MUSIC

THE VILLAGE ORCHESTRAS

Each musician trains a substitute, often a child, to take his place in case of disability; in this way a musical school is formed. A good musician is not satisfied to play one instrument; he must be able to play all equally well and must know the music of other types of orchestras than his own.

The leaders are the two drummers, the best musicians of the group, selected by the group for their musical knowledge. It is generally the orchestra leaders who compose the new pieces. Of the two composers in Belaluan, one was a chauffeur and the other a poor neighbour of ours who worked occasionally carrying loads to the ships.

I was told that I Lotring, leader of an orchestra with a great reputation (the famous pelegongan of Kuta, revived through the efforts of Colin McPhee), spoke and thought of nothing but gamelans and music, and it was said that he dreamed his compositions. I Lotring is the author of a masterpiece of rhythm called Gambangan. New compositions are elaborated gradually by the leader through criticism and suggestions from other orchestra members.

Rehearsals often last a period of months before a new piece has been rounded out enough to be played publicly. Modifications and improvements are made during the course of the rehearsal; often a drummer stops the rehearsal, walks to one of the high keyboards, and plays his suggestion for a change. The group either approves or rejects the proposal, and there are no outbursts of artistic temperament.

The Balinese do not write down their music. I asked if it was not difficult to memorize such long and intricate compositions and was told that " when the piece has been rehearsed long enough, so that it has once entered into a man's liver, he plays it without thinking."

Often the group was visited by the leaders of famous orchestras from other villages who were invited as guests of the community to teach new compositions. The leaders of the gong Ringdikit from North Bali came to Belaluan to exchange pieces: while they taught the dynamic and revolutionary style of the North, they learned the classical pieces of the South.

The musicians of Belaluan, on the other hand, went to other villages to break in new organizations and were always lavishly entertained. Once in our village we witnessed a contest between two famous gongs;the rival orchestras were installed at either end of a large shed specially built for the occasion. A great crowd surrounded them. In the middle sat an impressive jury made up of the local princes and pungawas.

The orchestras in turn played their best compositions while the audience remained silent. At the end the jurors went into deliberation and awarded the decision to the rival gamelan, who had come all the way from the district of Tabanan.

Despite the fact that there is no trace of Occidental influence in the music of Bali, even those who hear it for the first time are carried away by it. Musicians who have gone to Bali have become ardent admirers of Balinese music. Walter Spies was the first to take an interest in it and to write transcriptions, Leopold Stokowski wanted to bring a Balinese orchestra to America, and Colin McPhee has spent years in Bali compiling material and writing down the music. However, the laws of Balinese music are different from those of the West.

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