. After eight extraordinary years abroad, McPhee left Bali permanently on Christmas day, 1938, and returned to New York City.4 Colin McPhee continued to compose music for western instrumentation as he had before his obsession with Balinese music took hold. Yet, gamelan had lasting effects on his compositional style. For example, in his large piece Tabuh-Tabuhan (1935), McPhee draws from Balinese techniques by way of irregular ostinatos, stratified registral
3

McPhee and Belo divorced during their stay. Supported rumor has it that McPhee was a practicing pedaphile while in Bali. 4 In the late 1930s, the Dutch government set out to purge Bali of the image of a homosexual paradise. Artist Walter Spies was exiled from Bali on charges of homosexuality, and McPhee chose to leave shortly after (Vickers 1989).

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placement, and occasional melodic material derived from common Balinese modes (Oja 2004). McPhees compositions surely had little affect on the general population and their exposure to gamelan music. McPhee was not a popular music composer. However, his pieces were heard by many other influential composers and intellectuals of the time, including John Cage, Charles Seeger, and Virgil Thomson. McPhees largest contribution to the spread of Balinese gamelan music in North America was the publishing of his memoir, A House in Bali, in 1944. The book contains vivid descriptions of not only Balinese gamelan, but of the island and its people. He recounts the dear friendships made with Balinese artists and the process of resigning himself to a Balinese way of life amongst a community. His contemplative tone is heightened by the impression of solitude McPhee gives in his writing as though he were the only westerner on the island. However, his solitude has been proven false. For example, he fails to mention in any part of the book that he was not living alone throughout his travels, but with his wife, Jane Belo, who was also his research partner. It is also known that artists Walter Spies and Miguel Covarrubias frequently associated with Colin McPhee while in Bali, and that their interactions influenced each others work (Vickers 1989). McPhees erasure of the community of westerners in Bali in the 1930s hence his coveting of musical discovery and idyllic village life set a tone for future travelers and scholars of Balinese music. A House in Bali is often one of the first books that a newly interested Balinese gamelan enthusiast in North America will be directed to read. As I discuss some in chapter four, the book implants in the reader an image of an unspoiled island where fast-paced, culturally corporate outsiders can go to find their true selves, and

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be taken in as family by spiritually fulfilled Balinese villagers, completely isolated from western life. This is certainly not the reality for the Balinese people or for foreign visitors today, and it is clear that this was not the reality during McPhees stay. Lisa Gold a prominent gamelan scholar commented on her own shattered expectations in her first visit to Bali in 1981. Where was the Bali that I had been dreaming of for so many years as a gamelan student in the United States? The Bali of anthropologists and music researchers from the 1930s, in whose writing I was steeped, was portrayed as a tranquil paradise, a kind of communal utopia. This image was immediately dispelled upon encountering the linearity of the road cutting through traditional life as I had imagined it. But I was not easily disillusioned and was prepared to seek out the real Bali. (Gold 2005: xvii) The music researchers from the 1930s certainly refers to Colin McPhee (1944) and anthropologist Margaret Mead (1942). I myself can admit to buying into the romanticism of those texts and photographs. I first read A House in Bali on the plane from New York to San Francisco after my first semester of Balinese gamelan in college. I remember thinking about how wonderful it would be to go to Bali. I could pick my own fresh fruit for breakfast, take gamelan lessons in the morning with the Balinese family with whom I would be living, and then wander around my imagined village on winding, little dirt paths in the warm afternoon, without a care in the world. Like Lisa Gold, this McPhee-esque image of Bali was unfaithful to my actual experience. Although I quickly learned and accepted that the real Bali does incorporate the linearity of road cutting through traditional life, some part of me still fantasizes about that idyllic, solitary experience initially imparted to me by Colin McPhees writing.

2. Dancers of Bali Gamelan Peliatan (1952)

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In 1950, the British WWII veteran John Coast moved to Bali to fulfill his dream of bringing Balis finest musicians on a tour throughout Europe and the United States. With A House in Bali in hand, he set out around the island to find the dancers and musicians with whom McPhee had worked in the 1930s. His search led him to the village of Peliatan where the Gamelan Gunung Sari had been less active since the war (Herbst 2006). Coast asked if the gamelan and dance troupe would consider becoming more active again. One of the community members asked Coast why he was so interested in this. Coast replied, It is simple. I want you to rehearse your famous gamelan, train new dancers and work together with me. As you progress, we will look for tourists to watch the club [in Peliatan] at work and you will fix a fee for them to pay. Then the club will get heart from receiving extra money And if we get on happily with one another and are satisfied with our work well, my big idea is to take a really first-class group of dancers abroad. (Coast in Herbst 2006: 1) After getting together a prominent group of musicians and dancers (including Colin McPhees favorite patronee, Sampih), the troupe rehearsed their material for months while Coast made arrangements for the tour. John Coast and the members of Gunung Sari chose a fairly wide range of material to perform. Their repertoire included Kapi Radja (Ape King), Oleg, which was newly composed for the Gunung Sari tour, Tumulilingan Mengisap Sari, and Gambangan. They also performed the classic male dance Baris, and the great kebyar work Kebyar Duduk (danced by Sampih). A gender wayang quartet also made the list. Perhaps the most remembered piece in the repertoire is Legong Lasem, danced by the three young women Raka, Oka and Anom (Coast 1954).

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They began their tour of the west in London, spending just a few weeks there. While they were in London, their New York contacts were preparing for the arrival of the gamelan. Colin McPhee wrote an article for the New York Times announcing the fabulous gamelan troupe that was making its way to Manhattan, and pleading to the public to help preserve Balinese art, writing, One has but to listen to hybrid musical styles prevalent in the East today, with their sad adaptations of western methods to appreciate the Balinese idiom. How long such music can survive is an open question (1952). McPhee and Margaret Mead played their video footage of Bali at the Natural History Museum, hoping to lure some prospective audience members to the ticket box (Coast 1954). On September 16, 1952, gamelan Gunung Sari opened on Broadway at the Fulton Theater.5 The show was a success so much so that the Legong dance, having been heavily edited to seventeen minutes for an audience with a short attention span, was expanded to twenty-three minutes due to the increasing calls for multiple encores. By popular demand, the gamelans residency was extended at the Fulton Theater for an extra three weeks. On November 9, the group left New York and continued touring the East Coast of the United States before heading west towards California. They performed several one night stands in Boston, Philadelphia, Newark, Cleveland, Cincinnati, St. Louis, and Chicago (Coast 1954). Traveling by train, they stopped for a short run in Las Vegas. Clearly the reputation of the Balinese as gambling cock-fighters preceded Clifford Geertz influence (Geertz 1977). John Coast notes in his own memoire, Dancing out of Bali, that, the Balinese, the renowned cock-fighters, received official orders not to gamble (Coast 1954: 234).
5

According to Sumarsam (2004: 89-90), this is the performance that Richard Winslow witnessed that forever changed his opinions about great musical works. He subsequently helped found the ethnomusicology program at Wesleyan University.

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Los Angeles was the final stop on their tour. Coast mentions that the Balinese musicians and dancers were most excited about the warm weather (the coldness of the East Coast and the desert nights in Las Vegas had been an adjustment for the tropically inclined troupe), As the train rattled past the orange groves and the sun shone forth in a fair sky, we peeled off one layer of clothing after another (ibid: 234). Los Angeles is also described as having the most enthusiastic audience. There they received up to seven curtain calls per night, and the Legong dance was yet again expanded to twenty-five minutes. Gunung Sari was able to soak up some of the famous cultural sights in L.A. as well. They visited Walt Disney Studios, and even met Bing Crosby and Bob Hope, the stars of the 1952 film The Road to Bali (ibid.). The touring group left the United States to return to home on Jan 8, 1953, having exposed thousands of Americans to Balinese gamelan and dance. Recordings made from both live and in-studio performances on their tour were released, and are heard today by North American gamelan enthusiasts. Although they didnt know it at the time, several of the musicians that participated in the tour, including I Wayan Gandera, would be invited back to Los Angeles to help teach the first Balinese gamelan ensemble based outside of Indonesia just a few years later.

3. Mantle Hood and Balinese Gamelan at UCLA (1959-1965) After completing a dissertation on patet (modes) in Central Javanese court gamelan, under the tutelage of early ethnomusicologist, Jaap Kunst, Mantle Hood joined the faculty at UCLA in 1954.6 Four years later, Hood received a generous grant from the
6

Hoods first teaching assistant was Bob Brown, who would later become an influential gamelan enthusiast and ethnomusicologist.

