Like most other Balinese gamelan instruments, rindik are tuned in pairs, one being tuned slightly higher than the other. This is what produces the characteristic humming sound. A rindik is played with either two or three beaters, one held in the left hand and one or two in the right. Normally, the left hand carries the melody and the right plays a pattern that creates interlocking configuration between the two right-hand parts. Although it may look effortless, playing rindik is a masterful skill that takes many years to learn.

Hundreds of compositions have been composed for rindik, and each region—even each village—in Bali reveals different styles and repertoire. Most of the compositions were inspired by nature and have been named after flowers and animals. I love some of the more humorous ones, like Caplok Bangkung (Snapping Pig) or Dongkang Menek Biu (Tree Frog Climbing a Banana). It never ceases to amaze me how many compositions some of these “lobby musicians” know, and they’re all committed to memory!

Since the onset of tourism in Bali, traditional musicians such as rindik players have been undervalued and terribly underpaid compared with say rock/jazz/fusion or pop musicians. This is a real tragedy because it is yet again another example of cultural imperialism and the lack of value place on indigenous art-forms. Generally, this is a worldwide phenomenon.

However, Mekar Bhuana Conservatory is trying to fight against the trend by training musicians who are professional, reliable and an adept to the challenges of the tourism industry. Over the past 12 years, the conservatory has been providing professionally managed rindik groups as well as other gamelan orchestras, such as pelegongan, semar pegulingan, Gambuh, gender wayang, selonding, baleganjur and genggong for quality performances. You can support their efforts and these musicians by hiring their troupes.

If you are interested in purchasing rindik instruments or recordings of bamboo rindik music, you can visit www.mekarbhuana.com – an online store that specialises in professional Balinese gamelan music and dance products.

© 2012 Mekar Bhuana

To increase awareness of and exposure to this beautiful art-form and the orchestra, Mekar Bhuana has opened selonding lessons for the general public of all ages. A minimum of 6 people are needed to play the instruments, with a maximum of 8 when playing gambang style music. Mekar Bhuana has engaged a young teacher from Karangasem, Pande Widiana, whose father is a selonding guru, and whose great uncle, Sri Mpu Tusan, is an authority on selonding in Bali and Java: author of a 535-page book on selonding that was published in 2002. Sri Mpu Tusan is the founder of the Selonding Foundation (Yayasan Selonding) which actively studies, documents and reconstructs selonding sets all over Bali. So far, the foundation has reconstructed more than four sets under the guidance of Sri Mpu Tusan and with funding from the Karangasem Regional Government.

Mekar Bhuana’s selonding set was made in Denpasar at Tapa Karya, and was the last set of selonding instruments made by the famous blacksmith Sri Mpu Ketut Sandi. Like the Besakih set, the tuning was modeled on the Bugbug set, but due to a discrepancy in the regularity of the tuning between each instrument, the tuning was altered slightly according to the taste of Mekar Bhuana Co-founder, Vaughan Hatch.

When Mekar Bhuana’s selonding set was blessed in early January 2012, when young members of Yayasan Selonding (boys and girls around 10-12 years old) played the set. Mekar Bhuana recorded the ceremony and the music for posterity. The group played repertoire from five different villages in Karangasem and Bangli: Bugbug, Bungaya, Ngis Manggis, Tenganan, Kedisan and Batur. The music was serene and peaceful, yet powerful and mystical.

Mekar Bhuana hopes that through education and study more people will soon have the opportunity to appreciate the surreal beauty of these ancient art-forms.

Balinese dance dates back more than 1000 years and there are hundreds of different dances that have been created and developed over the centuries. With origins in Indian, Chinese and Javanese dance, Balinese dance movements are highly stylised and closely interconnected with gamelan orchestral music. Each movement, position, transition and mimic has a specific name, and students learn these as they study with a teacher, who will chant these words in a sing-song manner.

Whilst the terminology is well documented in text form, little has been produced in other media – such as video – which is now a much more popular media than the written word. Award-winning dance instructor and co-founder of Mekar Bhuana Conservatory in Bali, Putu Evie Suyadnyani, saw the need for both documenting the Balinese terminology in video form; whilst at the same time producing a tutorial series to help students study prior to or as they learn.

The first in the series is entitled ‘Balinese Female Dance Movements Part I’ and explains some of the most basic positions, transitions and mimics for those with no or little prior experience of Balinese dance – basically a ‘Balinese dance for dummies’, ‘Balinese dance for those with two left feet’ edition to get you started from absolute zero.

Filmed at Mekar Bhuana Conservatory in Denpasar, the tutorial takes students on a dance journey step by step to the peaceful looping melodies of Mekar Bhuana’s 100-year-old semara patangian (pelegongan) gamelan orchestra.

The video is narrated in English with Indonesian subtitles and English translations of the Balinese dance terms. Evie believes that having all three languages is important in making Balinese dance more global, and more easily accessible to people all over the world.

