By John Jacobson

The sounds of Gamelan Ensemble reverberated in Goddard Auditorium last Saturday night as the Javanese percussion group, led by Associate Professor of Music Marc Benamou, made its sixth annual performance.

The pieces of the Gamelan Ensemble were performed on bronze gongs and drums. Guest performers Tri Sutrisno and Joko Sutrisno performed with the ensemble.

Junior Michael Skib and senior Alex Arnold both performed as members of the ensemble. Arnold played the gong while Skib played the bonong. Both Arnold and Skib were members of the gerong, the male vocal ensemble.

“We learned everything orally,” said Arnold. “Marc [Benamou] would either play it or sing to us. He taught us the notes on the different instruments and we would then learn it through repetition.”

Benamou explained his thoughts on teaching the pieces the group performed. “I’ve been teaching gamelan since 1986, so I’ve kind of developed my own techniques, my own ways of teaching, which are a little quirky,” said Benamou. “I don’t actually teach things exactly the way they are taught in Java … I teach primarily without notation … We start with easy pieces and in the very beginning we often switch instruments so that they can get an idea of how the pieces should sound.”

Benamou was impressed with this particular performance of the ensemble.

“I thought they did a really great job, they really came together and they were really focused,” he said. “That long piece that we did in the middle of the program … is quite a challenging piece … You need to stay focused for twenty minutes … and they did.”

Arnold and Skib reflected on the audience at the concert.

“I think there was a good amount of people there … they were pretty responsive and they seemed to enjoy it,” said Arnold.

“I was glad that [the audience] stuck around for the twenty minute piece, I feel like it really tested some peoples’ patience,” said Skib.