Online Resources for Balungan Vol. 13 2018/2019


Monograph

Formal Aspects of Performance Practice in Central Javanese Music, by Roger R. Vetter. M.A. Thesis, University of Hawaii at Manoa, 1977. PDF file of complete original manuscript.


Audio and Video Recordings

  • Mostly Slendro Passacaglia, by Barbara Benary. Audio recording from New Gamelan/New York, Gamelan Son of Lion Records GSOL CD-1.
  • Wayang Esther: A Purimspiel. Video. Music and libretto by Barbara Benary, puppets by Barbara Pollit and Joko Susilo, with Gamelan Son of Lion and guests.
  • Karna, a shadow puppet opera. Video. Scenes from a wayang by Barbara Benary, with Son of Lion and singers.
  • Lintang, by Djoko Waluyo. Video of a performance with Gamelan Kyai Doro Dasih, directed by Djoko Waluyo, from the World Music Festival at California Institute of the Arts in 2018. The score is also at www.gamelan.org/composers/djoko/


Barbara Benary Score Collections


Benary was assiduous in documenting her compositions for gamelan. Volumes 1–4 group the pieces by process, style, and tuning; volumes 5 and 6 were her later works. The collections below are at: www.gamelan.org/composers/benary

  • Vol. 1: The Braid Pieces. These six works— some of Benary’s earliest compositions for gamelan— are all based on a systematic process of “braiding” pitches in particular procedures to produce elaborate formal structures and layered textures.
  • Vol. 2: Satires. Illustrating Benary’s sense of humor, these works juxtapose gamelan idioms with other musical genres, such as ragtime, blues, swing, and Appalachian fiddle.
  • Vol. 3: Pieces in a Single Tuning. Pieces in either slendro or pelog, some composed for various theatrical purposes, as well as several elaborate process compositions.
  • Vol. 4: Pieces in Mixed Tuning. Benary combines pelog and slendro to create complex harmonic possibilities for compositions that stylistically draw on concepts like process and randomness.
  • Vol V. [Untitled], Vol. VI. [Untitled]: Scores for Benary’s last gamelan compositions, written in Finale (western notation) with ciphers under each note head. This combined “front-weighted” notation is used by many of the composers in Gamelan Son of Lion.


Compositions by Aris Daryono

 

  a publication of the american gamelan institute