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Rockefeller Foundation and used the money to start the first gamelan performance curriculum in North America (Revitt 1962). The initial year of the program had only a Central Javanese gamelan, but a Balinese gong kebyar named Gamelan Gong Sekar Anyar and a set of gender instruments were purchased in 1959.7 The Balinese gamelan class began in the academic year of 1959-1960 the same year that Hood started the Institute for Ethnomusicology at UCLA.8 Hood founded the Institute on his belief in the practice bi-musicality. This concept suggests that in order to fully understand a musical tradition both in its technical and cultural meaning a person must actually play the music that he or she examines. He claims that occidentals... have usually limited their interest in non-western music to passive observation, working with informants and museum studies (Hood 1960: 55). However, as students living and hoping to work in the west, and with few university music departments hiring ethnomusicologists at the time, Hoods students were also required to be fluent in the western classical tradition. Hood compares his bimusical model to the benefits of being bi-lingual. Hence, the student of gamelan should be able to speak or play gamelan and understand its syntax and construction just as easily as that student can play and comprehend western music (Hood 1960). Balinese musicians Tjokorda Mas, who had been running an art museum in Ubud, and Wayan Gandera, who had toured with Gamelan Gunung Sari in 1952, were invited

UCLA Department of Ethnomusicology web site. Ensemble History: Music of Bali Ensemble. http://www.ethnomusic.ucla.edu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1413:baliensemble&catid=93&Itemid=226 8 Mantle Hood claims that the origins of the groundbreaking ethnomusicology program at UCLA started with Professor Laurence Armstrong Petran. Petran was a systematic musicologist with an interest in nonwestern musics and came to teach courses in world music at the University in 1942 (Revitt 1962). However, Petran had little to do with the founding of the gamelan program.

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by Hood to help him teach the fledgling ensemble.9 At that time, the Balinese gamelan was an extra-curricular study-group, and was not taken for credit. It was open to all students at UCLA, both inside and outside the music department. Members of the larger Los Angeles region were also welcome to participate, making Gamelan Gong Sekar Anyar the first community gamelan group in North America (Revitt 1962). This community group model would later spread as more gamelan groups were founded throughout the United States and Canada. In the academic year 1964-1965, the model of the gamelan program changed, and the ensemble was incorporated into the regular curriculum for credit. The course, Music 54A/145A Music and Dance of Bali, was split into two sections. The first section focused on gong kebyar repertoire and dance (referred to as gamelan gong by the program). The second part concentrated on gender wayang.10 This model the purely academic group would also spread to various ensembles throughout North America as Hoods students gained professorships, and as university music departments acquired their own sets of instruments (Sumarsam 2004: 73-75). Though it was due time that music departments begin to take non-western musics into serious consideration, UCLAs guest teachers from their respective traditions11 were still romanticized and idealized by western observers. Paul Revitt, who wrote an article about the Ethnomusicology program in 1962, wrote of Tjokorda Mas and Wayan Gandera that,

Hardja Susilo was invited to teach the Central Javanese ensemble. UCLA Department of Ethnomusicology web site. Ensemble History: Music of Bali Ensemble. http://www.ethnomusic.ucla.edu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1413:baliensemble&catid=93&Itemid=226 11 Japanese gagaku, African drumming, and Karnatik music were also taught by guest instructors.
10

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The smiles never leave their faces, and their direct and simple kindness is a Christian ideal. Music and dance seem to be their only world; and, indeed it is, for in Indonesia, music is so much a part of the culture that it literally accompanies everything from birth to death Tjokorda and Wayan were amazed at the competence and attainment of their western colleagues in the ensembles, but their western colleagues were more amazed at the incredibly fast tempos nonchalantly taken by them on the most difficult and intricate of instrumental passages. (Revitt 1962: 49) Not only does Revitt perpetuate the simplified and patronizing image of the happy native, instilled by well meaning researchers such as Colin McPhee and Margaret Mead by directly placing them as one-dimensional characters that only live for music and dance, but he also refers to their western students as colleagues. Unless Revitt would also be so bold as to equate Mantle Hoods students as equal colleagues, this is a clear indication that non-western music, and non-western musicians, were still considered inferior, or at least un-elevated, when compared to western musicians and scholars. Nevertheless, many great musicians from Indonesia have been invited to California over the years to teach Balinese gamelan at UCLA. Some of them have been highly influential to other ensembles throughout the broader West Coast and other parts of the United States and Canada.12 The first generation of gamelan teachers included I Wayan Gandera (taught from 1960-1964) and Tjokorda Mas (taught from 1960-1966).13 Once they returned to Indonesia, their position was taken by one of Mantle Hoods students, Hardja Susilo.14 In 1971, Susilo left Los Angles to start his own gamelan program at the University of Hawaii. Mantle Hood resigned soon after in 1973, leaving
12

These influential teachers include: Hardja Susilo, who taught at UCLA from 1967-1971; KRT Wasitodiningrat (a.k.a. Pak Cokro), who taught from 1977-1979; I Nyoman Wenten and Nanik Wenten, who both began teaching part time at UCLA in 1995 (their main teaching position was at CalArts), and remain driving forces for the Los Angeles gamelan community. 13 UCLA Department of Ethnomusicology web site. Ensemble History: Music of Bali Ensemble. http://www.ethnomusic.ucla.edu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1413:baliensemble&catid=93&Itemid=226 14 Hardja Susilo and his program at the University of Hawaii were the original catalysts for several superenthusiasts within both the Javanese and Balinese gamelan affinity groups in North America.

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the ensemble inactive for a number of years. Despite the decline of the gamelan program at UCLA in the early 1970s, a Balinese music scene was taking hold further north in Californias San Francisco Bay Area under the tutelage of Hoods former student, Bob Brown.

4. Bob Brown Takes His Students to Indonesia (Summer 1971) In 1970, Professor Robert Brown left his position at Wesleyan University in Connecticut where he had been involved with the young ethnomusicology program (Slobin 2010) and returned to California to join the faculty at Cal Arts and help run the American Society for Eastern Arts in the Bay Area. As mentioned above, he had previously been a student of Mantle Hoods, and rooted his programs in the bi-musicality model essentially creating conservatories for non-western music (particularly in Karnatac and Indonesian traditions) (Cormack 2011). 1969 was the first year that Cal Arts was housed on its current campus in Valencia. They were preparing to start their new Javanese gamelan program. Jody Diamond now a tremendous force in the Javanese and Balinese gamelan community in North America recalls those early beginnings of the group in 1970. Bob Brown was in Indonesia arranging for our teachers, so initially some more experienced American students led the way So the only students with gamelan experience were the ones who had followed Bob from Wesleyan, among them Andy Toth, John and Nancy Pemberton, and Alan Feinstein. (Diamond 2004: 35) Though the Cal Arts group was originally without a proper teacher, Bob Brown took eighteen of his advanced students to Indonesia the following summer. They spent the first part of their trip in Java, where they bought the Central Javanese gamelan that is now

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used at UC Berkeley. For the second leg of their journey, the group headed to Bali. There was no original plan to study Balinese gamelan while they were there, but this changed once the group arrived. Jody Diamond again recounts, Then Sam Scripps bought the beautiful Javanese gamelan Kai Udan Mas, which was packed up and taken to Bali with the rest of the group for a three-month study program We set up camp at the Campuan Hotel in Ubud, which was the former home of Walter Spies At one point there was a clamor to learn some Balinese gamelan since we were in Bali. Bob arranged for the Semar Pegulingan from Teges to be moved to our campus. (Ibid.) From my research, it seems that this summer of 1971 trip to Bali was the first example of a large group of North Americans traveling together to study Balinese gamelan. The three-month study program described was the 1971 Study Abroad program from the American Society for Eastern Art (ASEA) at Flower Mountain Bob Browns own house in Bali. Since then, various groups have traveled there almost every year, either to tour their own repertoire (starting in 1985), collaborate as professionals with Balinese artists, or study traditional music, as Bob Browns group did. This trip also prompted ASEA to eventually teach semar pegulingan as an ensemble in their program in the Bay Area.

