Transcript: Balinese Music Video 2: Lecture-Demonstration: Gilak
[Dewa Made Suparta:] I’m going to talk a little bit about how Balinese music is constructed by using Gilak as an example. The piece that you just heard before called Gilak. It is usually played to open an event. So now we’re going to use that piece as an example. So here we have — to start, we have a beat keeper called kajar. It’s like the heartbeat of the Gamelan. In Balinese music, the tempo often changes. So all the players have to keep their eyes and ears on the kajar to keep the music together. And on the back, we have the gong. Gong marks the cycle of the piece. So here we have three different kinds of gongs. The biggest one is a female gong, and the one on the back is a male gong, and the medium-sized one called kempur, and the one laying down called kempli. So here is an eight-beat example. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 1 —
[ Gongs Playing ]
— so all the instruments on the back play melody. So in the more traditional way, we have three different sizes here. The biggest one here, the two biggest ones here, usually plays one note every four beats. And the medium-size plays one note every two beats. And the smallest one plays one note every beat. So now we’re going to start with the lowest one first.
[ Balinese Gamelan Music ]
Here, we have a two tall instruments called ugal. It varies the melody, based on that melody.
[ Balinese Gamelan Music ]
Here we have this instrument called trompong. It also plays melody.
[ Balinese Gamelan Music ]
This group of instruments is called gangsa. It plays ornamentation called kotekan. Kotekan is an interlocking pattern. It’s a single melody line that is divided into two parts. One player will play on the on-beat and the other will play on the upbeat. The reason for this is because the tempo of the music is too fast for one player to play the entire melody. So that’s why we divide them into two parts. So now we’re going to start with the on-beat part first, and after that we’re going to demonstrate the upbeat part.
[ Balinese Gamelan Music ]
So here is the upbeat part now.
[ Balinese Gamelan Music ]
Now they will play it together.
[ Balinese Gamelan Music ]
So this instrument is called reyong. Similar to the gangsa, it also plays ornamentation called kilitan. So Andrew and [inaudible] will demonstrate the first part first.
[ Balinese Gamelan Music ]
And now is the second part.
[ Balinese Gamelan Music ]
Now, we’re going to combine both patterns.
[ Balinese Gamelan Music ]
So, here we have ceng-ceng. Ceng-ceng subdivides the beat into four.
[ Balinese Gamelan Music ]
For the reyong, in addition to interlocking pattern, it also plays a percussive accent that’s complimented by the ceng-ceng.
[ Balinese Gamelan Music ]
And here, we have two drums also played in pairs. So this is similar to the interlocking in the reyong and the gangsa. One player will play on beat and the other will play on the upbeat. So please.
[ Balinese Gamelan Music ]
Here is the upbeat part.
[ Balinese Gamelan Music ]
Now we’re going to put it together.
[ Balinese Gamelan Music ]