In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

Ternbang Tembang terminology Tembang macapat are the songs used in arja and other performance genres such as Basur,1 topeng prembon,2 and sparingly in wayang. The verb nembang means simply "to sing," but tembang generally refers to a specific poetic form called sekar alit, sekar macapat, or pupuh. Another general word for singing is magending, althoughgending by itselfmay also refer to an instrumental composition. Actually, pupuh means tune, or melody, and sometimes refers to kidung, another poetic form, sekar madya in Javanese terminology. Pedagogically, pupuh can also refer specifically to the poetic or melodic structure of a given tembang. Both macapat and sekar alit are originally Javanese terms and the poetic form is found in Javanese manuscripts dating from around rsso (Wallis, r979: 34). Sekar, literally "flower," refers to poetic meter as well as melodic form. Alit, madya, and ageng refer to small, medium, and large meters, the latter applied to wirama kakawin. Geguritan are poems and stories set in the pupuh style, most often in either the common or refined Balinese language, but occasionally in classical Kawi or ]awa Tengahan 'Middle Javanese' (seep. 90 for the origins ofgeguritan ). The "rules" ofthe poetic form, varying with each tembang, are most generally referred to as padalingsa.3 Guru wilang commonly signifies the 1. A dance drama genre of intense romance and magic, named after the lead character, Basur. It is performed in arja style, but with its own versions ofvarious tembang, both textually and sometimes melodically. With a transformation into the powerful witch sorceress Rangda, Basur is often considered a tenget 'highly spiritually charged' genre, and the combination of that with the element of thwarted love makes it an emotionally moving experience for Balinese audiences. 2. A popular form since the 1930s combining tophtq's mask male characters (performed by males) with nonmask arja-style characters performed bv females. 3. I Gusti Bagus Sugriwa (1978: 3) has written that, in this poetic style, pada refers to the number ofsyllables in a line and lingsa to the particular variety ofvowel sounds at the end of the lines. Others define padalingsa as the rule governing the number oflines in a given stanza. v 0 I c E s I N B A L I I 38 nding nding nding nding ndung ndang nding nding f E r r r f r r Pang - kur ja - ni mung - ka - tang Figure 9. Pacaperiringfor tembang Pangkur. number ofsyllables in each carik 'line', and often the number oflines in each pada 'stanza', as well. Guru ding-dong is the rule governing each tembang's particular arrangement offinal vowel sounds for each line. There are eleven commonly used pupuh, each with a general number oflines, number ofsyllables , and final vowel for each line. In Balinese pedagogy, pupuh are listed in the following manner, with the number referring to the number ofsyllables, in each line, and the vowel indicating the final vowel sound ofthat line: Pucung 4-u, 8-u, 6-a, 8-i, 4-u, 8-a 6lines Ginada 8-a, 8-i, 8-a, 8-u, 8-a, 4-i, 8-a 7lines Sinom 8-a, 8-i, 8-a, 8-i, 7/8-i, 8-u, 7/8-a, 8-i, 4-u, 8-a ro lines Durma I2-a, 7/8-i, 6-a, 7/8-a, 8-i, s-a, 7/8-i 7lines The term macapat derives from the fact that the poems are composed and read with an emphasis on groups offour syllables (maca 'to read', and pat 'four'; hence, "to be read in fours"). Within the parameters ofpadalingsa, there are varieties ofeach pupuhrefer to CD selection ro for condong's version of Pangkur, its first line shown in figure 9, in its skeletal form-each with its own characteristic melody. Some geguritan narratives and texts have their own melodic version ofa tembang, and some tembang have both a sltindro and pelog variety. Pacaperiring (figure 9) is a syllabic style ofreading with just the skeleton of the melody, most often used when one is reading to oneself without the need for extended melodic development. Even with pacaperiring, there is some variance from person to person with regard to pitches within each line, but the last pitch ofeach line is fixed (yet still manifests some deliberate exceptions in actual practice). In any given tembang, each fourth syllable, macapat, may be pitch-set as But most generally, it refers collectively to guru wilang 'counting' and guru ding-dong. Even as the terminology...

Share