5. The American Society for Eastern Arts and the Center for World Music (19711979) The American Society for Eastern Arts was founded by Sam and Louise Scripps in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1963 in order to bring the renown South Indian dancer, Balasaraswati, to the United States to teach American students. Sam Scripps was a professional lighting designer and was originally introduced to gender wayang music

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through his interest in traditional lighting for the wayang kulit shadow plays of Indonesia (Foley 2001). As the program grew, they were able to incorporate summer study abroad programs in 1971. This included Flower Mountain in Bali, described above by Jody Diamond. The domestic summer curricula usually took place in the Bay Area, or in Seattle at the University of Washington.15 ASEA remained active only in the summer until 1974, when Bob Brown greatly expanded the program to include a year-round curriculum. The American Society for Eastern Arts also changed its name to The Center for World Music. It was housed at the Julia Morgan Center in Berkeley, just one block from the famous Telegraph Avenue, and walking distance to the UC Berkeley campus.16 That year, forty-five artists were invited to teach and perform music and dance from India, Indonesia (Java, West Java, and Bali), Africa, Korea, the Balkans, and the American avant-garde. Some of these artists included Steve Reich, Lou Harrison, Balasaraswati, Irawati Durban Arjo, KRT Wasitodiningrat (Pak Cokro), I Nyoman Wenten, Nanik Wenten, and I Nyoman Sumandhi (ibid). Jody Diamond appropriately called the summer of 1974, the grand gathering of world-class artists and fanatically focused students (Diamond 2004: 35). By 1974, the Balinese gamelan at UCLA was inactive. Some Javanese academic ensembles had been established at institutions such as Cal Arts and Wesleyan University, but few other Balinese groups had yet been formed.17 However, there had been enough past activity for the taste of Balinese gamelan to be on the tip of some burgeoning
15

"Center for World Music and Related Arts: A Brief History" http://www.centerforworldmusic.org/history.html 16 According to Jody Cormack, Sam and Louise Scripps had bought the Julia Morgan Center for the group to use. The building was going to be torn down. 17 Larry Reed founded his wayang kulit theater Shadowlight Productions in San Francisco in 1972. It is possible that there were other small, lesser-known groups established, but I have found no mentions or records of them before this time.

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enthusiasts tongues. The Scripps purchased a set of semar pegulingan instruments (the same type of ensemble that the 1971 summer group had played on), and they were brought to the United States, along with Balinese instructors. This group was modeled after Mantle Hoods academic Balinese gamelan course. While the members of ASEA and CWM did not receive academic credit, it was only open to people enrolled in the program. It is important to emphasize that the happenings at ASEA and the Center for World Music were not only an exciting time for Balinese gamelan activity in the United States, but for the participation in world music in general. It was an incredible time of musical exploration for many of the students and the Center. A 1974 sessions participant, Karen Elliot, so eloquently expressed her feelings about the program and its offerings. My understanding of music itself, of how joy can be expressed and how music and dance and the sacred can be joined, my feeling of belonging to and participating in our global community these were vastly increased and invigorated by being able to fill up on such vibrant beauty. They kindled in me an appetite for world music and dance of all kinds. It was like drinking nectar. The feeling has never left me. (Elliot 2004: 17) The program was in many ways the first of its kind. It brought some of the worlds best artists to a single location, making the transmission of these musics accessible to an American community that was expressly ready to confront and appreciate music on a global scale. From what I have gathered, very few of these students chose to study only one type of music or dance. With so many classes offered, the ASEA and Center for World Music community took full advantage. Participant Deena Burtons activity schedule for the 1974 sessions sums up the level of eclecticism chosen by the participants.

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My own daily schedule (8am till 4:00 or 5:00 later) consisted of Sundanese gamelan, Sundanese dance, Javanese dance, Indian tabla, Balinese gamelan (Steve Reich was teaching his music, and was in the Balinese class that summer), Balinese dance, and Bulgarian singing. (Burton 2004: 2) Some of the participants arrived at the Center with a clear idea of what tradition they wanted to study, but left with a completely different emphasis. For example, ethnomusicologist Lisa Gold had originally signed up for the Center for World Music to take a class in medieval music with LaNoue Davenport. After getting a taste for the program, she signed up for eight more classes, and left with a deepening affinity for Balinese gamelan, now her primary area of music study (Gold 2004: 28). The teaching method at the Center for World Music was complete immersion. The goal was to learn the music at the Julia Morgan Center just as one would in India, Java, Bali, the Balkans, etc. respectively.18 However, it is clear that the learning process, and more importantly, the teacher (or guru)/student exchange was often quite different in Berkeley than in a more traditional setting. One example is the encouragement of female students at the Center to take on musical roles that traditionally are encouraged in men (Downing 2010). Katherine Foley was able to study Balinese shadow puppetry and Balinese voice with Pak Sumandhi. When he assembled a flyer for the Balinese gamelan performance, he boasted Foley as the first female dalang (shadow puppeteer). Even thirty-eight years later, it is uncommon for Balinese women to take on such a prominent musical role (Foley 2004: 18). It also remains uncommon for North American gamelan enthusiasts male or female to study intensely with dalangs.

18

See Chapter Three for more information on traditional Balinese pedagogy.

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These methods of learning and participating in unfamiliar musics seemed to cause some tensions between teachers and students. While most of the instructors were aiming to impart traditional forms, some of the Berkeley crowd, which consisted of several New Music composers and musicians, was already anxious to experiment on these nonwestern instruments. Barbara Benary well known for her New York based experimental Javanese gamelan group, Gamelan Son of Lion experienced these tensions during her time in the program. At that time there were strong feelings of conservatism and protecitvism around gamelan practice in America. Unspoken feelings suggested that us white guys had no business messing around with our crazy ideas on traditional instruments, (Benary 2004: 4). Jody Diamond remembers the frustrations of trying to enforce the traditional aural/oral learning of Balinese gamelan on her fellow classmate in the 1973 summer program in Seattle. I remember unsuccessfully trying to convince Steve Reich not to use notation in our Balinese gamelan class. I had learned that keeping the eyes busy often meant the ears and spirit were less open and that was where the playing of gamelan seemed most glorious. (Diamond 2004: 36) These two examples of contentions reveal a general attitude towards gamelan practice that existed in the early years. The young group seemed split between those students with a purist attitude towards the tradition (including group unity and aural/oral processes of transmission), and those who wanted to incorporate gamelan into their individual, creative process. To an extent, these tensions are still experienced amongst the Balinese Gamelan Affinity Group in North America. To add to an example previously discussed in chapter three, composers in Gamelan Dharma Swara of New York City felt pressure while writing and preparing the new material for the experimental fragmen tari, which was

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presented for a Balinese audience. Some material was questioned by members of the ensemble for not sounding Balinese enough. The composers also used notation to teach the ensemble their appropriate parts. Some members were relieved to be learning from a score. Others preferred to learn the bulk of the material through repetitive imitation in rehearsal the same method used to learn the traditional repertoire. Not long after this vividly recounted summer of 1974, the Center for World Music programs began to decline. Lisa Gold remembers, Sadly the Center could not sustain such a rich program and as one by one my teachers left, so did I (Gold 2004: 28). Jody Cormack agreed that the program simply became too large and expensive to maintain (2011). It could not be permanently supported. But many contributors to the collection of anecdotes and memories, compiled for the Center for World Music reunion in 2004, have reflected that the programs in the Berkeley and Seattle have had significant impact on their lives as musicians and scholars. In Lisa Golds closing comments, she recounts the experience at the CWM in comparison to her many subsequent gamelan experiences. Years later, after going through the music program at UCLA while continuing gamelan studies with Pak Cokro at Cal Arts, then Wayan Suweca, Harjito and others, and then joining Gamelan Sekar Jaya in Berkeley, studying in Bali with other outstanding artists since 1981, and now with a PhD in ethnomusicology from U.C. Berkeley and performing with Larry Reeds Shadow Play Theater Company gender wayang ensemble, Gamelan Sekar Jaya, and Gamelan Sari Raras, I still look back at those initial experiences that I had at the Center for World Music as some of the most intensive, meaningful times. It is this kind of learning that I hope I can pass on to my own students. (Gold 2004: 29) These initial experiences founded at the Center for World Music and at the American Society for Eastern Arts covered the important groundwork that would soon lead to the incredible growth of Balinese gamelan ensembles in North America both in number, and in performance standards.

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In 1979, Bob Brown took a Professorship at San Diego State University, and the Center for World Music essentially moved with him.19 Luckily for the fate of the North American BGAG, Michael Tenzer and Rachel Cooper arrived in Berkeley that same year with a newly purchased set of gong kebyar instruments, a Balinese instructor, and a quorum of people who already knew how to play the music.

