Title: Gamelan gong kebyar : the art of twentieth-century Balinese music /
Authors: Tenzer, Michael.
Publisher: University of Chicago Press,
Year: 2000
Subjects: Gamelan.; Gamelan music History and criticism.; Music Indonesia Bali Island History and criticism.
Abstract: The Balinese gamelan, with its shimmering tones, breathless pace, and compelling musical language, has long captivated musicians, composers, artists, and travelers. Here, Michael Tenzer offers a comprehensive and durable study of this sophisticated musical tradition, focusing on the preeminent twentieth-century genre, gamelan gong kebyar. Combining the tools of the anthropologist, composer, music theorist, and performer, Tenzer moves fluidly between ethnography and technical discussions of musical composition and structure. In an approach as intricate as one might expect in studies of Western classical music, Tenzer's rigorous application of music theory and analysis to a non-Western orchestral genre is wholly original. Illustrated throughout, the book also includes nearly 100 pages of musical transcription (in Western notation) that correlate with 55 separate tracks compiled on two accompanying compact discs. The most ambitious work on gamelan since Colin McPhee's classic Music in Bali, this book will interest musicians of all kinds and anyone interested in the art and culture of Southeast Asia, Indonesia, and Bali.
Contents: 1. Introduction: Encountering Kebyar [Learning Keybyar -- Composition, Theory, and Ethnomusicology -- Overview] -- PART ONE: Approaches to Kebyar -- 2. Kebyar Orchestral Resources -- [Kebyar Timbre and the "Outside" of the Sound -- Scale (Saih) and Tuning (laras) --Cosmology, Aesthetics, and a Spatial Model for Scale Tones -- A Three-Dimensional Model of Kebyar Pitch Space -- Instrumentation -- Instrument Classification and Textural Strata -- Vertical Relationships between and withing Strata -- Orchestration in Practice] -- 3. The Social Construction of Keybar Ensemble Virtuosity -- [ The Geocultural Roots of Balinese Music -- Balinese Collectivity and the Sekaha -- The Changing Sekaha I : The Birth of Kebyar -- The Changing Sekaha II: Kebyar up to Independence -- The Changing Sekaha III: Kebyar after Independence -- The Sekaha in the New Order -- Changes in the Sekaha TodayL One Group's Narrative -- Multidimensionality and Collectivity in Keybar] --^