INDONESIA – Javanese Court Gamelan Volume II – Nonesuch Explorer Series H-72074

INDONESIA – INDONÉSIE
Javanese Court Gamelan Volume II – Nonesuch Explorer Series H-72074, recorded at the Istana Mangkunegaran in Surakarta, Central Java, by Robert E. Brown in January 1976 (LP)

These tracks, recorded on January 5 and 8, 1976, inside the Pendopo of the Mangkunegaran Palace during the rainy season, were performed by the Gamelan Kyai Kanyut Mesem (tracks A1, B1, and B2) and the Gamelan Kyai Udan Arum (track A2). The ensembles' enthralling, interwoven clusters feature gongs, metallophones, a wooden gambang xylophone, kendang drums, eerie male and female voices, a celempung plucked zither, a whimsical bamboo suling flute, and a stark, abstract bowed rebab violin. Together, these instruments create a delicate, fluid, seemingly suspended, and otherworldly, multilayered tapestry of sound radiating sophisticated elegance and lofty nobility.

 

This LP from the excellent Nonesuch Explorer Series introduced me to the wonderful, timeless art of traditional Javanese gamelan music in the early 1980s.

Ces morceaux, enregistrés les 5 et 8 janvier 1976 dans le Pendopo du palais Mangkunegaran pendant la saison des pluies, ont été joués par le Gamelan Kyai Kanyut Mesem (morceaux A1, B1 et B2) et le Gamelan Kyai Udan Arum (morceau A2). Ces musiques de gamelans faites de sonorités profondes  entremêlées, comprenant des gongs, des métallophones, un xylophone gambang en bois, des tambours kendang, une cithare pincée celempung, des voix féminines et masculines évanescentes, une flûte suling à quatre trous et un violon à archet rebab caverneux et abstrait, forment une tapisserie sonore complexe, délicate, fluide, et éthérée qui semble suspendue dans l'espace et rayonne d'une noble plénitude.

 

Cet album de la série Nonesuch Explorer, que j'ai découvert au début des années 1980, m'a fait découvrir l'art merveilleux et intemporel de la musique gamelan traditionnelle de Java.

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Dr. Robert E. Brown (1927–2005) was an influential American ethnomusicologist and educator. He is best known for coining the term "world music" and for his pioneering efforts in integrating the study and performance of non-Western musical traditions into Western academia. He also founded the Center for World Music in 1973.

My other Javanese gamelan posts:

*Gamelan Garland – Fontana 858 614 FPY here

*Gamelan Kjahi Kaduk, Manis Rengga – Gamelan Music from Java – Philips 831 209 PL here

*Sunda – Gamelan Degung – Galloway Records GB 600 524 B here

*Java – Concert au Puro Mangkunagaran – Galloway Records GB 600 540 here

*Gamelan of Jogja Kraton – Gamelan of Java – Seven Seas – GXC 5014 here

*Java – Gamelans from the Sultan's Palace in Jogjakarta – Archiv Produktion here

*Java – Glagah Wangi Gamelan – CBS 65440 here

*Musique de Java – L'Ecole de Loka Wangi – Disques Alvarès C 462 here

*Java – Pays Sounda – Musique et Chants Traditionnels – Disques Alvarès LD 110 here

The photograph below is from The Art of East Asia by 

Gabriele Fahr-Becker, Koneman, 1999:

Gambyong dancer puppet; Wayang Golek three-dimensional wooden rod puppet theater; second half of the 19th century.

This graceful, beautiful three-dimensional figure is introduced at the end of a Wayang Kulit shadow puppet theater performance to encourage reflection on its moral and philosophical lessons.

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