6. Michael Tenzer and Gamelan Sekar Jaya (1977-1982) In the spring of 1977, Michael Tenzer, then an undergraduate at Yale University, took a world music course with visiting professor, Mantle Hood.20 By this time, Tenzer had already purchased his first Balinese gamelan record at a store in New Haven, and became intrigued by the music. He received a summer grant from Yale to travel to Bali and study gamelan. Mantle Hood helped Tenzer contact and arrange for teachers, and directed him towards existing scholarly literature to read before he ventured out on his own. After reading Ruby Ornsteins thesis (1971), Mantle Hood told Tenzer that he had read half of the available literature on Balinese music at that time.21 When he landed in Bali, his plan was to stay for three months, and cover as much ground as possible. But it was six months before he returned home (Tenzer 2011). Michael Tenzer returned to Bali again in 1978 after graduating from college. This time, he planned to purchase some instruments and bring them back to the United States.

19

Bob Brown left his friend Jim Hogan in charge of some residual activities in the Bay Area. By this time, these activities were held at the Fort Mason Center in San Francisco. 20 Mantle Hood was also a guest professor at Wesleyan University in Middletown (28 miles North of New Haven), which already had a well-established ethnomusicology program. 21 Today, there is a plethora of literature on Balinese gamelan. There are dozens of English language scholarly books now easily accessible. M.A. theses and Ph.D. dissertations are written on Balinese music topics every year (including this one).

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However, special circumstances allowed for Tenzer to acquire more than he had originally hoped for. So I decided in Bali that I wanted to buy instruments. And I ordered these instruments. At that time the only banks were in Denpasar, and there was no phone service. So when the cable for the money came someone would show up on a bicycle and hand you a slip of paper you would have to go to Denpasar to claim your money. So this finally happened. I went to Denpasar and there was some kind of panic going on. And just fifteen minutes before then, the rupiah had devalued by about 50%... Instead of being able to buy a few instruments, I was able to buy a whole gamelan. (ibid.) Tenzer ordered a full set of gong kebyar instruments to be cast. He arranged for them to be sent to Berkeley, California, where he planned to enroll as a composition student in the fall of 1979. During this second trip to Bali, Michael Tenzer also befriended two people who were scheduled to be in California that fall, Rachel Cooper and her partner at the time, I Wayan Suweca. Rachel Cooper was completing her studies at the World Arts and Cultures program at UCLA with Pak Cokro (one year after the Balinese gamelan program was revived), and Pak Suweca had been invited to teach at UCLAs Asian Performing Arts Summer Institute in the following summer of 1979. Upon their return to the United States, and completion of the summer program in L.A., they made their way to the San Francisco Bay Area (ibid). With the addition of Rachel Cooper and Pak Suweca, Michael Tenzer arrived in Berkeley where there were enough people who were interested in Balinese gamelan due to the collapsed ASEA and CWM program. But the quorum had had no instruments to play on, as Bob Brown had already moved to San Diego. Pak Suweca was also worried about finding work once the UCLA summer program was over, so with Michael Tenzers

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gamelan on the way to California from Bali, he, Cooper, and Suweca decided to start group (ibid). Michael Tenzer and Rachel Cooper approached Jim Hogan, who had taken over what was left of the Center for World Music after Bob Browns departure essentially curating a concert series, since the school had been dissolved and asked him to help spread the word that a new Balinese gamelan was getting started. Hogan published flyers with a picture of Pak Suweca on the front, announcing that a gamelan workshop was going to be held. They gathered twenty people, and made a plan to start a six-week class (Vitale 1990: 30). Michael Tenzer recounts the colorful story of how they came to rehearse. Jody Diamond had a friend with a ritzy house up in the Berkeley Hills [Jeanie Gibson]. She imagined that gamelan was some quaint little set of wind chimes, so she said, Sure you can practice in our living room. By this time my gamelan had arrived by boat, so we took it up to Jeanie Gibson's house and we arranged a Tuesday night first rehearsal. It was October 9th 1979 and we started our group This woman Jeanie and her husband you could tell by their face that they were pretty shocked. It had not corresponded to what they had imagined. There were twenty crazy people in their living room and they were making a hell of a lot of noise. So the second week it was worse, and then the third week we went and there was nobody there. And we were all outside this house, and what did we do? We broke into the house. We went around the back and found that one of the windows was open, and we helped ourselves, and started rehearsing. So that was the end of that. (ibid) The excitement of this breaking and entering event bonded the group. It became clear that there was definitely enough energy to expand the gamelan into something bigger than a six-week workshop. Pak Suweca agreed to stay and teach the group which he named Gamelan Sekar Jaya on the condition that they help support him while he was there. Each member agreed to pay $20 per month. This gave Suweca $400 per month (this is the

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equivalent of about $1,250 in 2012),22 which was just enough to get by (ibid). Even after Pak Suweca left the United States to return to Bali in 1981, members of the ensemble continued to pay fixed dues to support new guest artists, and to help pay for rehearsal space. Rachel Cooper and Wayan Suweca found a cheap house to rent in El Cerrito (a small town just west of Berkeley). The groups decided to keep the gamelan there. Eventually, several members of Sekar Jaya would move into the house. They called it the banjar, which is the Balinese term for a community center. Unlike the university programs, they wanted a community group where anyone who was willing to dedicate themselves to the study of gamelan could join. Rachel Cooper explains that, The rich textures and rhythmic complexity was what we loved about Balinese gamelan, and the group was started with the intention of really learning to play it and to go beyond the Introduction to Balinese Music level that was offered in the university programs. (Cooper and Tenzer 1983: 12) They modeled their organization around the Balinese sekaha gong or club, a democratic structure in which each member takes part in the decision-making process regarding repertoire, performances, and any other matters that the group may address. The sekaha gong model also represented to them the most important aspect of Balinese music making: total cooperation. Rachel Cooper explains, this [the sekaha gong] parallels the nature of the music; the complexity of melody and rhythm depends on each part being played exactly in an interlocking form to create the whole (ibid). The members of Sekar Jaya also dedicated themselves to learning the music through traditional Balinese methods. This involved getting rid of notation, and learning the music through watching
22

CPI Inflation Calculator. http://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl

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and listening to their instructor repeat phrases or entire pieces, until they have learned the material correctly (ibid).23 In February of 1980, Gamelan Sekar Jaya held their first concert at the Fort Mason Center in San Francisco. At the time, this was also the headquarters for the Center for World Music. Jim Hogan yet again pulled through with advertising for the performance. He placed a huge picture of Pak Wenten who was also involved with Gamelan Sekar Jaya on the cover of the Fort Mason Newsletter with the concert date. The venue which could normally hold an audience of four hundred had six hundred show up that evening. They had to turn people away from the doors. Sekar Jaya was able to play a full concert of traditional style repertoire, including Legong, Gabor, Sekar Gendot, and Semar Budaya (ibid).24 The group continued to grow and improve over a number of years. By the time Pak Suweca returned to Bali in 1981, Gamelan Sekar Jaya had a working repertoire of nineteen pieces and had performed twenty-nine times. They had released a cassette recording for a Balinese market, and had even premiered three new works composed by Pak Suweca (ibid). Michael Tenzer left the group for a yearlong stay in Bali on a Fulbright fellowship in 1981. In his absence, two new Balinese artists I Wayan Rai and Wayan Dibia agreed to teach Gamelan Sekar Jaya while they were in the United States, studying at San Diego State and U.C.L.A. They happened to also be employed by the flowering ASTI (now ISI), the conservatory in Denpasar, Bali where many of the great Balinese artists were beginning to gather and collaborate.

23 24

See Chapter Three for more detail about traditional Balinese pedagogical methods. Semar Budaya was an original work composed by Suweca. It was composed in the traditional form.

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Tenzer returned in 1982 with a newfound thirst for gamelan like never before. I was feeling really good about my drum technique, and I had a great year. I was really just ready to completely turn myself to the group (Tenzer 2011). Gamelan Sekar Jaya was filled with propulsionary energy coming from Michael Tenzer, Pak Rai, and Pak Dibia, who were also channeling the excitement of a bourgeoning gamelan movement occurring simultaneously in Bali.

