Balinese gamelan music goes global

Ni Komang Erviani, The Jakarta Post, Denpasar | Thu, 02/10/2011

There are 300 groups of international students and artists who are now learning Balinese traditional gamelan music in schools, universities and non-profit organizations across the world, an official said Wednesday.

Ketut Suastika, head of the Bali Cultural Agency, told The Jakarta Post that many universities in Australia, the United States, Germany, Italy, France, Britain and Japan have established sekaa (groups) of gamelan orchestras.

“Indonesian Embassies in countries overseas also have sekaa ga-melan,” said Suastika.

He went on to say that the international interest in learning gamelan music has greatly benefitted Bali in terms of the cultural preservation of gamelan music and in promoting tourism.

“Gamelan music has an enchanting power that mesmerizes so many of the people who hear the beauty of its sounds,” Suastika said.

In Bali, the once-male dominated gamelan groups are now reaching out to wider players — women and children. Almost every banjar (traditional customary village) across Bali has male and female sekaa gamelan as well as children’s and teen sekaa gamelan.

Amid the deluge of MTV music shows, gamelan music and traditional dance performances played by teen artists are still alive and kicking on the island of Bali.

“We are not too worried about the current musical and entertainment trends entering households in Bali.

Gamelan will remain our valuable heritage and I am glad that young people are now playing them enthusiastically,” he said.

To prevent any possible claims of gamelan ownership from other countries, the Cultural Agency will soon obtain gamelan music’s intellectual property rights as part of Bali’s cultural wealth.

“Everybody in the world knows that Bali is the home of gamelan music. It belongs to the people of Bali,” he said.

I Wayan Rai, rector of the Institute of the Arts (ISI) Denpasar, added that his institution has conducted a study since 1983 on gamelan practices in overseas countries.

“There are 17 types of Balinese gamelan that are currently played by international artists,” the rector said.

Among the gamelan types are gong kebyar, pelegongan, angklung, bleganjur, joged bumbung, jegog, gender wayang, selonding and many others.

“In Japan alone, there are 52 groups of Javanese and Balinese sekaa gamelan,” he said.

Many major universities in the United States have established Balinese gamelan groups.

He cited as examples Tunas Mekar sekaa gamelan in Denver, Colorado, Gamelan Sekaa Anyar from the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA); Gamelan Sekar Jaya in San Fransisco, California, and Gamelan Galak Tika from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, Masschusetts.

He also said many foreigners come to Bali to learn gamelan music directly from its masters.

“There are numerous masters of gamelan music in Bali who are willing to share their musical talents with local and foreign students.

There are also many Balinese traditional musicians who are now staying abroad as artists in residence in various universities,” said Wayan Rai.

The flourishing of gamelan music should encourage Indonesian youth to love their music tradition in addition to appreciating other types of Western music, the rector said.