A bonus feature in the DVD is a dance performance by the conservatory’s professional dancers accompanied by their antique seven-tone semara pagulingan set (this DVD, entitled ‘Semara Pagulingan with Gambuh Dances’ is available on www.mekarbhuana.com. This dance, called Gabor, was filmed in a beautiful historic temple in central Denpasar that dates back hundreds of years.

Evie hopes that this DVD tutorial, and later its downloadable version, will help to spread the beauty of this ancient art-form further around the world – after all, Mekar Bhuana in Balinese means just that: ‘to blossom around the world’!

Released in 2011, the DVD is available on Mekar Bhuana’s online store, as well as at numerous CD stores in Bali.

Dutch occupation meant that the palaces lost their power and many court art-forms, including wayang wong, were left to the villages carry on. In a few villages it was sanctified and subsequently well preserved, presented at temple ceremonies in the outer courtyard as an offering to the gods.  However due to the sheer size of the troupe, there are still a number of villages that have dormant traditions.

A wayang wong performance is completely different from the tourist Ramayana performances which you can see in most hotels in Bali, as it is not copied directly from the Javanese Ramayana tourist performance you find in Prambanan and other parts of Java. The dance movements, adopted from Gambuh and wayang kulit, are also highly stylised with the characters introduced slowly with much reverence by their servants.

In the Ramayana version, the characters all wear masks, thus their utterances are not clear. The Balinese have dealt with this performance issue by added a narrator, called a ‘juru tandak’ who not only speaks for the characters, but also narrates the story in a typical Balinese singing style.

What is particularly attractive about the Ramayana version of wayang wong is the brightly coloured, delicately carved masks that transform the human dancers into other worldly beings. Add to this the musical dimension of the lighter sounding gender wayang and bebatelan gamelan accompaniment, the tourist version that employs a regular, noisier gong kebyar gamelan orchestra pales in comparison, with less dramatic spirit and atmosphere.

Unfortunately, these copy-cat performances are what are generally on offer to your average tourist. In fact, in the 1970s, the explosion of Ramayana ‘sendratari’ performances in the the tourism industry in Bali sadly led to the destruction of many beautiful court gamelan sets, such as semara pagulingan, pelegongan and bebarongan, as they were melted down to become gong kebyar ‘Ramayana’ gamelan orchestras. All this in spite of the fact that a traditional wayang wong performance presents much more of a Balinese twist on these wonderful epics.

© 2012 Vaughan Hatch

It is not entirely clear when this art-form first appeared in Bali. Professor Made Bandem, author of Wayang Wong, presents evidence to suggest that it could have existed “…as far back as the 11th century.”  The drama adopts excerpts of stories from India’s two greatest epics, the Mahabharata and the Ramayana, with the key difference in the performance being the use of masks: for a Mahabharata performance the actors don’t wear masks apart from the clowns; whereas for the Ramayana all the performers are masked.

A wayang wong troupe involves a large number of characters, which may range between around 20 to 60 depending on the story chosen. With each dancer costumed in gold-gilded cloth and leather, as well as colourful, exquisitely carved masks, the upkeep such a troupe can be a financial concern for many villages that have inherited a wayang wong tradition.

The traditional accompaniment for wayang wong are a quartet of 10-keyed gender wayang metallophones. These instruments are played with wooden mallets called panggul using a difficult two-handed technique, and are tuned to a 5-tone scale called selendro, which is fairly even tempered compared with the other tuning system in Bali called pelog. There are two mid range instruments called gender gede or gender pemade and two higher instruments which play another octave up called kantilan. The quartet is augmented by drums and gongs, including kendang kerumpungan wadon (female drum) and kendang kerumpungan lanang (male drum), kajar (boss-less handheld gong), kelenang, kempur (main hanging gong at medium pitch) and gentorag (bell tree). Sometimes a flute (suling) is added for the fast fight scenes called batel.

A vocalist singer called a juru tandak sings and speaks for the masked dancers who cannot be heard under the wooden masks. In modern performances he will be well equipped with a microphone (which is often at a higher volume than the rest of the ensemble).

A wayang wong performance is presented in multiple languages (Bandem, 2001): Sanskrit, ancient Balinese (Kawi) and different levels of Balinese high, medium and every day, depending on who is talking to whom). Characters are introduced by either the servants (for good characters) or the clowns (for evil ones) in a typically formal manner that would seem repetitive and overdone to modern audiences, but this is typical of ancient drama in Indonesia. Therefore, a performance may last for several hours. Some active wayang wong troupes are still found in Tejakula (Buleleng), Telepud (Gianyar), Tangkup (Gianyar), Mas (Gianyar), Tunjuk (Tabanan) and Sanur (recently reconstructed).

© 2012 Vaughan Hatch

One translation is that the word is made up of two words. Lega meaning happy and Ing wong meaning person –put them together and you get: “something that makes people happy”. Another one is oleg meaning dance and gong meaning gamelan, the music that accompanies the dance.