7. Gamelan Sekar Jayas Tour to Bali (1985) At a meeting in the summer of 1983, Gamelan Sekar Jaya decided to try to take the group on a performing tour in Bali. By that time, Bali had plenty of western visitors and students who came to study individually with teachers, or to take a more passive role as tourists. But this was the first time that a western gamelan had traveled to Bali to play for the Balinese. Pak Dibia procured a letter from the governor of Bali (Ida Bagus Mandera, who had founded the Bali Arts Festival in 1978), formally inviting them. It blew our minds. We couldnt believe that we had been invited. So then we just threw ourselves into it [the ensemble] for the period of 1983 to 1985 (ibid). Sekar Jaya worked for two years to improve for the tour. They prepared traditional pieces, including the challenging kebyar work Taruna Jaya,25 and Tabuh Pisan.26 The highlight of their tour was their performance at the Bali Arts Festival,

25

Taruna Jaya was composed in 1952 by Gde Manik in North Bali. The piece is essentially a shortened version of Kebyar Legong, discussed in chapter 3 of this thesis. 26 Tabuh Pisan was also performed by Gamelan Dharma Swara of New York on their 2010 tour, as discussed in Chapter Three of this thesis.

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where hundreds of Balinese people took witness.27 The tour itself was beautifully recounted in a documentary film, Kembali: To Return (Adler 1991). Gamelan Sekar Jayas efforts were successful. Balinese audiences were thoroughly impressed with the material that the American ensemble was able to produce. Gus Martin wrote a review in the Bali Post a few days after GSJs performance at the Arts Festival, Who wasnt shaken up when Sekaha Gong Sekar Jaya from California presented their skills to us? The group of white skinned musicians were so devoted to and appreciative of Balinese gamelan. How agile were their fingers dancing over the tuned keys! They were like a wave that sometimes rumbled softly, sometimes roared On the one hand we feel proud Proud, because our arts have received the highest possible appreciation not only are they admired, but they are actually studied by other peoples. (Martin 1986: 33) Sekar Jaya paved the way for acceptance from Balinese audiences of non-Indonesian gamelan ensembles. Because of their tour, North American groups are invited to play in Bali regularly.28 But perhaps the most important contribution that the tour made to the future of community gamelan groups in the United States and Canada was the quality and performance standard set by Sekar Jaya. They had proven that a non-Balinese gamelan could play with virtuosity, and take the process of learning the music very seriously. Though much of the personnel in Gamelan Sekar Jaya have changed over the years, the group continues to be an example for both community and academic ensembles.

Conclusions

27

In 1985 Gamelan Sekar Jaya did not perform in the kebyar competition as Dharma Swara did. They performed by themselves. 28 This tour is so well remembered in Bali that I wonder if the state of gamelan in the U.S. might be drastically different if Sekar Jaya had represented themselves poorly in 1985.

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Since Gamelan Sekar Jaya was founded, dozens of Balinese gamelan ensembles have sprung up throughout North America.29 Most of these are run through academic programs, where the main body of members consists of enrolled students. But some of these university groups have a community group component, or a separately run rehearsal for dedicated community members. These groups often base their organizational structure on that of Sekar Jaya.30 This is due in part because many of the original members of Gamelan Sekar Jaya have moved on, taking professorships and jobs at universities and cities far from the San Francisco Bay Area, where they have started their own ensembles. Michael Tenzer was a professor at Yale University for a time, and introduced a gamelan class there. In 2001, he received a position at the University of British Columbia in Canada. Both his academic group and his separate community group named Gita Asmara, and founded in 2005 are very well known throughout the North American Balinese Gamelan Affinity Group for adhering to the same high standards of musicianship that Tenzer placed upon Sekar Jaya in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Tenzer also continues to leave the teaching to Balinese artists. Currently, Gita Asmara is taught by master artist and UBC graduate student, I Wayan Sudirana. Evan Ziporyn, who was also an early member of Gamelan Sekar Jaya, received a job teaching music composition at M.I.T. There, he founded his own community and academic group in 1993, Gamelan Galak Tika. 31 Ziporyn often invites Balinese teachers

29 30

Consult Appendix: List of Balinese Gamelan ensembles in North America. See Chapter Two for more information about organizational structures. 31 About Gamelan Galak Tika. http://www.galaktika.org/about.html

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to instruct the group. However, the ensemble also focuses on playing Ziporyns own works for gamelan, as well as collaborative projects with Balinese artists.32 American gamelan enthusiasts have not founded all groups. For example, Balinese musician Tjok Gde originally started Gamelan Dharma Swara in the 1980s. In the late 1990s, I Nyoman Saptanyana and his family were invited to come live in the United States and permanently lead the ensemble from the Indonesian consulate in Manhattan (Romero 2011; Mangles 2011). Balinese musician Nyoman Suadin established Gamelan Mitra Kusuma in the Washington D.C. area in 1997.33 Unlike the groups where Balinese musicians are asked to teach for a short period of time, Gamelan Dharma Swara and Gamelan Mitra Kusuma are shaped entirely by a single Balinese artists vision and interpretation of the music. A similar situation occurs in the Los Angeles area under the direction of the Balinese musician, Pak Nyoman Wenten. He first arrived in the United States in 1972 to found and teach Gamelan Burat Wangi, the successful academic and community ensemble at Cal Arts in Valencia. Since then, Pak Wenten has made a full-time career of teaching other academic gamelan groups in Southern California, including UCLA, Loyola Marymount University, and Claremont McKenna College. Most of these academic groups also allow community members to join, and some L.A. area gamelan enthusiasts participate in all four of these ensembles, as they are relatively close in proximity to each other. Of course, the proliferation of Balinese gamelan ensembles founded by both Balinese artists and enthusiasts is not the only thing of historical significance to occur
32 33

See Steele 2012 for more information about Even Ziporyn and Gamelan Galak Tika. Who is Gamelan Mitra Kusuma? http://www.dcgamelan.com/aboutus.html

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since 1985. It has become an increasingly popular field of research for ethnomusicologists so much so, that it might even verge on clich. More groups from Bali, such as Gamelan udamani from the village of Pengosekan near Ubud, have toured the United States several times with the help of genius organizer and gamelan enthusiast, Judy Mitoma.34 udamani has also developed their own summer program in Pengosekan, Bali, where North Americans can travel to study gamelan intensively. In 1995, gamelan enthusiasts Ken Worthy, Carla Fabrizio, and Jody Diamond, created the Gamelan Listserv an Internet forum where anyone in the world can interact and create dialogue around all forms of gamelan (Voss 1998: 48). All in all, Balinese gamelan has become less obscure and more of a regular though not mainstream part of North American musical life in a period of eighty-four years. Most universities now offer courses in World Music, where Javanese and Balinese gamelan traditions are almost always covered, even if the university does not have their own gamelan performance class. Recordings, performances, academic groups, and community groups, have touched the lives of thousands of North Americans. The high level of current activity, accounted for in these preceding pages, suggests that thousands more will have the opportunity to explore this music in the future.

34

udamani toured North America in 2007 and 2010.

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CONCLUSION

To conclude this MA thesis, I would like to return to the questions posed in chapter one the unanswerable, or those outside the scope of this project. What happens when affinity morphs into full identity? Can non-Balinese, North American gamelan enthusiasts claim Balinese gamelan as their own music? If so, what are the possible consequences of this? Does this level of cultural appropriation affect the source? What aspects of a broader, North American culture allow for such an affinity group to not only take hold, but also thrive? These questions certainly pertain to the Balinese Gamelan Affinity Group in the United States and Canada, but may also resonate with scholars or participants of other affinity groups as well. I am not a philosopher, and make no claims to provide correct answers or explanations to these questions. Nevertheless, as an active Balinese gamelan enthusiast and ethnomusicologist, I believe it would be irresponsible of me not to take them into consideration. What is the relationship between affinity and identity? Plenty of people enjoy certain activities, places, objects, or ideas without absorbing them as part of their identity the elements that one uses to define themselves as individuals, or as members of a culture. Yet for many Balinese gamelan enthusiasts, the music, North American BGAG culture, and Balinese culture become deeply embedded as aspects of their identity. This embedding is probably most extreme for the super-enthusiasts, described previously, who spend enormous amounts of time and intellectual energy developing their passion and career, both in North America, and in Bali. Is there a point where this identity as a gamelan musician and thinker surpasses the notion of affinity broadly defined as a

