Indonesian folklore fills Goddard with grace
by Tracy Perkins-Smittler
Goddard Auditorium was transformed on Saturday evening into an uniquely Indonesian scene with a traditional, ornate Javanese gamelan set, student-musicians in formal Javanese attire and the clang and ring of resonating bronze instruments. It was the sonic welcome to the Earlham College Gamelan Ensemble performance.
Marc Benamou, associate professor of music, and director of the ensemble, started off by declaring, “Tonight’s event will be didactic rather than asthetic.” He explained that the opening number was traditional welcoming music in Java, and how the tones, scales and musical structure differ significantly from Western music.
“You have to reorient your ear,” he said.
Benamou introduced the next song, which simulated croaking frogs, as being “so old that it sounds new.” The musicians shifted positions for each piece. They sat cross-legged on mats as they used “tabuh” sticks to play the bronze metallophones, kettles and gongs.
Between numbers, they demonstrated how the ensemble works both in structural function and modality. For some pieces, Benamou led the ensemble with the kendhang drums; for others he accompanied the group on “rebab” (a bowed string instrument) or “suling” (a wooden flute).
Freshman Lailul Ikram from Aceh, a northern Indonesian province on the island of Sumatra, sang an intently serious song with six other vocalists accompanied by the gamelan set.
Ikram also sang a religious folk song in Acehnese and Arabic. The song accompanied an elaborate cultural dance that Acehnese children are required to learn in school and which they treat as a competition. After entering and lining up in a kneeling position, the whole ensemble performed the dance — an intricately choreographed series of arm and hand movements that interconnected and swayed in and out of each other, incorporating body percussion to the accompaniment of rapa’i drums.
The audience had intriguing questions for Benamou, who has studied gamelan since his undergraduate work at Oberlin College. One woman wanted to know the meaning of the archaic Javanese lyrics, which are too old to decipher entirely; a man asked about the stoic expression of the musicians, which is the custom. One little boy wanted to know if there would be more dancing, because that was his favorite part.
R. Anderson Sutton, professor of ethnomusicology at the University of Wisconsin, where both he and Benamou went to graduate school, was guest drummer.
He said, “I am impressed with the high quality of the instruments; they have a good, rich sound — one of the best I have worked with.”
“As for the musicians, I’m impressed that they’ve only been playing for one semester because some of the songs are very complex,” added Sutton. “This is a credit to both students and teachers, because beginners need a lot of instruction; it’s like learning a new language. It is also impressive that they only had one semester to learn such a complicated dance.”
There were two other Indonesian students who performed in the ensemble: junior Oriana Filiaci and senior Meryana of Palembang. Filiaci has lived in both Java and the United States. Meryana is a native of South Sumatra and is Chinese-Indonesian.
Prior to coming to Earlham, neither Filiaci nor Meryana had played in a gamelan and had only heard gamelan music through media and cultural events. Both students began studying music by playing guitar.
Meryana became interested in gamelan through her own interest in traditional folk music and the influence of being from Indonesia. “I’m glad people seem to respond positively — most people are not used to listening to this kind [of music],” she said. “I am hoping after Earlham to keep learning it.”
The Earlham College Gamelan Ensemble is in its fifth year.
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