Interestingly enough, it is said that the original legong was danced by young boys in the courts and it was named Nandir. There is a possibility that legong is even older. The legong of Ketewel village in Gianyar traces its origins back to around 1825 when a prince named Dewa Karna Agung saw beautiful heavenly nymphs dancing the legong in a vision whilst in deep meditation in the local temple. Based on his vision dancers were sought to fit the part but as no girls in the village were beautiful enough to fit the part masks were made to cover the faces.

What is certain, legong developed during feudal times and it is not a new dance.

Unbeknownst to most people, including the Balinese, there are more than fifteen different stories in the legong repertoire with names such as Jobog (monkey kings), Kuntul (pied stilts) and Lasem (a Majapahit King).

Today the most common legong dance is Legong Keraton, so named by the Sultanate of Keraton Surakarta when the music and dance composer and genius I Wayan Lotring from Kuta was invited to perform in the 1920s with his pelegongan group in the keraton (palace) in Surakarta. Around a decade before, the Condong part of the performance was added by composer and musician, AA Peririt from Sukawati. A complete Legong Keraton performance is made up of more than ten parts. However, these are customarily cut for tourist performances; today it is very rare to see a complete Legong Keraton performance.

© 2012 Mekar Bhuana

The ancient drama is based almost entirely on the tales of Prince Panji, which were modified from the palm leaf scripture called Malat. The central theme of the Panji stories is ‘love’ – his attachment for his wife, her disappearance and his subsequent journeys hunting for his soul mate.

Gambuh dance plays a central role in the development of Balinese dance, as it influenced many subsequent dance forms, notably legong and masked dances. You can see numerous gestures that have been adopted from Gambuh; however, they have been modified to suit a quicker musical style, as well as the characters they represent.

Gambuh dancers articulate in an ancient Balinese language called Kawi, which is characteristically shrill and nasally, yet at times guttural and gruff – depending on the character. Modern audiences do not understand Kawi; however, there are times in the drama when utterances by important characters are translated by their servants.

Gambuh was originally accompanied by the flute orchestra with the same name; however, over time some palaces and villages also used a semara pagulingan court orchestra. The same pieces were played but presented in different arrangements – sometimes in different modes and with a different tuning system to suit the new media of bronze.

Active Gambuh troupes in Bali are found in Batuan and Kedisan Gianyar; Pedungan, Denpasar; Jungsri, Padang Aji and Budakeling, Karangasem; Tumbak Bayuh, Badung; Apik Yeh, Tabanan; and Naga Sepeha and Anturan Buleleng.

To see all-male casts, check out the troupes from Kedisan, and ones in Buleleng.

A troupe from Batuan performs at Four Seasons in Jimbaran and Mekar Bhuana performs Gambuh with semara pagulingan accompaniment at Oberoi Hotel in Seminyak on the first Thursday of every month.

© 2012 Mekar Bhuana

Mekar Bhuana co-founders Vaughan Hatch and Putu Evie Suyadnyani, decided that a good way to bring this piece of music back to life is to add a dance component. So, they engaged expert choreographer, dance maestro and ISI lecturer, Nyoman Cerita, to create a new dance but in classical baris form. The results were rewarding and this 4-minute dance was a spectacular feature of the 70-minute drama that involved a total of more than 58 musicians and dancers.

Entitled ‘A Present for a Princess’, the drama adopted a gambuh theme but with a new storyline that climaxed with a combination of kecak dancers and ogoh-ogoh effigies.

Video of excerpts of the drama (complete with insistent firecrackers from neighbouring Kudeta!) can be viewed on our YouTube channel.

Mekar Bhuana hope to be able to perform this drama more regularly and are currently looking for a local performance venue, as well as opportunities to take the production touring overseas.

The end-blown suling and the rebab carry the melody line of the compositions which can be more than 20 minutes long. They play in a seven-tone scale over several of octaves with many harmonics variations in between and – due to their size and the cyclic breathing technique – take many years of practice to master. The rebab is thought to have its roots in Persia and was probably inspired by Indian traders who would have come to Bali via Java. The rebab is also found in Java and on other islands, but in a slightly different form.

The percussive section of a Gambuh orchestra includes one small to medium gong (kempur), a time keeper (kajar), another time keeper (klenang), a three-keyed xylophone (kenyir), small cymbals (kangsi), two bell trees (gentorag), and two or three gumanak (horizontal hollow tubes). These are all made of bronze. The conical double-headed kendang kerumpungan control the dynamics of the orchestra, giving lively cues to and working on vocal and physical cues from the large cast of dancers.

According to Wikipedia, the kenyir, kangsi and gumanak are only found in Gambuh orchestras; however, this is incorrect as old-style orchestras such as semara pegulingan, semara patangian and even angklung use at least one of these instruments in their complete form.

Gambuh was once nearly extinct in Bali and is still considered a gravely endangered art-form. Perhaps its lack of appeal is due to the length and breadth of much of the court repertoire, as well as serious nature of the drama it accompanies.

© 2012 Mekar Bhuana