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natural liking and reaches the point of being? The inherent tensions between being both an insider and an outsider in regards to gamelan circles in North America and Bali (discussed in chapter three) complicate this question even further. How does one negotiate being about gamelan, when a complete, naturalized connection with Bali is unattainable? Since North American gamelan enthusiasts cant ever be truly Balinese, can they claim Balinese gamelan as their own? A few Americans and Canadians possess their very own sets of instruments (some sets have even been constructed domestically). Enthusiasts frequently compose music for Balinese gamelan. Certainly these people can claim some level of ownership physical ownership of property (they purchased the gamelan, and therefore it belongs to them), and intellectual property of the individual (they own the piece because they composed it). But can North Americans claim the tradition in a deeper sense? After all, some enthusiasts spend more time practicing technique and thinking about gamelan than the average ensemble in Bali. The North American BGAG has developed its own culture and its own relationship to gamelan music and gamelan practices, while continuing to revere and acknowledge Bali as the authentic source. The Balinese Gamelan Affinity Group has become a distinct location of the mind where non-Balinese gather and belong. The BGAG itself has created an identity. In this way, I do believe that gamelan enthusiasts can claim the music as their own. However, this claim does not come without consequences. Claiming both an identity as a gamelan musician and some level of ownership of the music may leave a gamelan enthusiast and the BGAG as a whole in some perpetual cultural gray area. This ownership can only be self-proclaimed. To a Balinese artist,

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gamelan in North America is still a barrowing of sorts. The instruments are Balinese (even the North American-made instruments are based on a Balinese design), as are the playing and compositional techniques, the repertoire, the etiquette, the formalwear, etc. all of these items are rooted in Balineseness. Most Balinese musicians who I have spoken to over the past few years have been highly encouraging of westerners to participate in gamelan, and to be as enthusiastic about it as they please. However, this enthusiasm does not necessarily translate as ownership. Western audiences also cloud the Balinese Gamelan Affinity Groups potential claims. They could witness an American or Canadian gamelan performance, having no knowledge of Bali or Balinese culture whatsoever, but still know that what they are seeing is not rooted in Euro-North American culture. The tuning system, the instruments, the costumes, all clearly belong to some Other. These audiences only see the affinity, and not the identity. While cultural ownership and identity amongst dedicated affinity groups may be more complex and more fluid than a mere comparison of us and them, not everyone agrees, which keeps these issues in a murky state of uncertainty, where perhaps they should remain. The affects of the magnetic draw to gamelan by North Americans have been explored throughout this thesis. But what affect does this affinity have on Bali? Does this level of cultural appropriation cause harm to the source? As mentioned above, I have not heard any discouragement from Balinese artists in regards to westerners playing gamelan. Most gamelan makers seem happy to produce instruments for export, and most gamelan teachers seem proud to be invited to teach in North America, as well as teach western students during their pilgrimages. However, our inquiry into the question of potential

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negative affects should not end here. To what extent does money play a role? Might some Balinese downplay their offense by western cultural appropriation for greater monetary stability? Americans, Canadians and Europeans are almost always charged more for services than members of the gamelan scene in Bali, and western currency goes a long way in Indonesia. If this is true, is it so horrible? After all, every full-time musician I know in New York City has to occasionally compromise some aspect of their artistic ideals great or small in order to fulfill their greater dream of playing music for a living. It must also be kept in mind that the North American gamelan community interacts most with very specific crowds of Balinese gamelan specialists (past and present members of udamani, Gamelan Semara Ratih, Gamelan Salukat, ISI, etc). However there remains an entire body of professional and amateur gamelan musicians in Bali whose opinions go largely unnoticed. It would be unfair to speak for them. What are some of the conditions within North American culture that allow for such an affinity group to take hold? As Andrew McGraw recently told a reporter, Gamelan in the U.S. is as much, if not more, a story about us than an accurate representation of Indonesian culture (McGraw in Pellegrinelli 2010). The west has had no qualms about appropriating from the exotic Other often by force since longdistance travel became feasible. But why now? Why in North America? And why Bali? I believe there is an intricate web of reasons and explanations for this. I will briefly discuss a few of them. For many enthusiasts, the choice to play gamelan is a reaction against the American mainstream which they believe has become too predictable, and based too heavily on consumerism. Participating in Balinese gamelan is clearly outside of the realm

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of mainstream music culture. Another reason why the BGAG has remained strong is because of the increasing accessibility to gamelan ensembles in North America. Once a prospective gamelan member takes the first step, and joins their university class, or looks for a local community group, the large network of Balinese gamelan ensembles and enthusiasts opens up. In this way, the BGAG remains a musical minority, but also a connected group. Despite an American mainstream that still exists, we live in a musical era where the population is splitting off into smaller and smaller, narrowly defined groups. Some people are all about dub step, while others listen strictly to 80s New York hip-hop. At the same time, eclecticism is spreading epitomized by the current hipster movement as people collect bits and pieces from these tightly defined genres. Balinese gamelan is certainly one of these genres. Some people become all about it. Others add it to a long list of interesting musics to consume or participate in. Why is this affinity group particularly strong in North America? What aspects of North Americas history and culture play a role in allowing for such a subculture to take hold? The seeds for Balinese gamelan in North America were originally planted in California, The Gateway to the East, where many of the countrys cultural outsiders have flocked since the mid nineteenth century. California has since become a huge cultural influence on the rest of the United States, and many parts of the world. Amongst these outsiders residing in California were artists who were searching to distinguish the American style from the European aesthetic. Composers were seeking new compositional languages, as well as new tunings, sonorities, and timbres to incorporate into their own work. Many of them found all of these elements in both Javanese and Balinese gamelan, including Henry Cowell, John Cage, Lou Harrison, and Colin McPhee (Rich 1995: 183-

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212). American culture continues to pursue the idea that any individual can create themselves (despite plenty of political evidence that may suggest otherwise), and that people have the right to be whoever they want to be. I believe that this attitude has made it very easy for a lot of enthusiasts to choose Balinese gamelan. The cultural repercussions of such a choice are minimal, and in some cases, this choice is even encouraged. Of all the places in the world, why does this affinity group choose Bali? In several ways, Bali is the opposite of North America. Balis environment is compact, rather than vastly expansive. Balinese culture encourages a focus on the community as a whole, rather than on the individual. Bali is also Hindu, which provides a drastically different religious atmosphere than the monotheistic North American culture (which can also make the religious elements in Balinese gamelan practice seem less important to North Americans). Andrew McGraw told the same reporter, Bali still serves as an icon of the mysterious premodern East It satisfies a neo-liberal nostalgia for community and spirituality (McGraw in Pellegrinelli 2010). Bali is also a place where enthusiasts can travel and feel relatively comfortable. Unlike many areas of South East Asia, tourists are less likely to be confronted with the sobering elements of extreme poverty, starvation, and desperation. This relative comfort of the conscience makes it easier for tourists and gamelan enthusiasts to imagine the Balinese as an example of a spiritually and culturally fulfilled people whose way of life should be emulated. It also makes it easier for western dialogue surrounding Bali to remain in the realm of the arts and culture, rather than loss and devastation.

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At the end of each interview that I conducted during my fieldwork, I asked my fellow gamelan enthusiasts this question: Of all the types of music you have been exposed to in your life, and of all the opportunities to participate in some of these genres, what is it about Balinese gamelan in particular that drew you in? I would like to end with a few of my favorite responses to this question. Balinese gamelan is a little bit forgiving in that there are different types of instruments that you could play with varying levels of difficulty. Gamelan has allowed me to improve bit by bit. (Leininger 2011) There is a special mind-state that I can get into when playing, perhaps you could call it trance, or the zone, or maybe just simply a heightened state of alertness that is a place I like to be. This doesnt really happen in rehearsal when youre trying to get the notes together, but once youve got the notes figured out, and you can focus on the meta-music, for lack of a better word, then its more a matter of lightly guiding and adjusting your hands (and perhaps breath) in order to stay tight with the ensemble as a whole and dancers as well... (Romero 2012) Nothing in the entire world makes me feel the way I do when I play gamelan. There is no substitute for it, so if I were to stop, there wouldnt be some other way I could get that fix You think about the whole sound of the gamelan, and when the gamelan actually sounds the way you are imagining it, it means that everyone else is imagining the same sound that you are imagining. And that is a really unusual experience a transcendent, metaphysical kind of thing. You really feel like you are transcending yourself when you are in a group of thirty people who are all singularly focused on this one sonic entity (Steele 2011)

