GSJ Ensembles
Gamelan Angklung
At temple festivals, the exuberance of the 4-tone gamelan angklung’s melodies ring out in bold contrast to the solemn and grave lelambatan compositions often heard playing simultaneously right across the courtyard. While to many outsiders the slendro-derived tuning of the gamelan produces a mood of playfulness and charm, to the Balinese it is sentimental, bittersweet, and an indispensable component of the atmosphere at any meaningful ceremony.
A modern Balinese gamelan angklung comprises 8-12 4-keyed metallophones used for melody or kotekan, a reyong of 8 pots, 2 jegogans, a small kempur, 2 tiny drums, cengceng, suling and a kind of kempli called tawa-tawa. The word angklung originally referred to a bamboo rattle which produces but one tone when shaken. Ensembles of these, tuned to a scale and shaken in alternation to create melodies, are still common in West Java. In Bali they used to be played in conjunction with the bronze instruments,2 but today they are rarely seen, although people often lament their demise nostalgically.
There is a large repertoire of compositions for gamelan angklung. It is full of whimsical short pieces with names like Goak Maling Taloh (Crow Steals Eggs) and Katak Nongkek (Croaking Frog) and longer pieces of considerable breadth. Having only 4 keys per instrument would seem a limitation, and certainly no one would claim that gamelan angklung has as great an expressive range as any of the larger bronze ensembles. Yet as a rule angklung music is full of supple melodies and inventive kotekans, which often breathe and flow in quite unexpected directions. A number of angklungs around the island, particularly in the north, use the full 5-tone slendro scale for the additional possibilities it provides, with the size of the instruments expanded accordingly, sometimes up to as many as seven keys. This serves to drastically reduce the constraints imposed by the 4-tone version, substantially altering the personality of the resultant music in the process.
There may be more sets of gamelan angklung in Bali than there are gamelan gong kebyar. Most villages have at least one or two. The village of Mas alone had, at last count, seven; their players have a tough time with scheduling, because a local temple festival lasts only a few days! But the temple is not the only place to hear angklung. Because of the instruments’ portability, they are often strung up on bamboo poles and carried in processions. Some tari lepas and kreasi baru have been adapted for the ensemble, thus creating the secular subgenre of angklung kebyar. Ketut Partha, a teacher at the STSI conservatory, is well known for his contributions to the development of this style (Partha’s composition Sindu Arsa can be heard on Gamelan Sekar Jaya’s CD, Balinese Music in America). One of the most famous traditional angklung gamelans can be found in the village of Sidan, on the road between Gianyar and Bangli.