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APPENDIX 1 INSTRUMENTS IN A BALINESE GAMELAN

Calung. Mid-range melodic instruments that are responsible for carrying the main melody; bronze slabs with bamboo resonators. Cengceng. Percussive cymbals; bronze Gangsa kantilan. Highest range melodic instruments, responsible for elaborating the melody; bronze slabs with bamboo resonators. Gangsa pemade. Mid-range instruments responsible for elaborating the melody; bronze slabs with bamboo resonators. Gong ageng. Largest hanging gong with boss; bronze Jegogan. Lowest melodic instruments responsible for punctuating the main melody; bronze slabs with bamboo resonators Kajar. Beat keeper with boss; bronze Kempur. Medium hanging gong with boss; bronze Kendang. Double headed drum; wood and animal hide Kenong. Smallest hanging gong with boss; bronze Rebab. Bowed instrument with two strings; wood, animal hide Reyong. Pitched gongs with boss also used to elaborate the melody; bronze Suling. End blown flutes; bamboo Trompong. A row of pitched gongs with boss played by one person, responsible for playing the main melody on lelambetan pieces such as Tabuh Pisan Ugal. Lead melodic instrument, plays the main melody; bronze slab with bamboo resonator

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Instruments in a Balinese Gamelan

Kempur Gangsa Kantilan Gangsa Suir Jegogan

Kajar

Ceng Klenang -ceng

Kendang

Gangsa Pemade

Reyong

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APPENDIX 2 LIST OF BALINESE GAMELAN IN NORTH AMERICA BY COUNTRY AND STATE

The following information can also be viewed on an interactive Google Map on the Internet. Many of the ensembles on the map include links to group websites. See web address below. http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msid=205072926626437707114.0004b8cc3677384de7 2b2&msa=0

United States
California Gamelan Anak Swarasanti Community group. Housed at University of California at Santa Cruz. Angklung and beleganjur. Gamelan Burat Wangi Academic oriented group. Housed at CalArts in Valencia, California. Lead by Nyoman Wenten and Nanik Wenten. Semar Pegulingan, gong suling, gender wayang, kecak. Gamelan Dharma Santi Academic group. Housed at California State University at Sacramento. Angklung. Gamelan Gadung Kastrui Community group. Housed in Richmond, California. Gong kebyar. Gamelan Giri Kusuma Academic group. Housed at Pomona College in Claremont, California. Gong kebyar, gender wayang. Gamelan Giri Nata Community group. Housed at the Center for World Music. Angklung, gong kebyar, gender wayang. Gemelan Kembang Atangi Academic group. Housed at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. Angklung. Gamelan Kori Mas Professional ensemble. Housed in San Francisco, California. Rindik.

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Gamelan Saih Pitu Academic group. Housed at U.C. Berkely. Semar Pegulingan. Gamelan Sekar Anyar Academic group. Housed at University of California at Los Angeles. Founded in 1959, this is the oldest Balinese gamelan program in North America. Currently lead by Nyoman Wenten. Gong kebyar. Gamelan Sekar Jaya Community group. Housed in Berkeley. Kebyar, Jegog, Angklung, Gender Wayang, and Joged. Gamelan Swarasanti Academic group. Housed at University of California at Santa Cruz. Dedicated to traditional and new music for gamelan. Angklung. Gamelan Udan Arum/ Bali and Beyond Professional ensemble. Artist owned and operated in Mission Hills, California. Founded in 1988. Gender wayang, semar pegulingan, beleganjur. Gamelan X Professional ensemble. Housed in Oakland California. Dedicated to experimental beleganjur music. Shadowlight Productions Professional ensemble. Housed in San Francisco, California. Lead by Larry Reed. Founded in 1972. Sierra School Gamelan Academic group. Housed at the Sierra elementary school in El Cerrito, California. Gong kebyar.

Colorado Gamelan Eka Mudra Academic group. Housed at Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado. Gong kebyar. Gamelan Tunas Mekar Community group. Housed in Denver, Colorado. Lead by Made Lasmawan. Angklung and semaradhana. Gamelan Tunjung Sari Academic group. Housed at Colorado College in Colorado Springs. Lead by Made Lasmawan. Angklung, gender wayang, suling gambuh, beleganjur, and joged (they have a Javanese gamelan as well).

Connecticut Gamelan Wira Suriya Academic group. Housed at Wesleyan University. Lead by Peter Steele and Sumarsam. Angklung

Florida

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Sekaha Gong Hanuman Agung Academic Group. Housed at Florida State University in Tallahassee. Taught by Michael Bakan. Gong kebyar, beleganjur.

Georgia Gamelan Nyai Tentrem Academic Group. Housed and taught at Emory University in Atlanta. Main focus on West Javanese gamelan, but also use a set of gender wayang instruments.

Hawaii Gamelan Segara Madu Academic Group. Housed at the University of Hawaii -- Manoa. Under guidance of Hardja Susilo. Gong kebyar (stronger focus on Central Javanese gamelan).

Illinois Gamelan at Northern Illinois University Academic Group. Housed at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb. Angklung. Gamelan at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Academic Group. Housed at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Gong kebyar, angklung, beleganjur.

Maryland Gamelan Mitra Kusuma Community Group. Housed at World Arts Focus in Mount Rainier, Maryland. Lead by Pak Nyoman Suadin. Angklung. Gamelan Saraswati Academic Group. Housed at University of Maryland, College Park. Taught by Nyoman Suadin. Angklung and gong kebyar. Gamelan Seka Genta Semara No record of current activity. Founded by Mantle Hood. Instruments made and designed by I Wayan Beratha. 7 tone pinara pitu.

Massachusetts Gamelan Galak Tika Community group with some students who receive academic credit. Housed at MIT in Cambridge, MA. Founded in 1993. Lead by Even Ziporyn and guest artists. Gamelan Gita Sari Academic group. Housed at Holy Cross College in Worcester, MA. Lead by Suasthi Bandem. Gong kebyar.

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Missouri Gamelan Genta Kasturi Community group run from the Indonesian Association of Great Kansas City. Lead by Patrick Conway. Semaradhana.

Montana Gamelan Sekar Gunung Academic ensemble. Housed at Montana State University in Bozeman. Lead by Alan Leech. Angklung.

Nebraska Gamelan Son of the Good Earth Academic oriented group. Housed and taught at Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska. Allows both students and community members. Gender wayang.

New Hampshire Gamelan Sleeping Fox Community group. Brought by Margaret Williamson, and housed in Lebanon, NH. Angklung.

New Mexico Gamelan Encantada Community Group. Housed in Albuquerque, New Mexico. founded by Jenny DeBouzek. Focus on new music. Iron Selonding.

New York Gamelan Chandra Bhuana Academic group at Sarah Lawrence College. Lead by Nyoman Saptanyana and Toby King. Angklung. Gamelan Chandra Kanchana Academic group. Housed at Bard College. Lead by Nyoman Suadin. Gong kebyar. Gamelan Dharma Swara Community Group. Housed by the Indonesian consulate in Manhattan. Lead by Nyoman Saptanyana and family. Gong kebyar and semaradhana. Gamelan Giri Kusuma No record of current activity. Housed by the Borough of Manhattan Community College. Currently inactive. Angklung. Gamelan Giri Mekar Community Group. Housed at Bard College. The ensemble is lead by Pak Nyoman Suadin, and is devoted to both traditional and new works for gamelan. Gong kebyar.

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Gamelan Kembang Salju Academic oriented group. Housed at the Eastman School of Music. Allows students and community members. Joged bumbung. Gamelan Lila Muni Academic oriented group. Housed at Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY. Allows both students and community members. Gong kebyar. Gamelan Yowana Sari Academic oriented group. Housed at Queens College. Allows both student and community members. Committed to both traditional and new works for gamelan. Lead by Michael Lipsey and Nyoman Saptanyana. Semaradhana. Harley Community Gamelan Community Group. Housed at the Harley School. Angklung. Rockland Angklung Society Community group. Housed in Stony Point, NY. Lead by Barbara Benary. American made iron and bamboo angklung.

North Carolina Ohio Gamelan Dwara Udyani Academic oriented group. Housed at Denison University in Granville, Ohio. Allows students and community members. Angklung. Sekaha Gong Kusuma Sari Academic group. Housed at Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, OH. Directed by Kurt Doles. Gong Kebyar. Gamelan Kyai Tatit Ratri Academic group. Housed at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee, NC. Angklung.

Oregon Gamelan Suranadi Sari Indra Putra Academic oriented group. Housed at the University of Oregon in Eugene. Allows students and community members. Gong kebyar from Lombok.

Pennsylvania Gamelan Semara Santi Academic group. Housed at Swarthmore College near Philadelphia, PA. Lead by Nyoman Suadin and Thomas Whitman. Gong kebyar, gender, and pelegongan.

Virginia 146

Angklung Gamelan Group Inactive academic group. Housed at Shenandoah University conservatory. Angklung. Gamelan Raga Kusuma Community group. Housed at the University of Richmond in Virginia. Lead by Andrew McGraw. Semaradhana.

West Virginia Gamelan Warhatnala Gunung Blue Ridge Academic group. Housed at Shepherd University in West Virginia. Lead by Pratimawan Supartha. Gong kebyar. Gamelan at West Virginia University Academic group. Housed at West Virginia University in Morgantown. Lead by Michael Vercelli. Specific Balinese gamelan type unknown.

Wisconsin Gamelan Cahya Asri Community group. Housed at Lawrence University in Wisconsin. Lead by I Ketut Dewa Alit Adnyana and Sonja Downing. Gong kebyar.

Wyoming Utah Gamelan Bintang Wahyu Academic Group. Housed at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. Lead by Jeremy Grimshaw. Focus on traditional and new music for gamelan semaradhana. Gamelan Chadra Wyoga Community group. Housed at the University of Wyoming in Laramie. Lead by I Made Asnawan. Semar Pegulingan.

District of Colombia Gamelan Wrhatnala USA Community Group. Housed at the Indonesian Embassy in Washington D.C. They have a "sister group" in Bali, Sanggar Wrhatnala. Directed by I Gusti Agung Pratimawan Supartha. Kebyar, Gender Wayang, Joged Bumbung, Gong Suling, Tektekan, Genggong, and Godogan.

Canada

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Alberta Balinese Gender Wayang Ensemble of Calgary Academic group. Housed at the University of Galgary, AB. Gender wayang.

British Columbia Gamelan Gita Asmara Community group and Academic group. Housed at University of British Columbia in Vancouver. Lead by Wayan Sudirana and Michael Tenzer. Gong kebyar.

Ontario Gamelan Dharma Santi Academic group. Housed at the University of Toronto. Lead by Annette Sanger. Samaradhana. Gamelan Semara Winangun Community group. Housed at the Embassy of Indonesia in Ottawa, Ontario. Lead by Jamie Gullikson. Pelegongan.

Quebec Gamelan Giri Kedaton Community group. Housed at the Universit de Montral. Gong kebyar and angklung.

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APPENDIX 3 GAMELAN DHARMA SWARAS 2010 TOUR SCHEDULE AND INFORMATION

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GLOSSARY
Angklung, Gamelan. Generally a four-tone bronze gamelan, associated with cremation ceremony repertoire. Bale. A raised, covered platform found throughout Bali. It is used for napping, socializing, or protection from the rain. Banjar. A local, official civic community. Batik. Indonesian patterned cloth. Bule. Indonesian slang term for a western outsider. Candi. Decorative temple gates. Dalang. The vocalist and puppeteer in the wayang kulit shadow plays. Gamelan. Balinese and Javanese largely percussive sets of instruments constructed and tuned to be played together as an inseparable unit (Tenzer 2000). Gaya. Literally means style. Refers to the physical movements used by the members of a gamelan to intimidate their opponent in a competition, or to entertain their audience. Gender Wayang, Gamelan. Music used to accompany the wayang kulit shadow plays. Gong Kebyar, Gamelan. A 20th century Balinese gamelan style characterized by the inclusion of irregular, non-metric rhythms. Jas. A traditional jacket worn by men. Jegog, Gamelan. Giant ensemble made strictly from bamboo. Originates in western Bali. Kebaya. A traditional blouse worn by women. Kotekan. Interlocking musical lines that when played together create a single melody. Panggul. A mallet used to play gamelan Polos. Generally the more straightforward component in a kotekan. Rame. A Balinese aesthetic defined by the desire to have visual, sonic, and spiritual space constantly filled in.

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Sangsih. Generally the more abstract and syncopated component in a kotekan. Saput. An additional formal layer of clothe for men that is tied over the sarong. Sarong. A large piece of cloth that is wrapped and tied around the waste. For women, it usually falls around the feet. For men, it falls around the ankles or calves. Sekaha Gong. A local gamelan club in Bali usually organized by the banjar. Selendang. A thin piece of cloth tied around the waste over the kebaya. The selendang is worn by women only. Semaradhana, Gamelan. Late 20th century gamelan form using seven tones. Udeng. A piece of cloth tied around the head, and arranged in a way that represents the Hindu concept of the third eye. The udeng is worn only by men.

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SUGGESTED AUDIO/VISUAL MEDIA

Adler, Lynn, Jim Mayer and John Rogers, producers. Kembali: To Return. U.C. Berkeley Media, catalog #38220. 1991. Documents Gamelan Sekar Jayas first tour to Bali in 1985. Gamelan Dharma Swara Trailer.mov. Posted to YouTube.com by Dharma Swara on December 17, 2010. Features highlights from Dharma Swaras performance at the Bali Arts Festival in 2010. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQ7AtAL1w4Y Gamelan Dharma Swara at the Bali Arts Festival 7/8/10. Dewata TV footage from Gamelan Dharma Swara's 2010 Bali Arts Festival Performance of Tabuh Pisan and Kebyar Legong. Posted to Vimeo.com by Pete Steele. http://vimeo.com/13675379 Gamelan Dharma Swara: Sikut Sanga. Dewata TV footage from Gamelan Dharma Swara's 2010 Bali Arts Festival Performance of Sikut Sanga. Posted to Vimeo.com by Andy McGraw. http://vimeo.com/15138827 Gamelan Dharma Swara: Sudamala. Dewata TV footage from Gamelan Dharma Swara's 2010 Bali Arts Festival Performance of Sudamala. Posted to Vimeo.com by Andy McGraw. http://vimeo.com/15139534

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DISCOGRAPHY
Diamond, Jody. In That Bright World. New World Records, 2009. CD recording. Gamelan Dharma Swara. Gamelan Dharma Swara. Turis Music/Arts Indonesia, 2010. CD recording. Gamelan Sekar Jaya. Kali Yuga: The Age of Chaos. Gamelan Sekar Jaya, 2006. CD recording (two discs). Tenzer, Michael. Let Others Name You. New World Records, 2009. CD recording. Various artists. Bali: Golden Rain. Nonesuch Records, 2003 [original release date: 1969]. CD recording. Ziporyn, Evan, producer. American Works for Balinese Gamelan Orchestra. New World Records, 1993. CD recording. Ziporyn, Evan. Gamelan Galak Tika. New World Records, 2010.

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Internet Articles and Resources: Center for World Music and Related Arts: A Brief History http://www.centerforworldmusic.org/history.html Vitale, Wayne. Interview: http://www.sonic.net/~haigner/vitale.htm Gamelan Listserv Archives listserv.dhartmouth.edu/Archives/gamelan.html American Gamelan Institute www.gamelan.org Gamelan Groups in the U.S.A. First compiled by Barbara Benary and Jody Diamond in 1983. http://www.gamelan.org/directories/directoryusa.html Gamelan Groups in Canada. First compiled by Barbara Benary and Jody Diamond in 1983. http://www.gamelan.org/directories/directorycanada.html Gamelan Groups in North America. Google map created by Chad Bailey Neilson in May, 2009. http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msid=214453593891679028819.000465d4733d058cfd e43&msa=0 Balinese Gamelan Ensembles in North America. Google map created by Ellen Lueck in April 2012. http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msid=205072926626437707114.0004b8cc3677384de7 2b2&msa=0

Interviews and Personal Communications: Chapman, Lela. Interviewed by Ellen Lueck. October 2011. Chow, Vicky. Interviewed by Ellen Lueck. December 2011.

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Grimshaw, Jeremy. Email communication with Ellen Lueck. January 2012 Hung, Eric. Interviewed by Ellen Lueck. October 2011 Leininger, Liz. Interviewed by Ellen Lueck. October 2011. Lipsey, Michael. Interviewed by Ellen Lueck. October 2011. MacDonald, John. Interviewed by Ellen Lueck. October 2011. McGraw, Andrew Clay. Interviewed by Ellen Lueck. October 2011. Reisnour, Nicole. Interviewed by Ellen Lueck. November 2011. Romero, Christopher. Interviewed by Ellen Lueck. October 2011. Romero, Christopher. Email communication with Ellen Lueck. January 2012. Sandino, Paddy. Interviewed by Ellen Lueck. July 2011. Saptanyana, I Nyoman. Email communication with Ellen Lueck. February 2012. Steele, Peter. Interviewed by Ellen Lueck. September 2011. Strand, Julie. Interviewed by Ellen Lueck. October 2011. Tenzer, Michael. Interviewed by Ellen Lueck. October 2011.

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