Karya [create]: Compositions by I Wayan Sadra (review)

semble and electronic devicesdraw the listener in with their simultaneous familiarityand mystery. Curran’smultitiered exploitation of the computer system and live ensemble is a testament to his compositionalvision ,which is neither enamored with the use of computer systems nor negligent of their capabilities.He succeedsbrilliantlyin the synthesisof opposites:determinate and indeterminate structures,live and inanimate intelligence,composition and improvisation , spontaneityand predilection. Electn’cRagsII is a haunting and powerful piece, superblyperformed by the Rova Saxophone Quartet. KARYA [create] : COMPOSITIONS by I Wayan Sadra. Distributed by the American Gamelan Institute and Frog Peak Music, Box A-36, Hanover,NH 03755, U.S.A., 1990.Cassette,$10.00. Reviewed 4k h t Devereaux, Calijimia Institute ofthe Arts, Valencia,CA,U.S.A. Over the past severaldecades,many in the West have become conversant with the musical traditions of Indonesia , the Balinese gong ensembles andJavanese gamelanespecially.More recently, the appeal of ‘worldbeat’ and the availability of goodquality recordings of Sudanese gamelan degungand the popular dance music jaipongan has spawned at least a passing interest in the musical stylesof other parts of Indonesia. Indonesia is home to one of the largest cassetteindustriesin the world, and, with a population comprised of over 180million people of diverse ethnic origins, there is a myriad of musical styles, both ‘traditional ’ and ‘popular’.The prominence of cassetterecordings throughout Indonesia has led to both an awarenessof regional diversity and the formulation of a ‘nationalculture ’, the presence of which is promoted , alongwith nationalism,by the central government,in an effort to keep Indonesia from literally pulling itself apart under the pressures of rekindled ethnic identity. Many of the distinctionsbetween ‘traditional’and ‘contemporary’,and ‘high’and ‘low’culture, commonlyaccepted in the West, are only now being played out in Indonesian society. These customaryWestern divisions , as well as the corollaryassociation of musical modes of expression with successive generations, did not exist in Indonesia before developmental pressures,both indigenous and Western, forever altered the cultural landscape.Native musical traditions were based, for the most part, upon recontextualization,not invention; upon community, not autonomy. Music maintained itsvitality through a seamlessadaptation of the past to the needs of the present. Given this situation-as well as the tendency of Western scholars,first Dutch and now American, to ‘orientalize ’Indonesian artistic practice to satisfy their notions of Indonesia as the domain of the undesecrated innocent -the opportunity to hear ‘contemporary ’ music from Indonesia has been infrequent. This enjoyable,if abbreviated,introduction to the music of contemporary Balinese composer I Wayan Sadra (born in 1953) is a welcome contribution to the reformulation of a new musical image of Indonesia. tion in Indonesia is hardly new; in fact, it may be ongoing innovation that has been responsible for the vitality in Indonesian musical life. Innovation has occurred both through the ‘modernization’of traditional genres and through the incorporation of nonindigenous musical influences, primarilyfrom popular music. The frenetic, virtuosic style of gong kebyar arose as a response to the stately,reposed quality of the Balinese gamelan pelegongan and gonggedi; the serene tranquility of the CentralJavanese gamelanwas profoundly altered by embracing popular dolonanmelodies; the musical genre known as tarlingin the WestJavanese city of Cirebon combines electric guitars with indigenous instrumentation; even the musical form known as kroncong, with its strong nationalisticassociations,is an intermingling of Portuguese,Javanese and Hawaiian influences. In similarfashion, Sadra’ssix selections on KaVa [create]combine the musical conventionsof disparate functional genres throughout Indonesia in often peculiar and startlingcombinations . On “@A-E-0”the punctuating soundsvoiced by male singers in Java and Sunda (alok,keplok and senggakan ) form an evocative ostinato ground for the emotivewailing of the femalevocalist. Sadracombinesvoices, ketipung (lavanesedrum), rebuna The phenomena of musical innova- (Islamicframe drum) and Western percussion (flexitone) into a succinct, haunting lament. “Miba” (a contraction of Minangkabau and Bali) borrows from the dissimilar musical traditions of the Minangkabau-a primarily Christian matriarchal people of Southern Sumatra -and the composer’sown Balinese roots. Zikir, a style of Islamic sacred singingand mantra, a type of prayer in Hindu, Buddhist and Javanese vocal practices, form the bases for Sadra’sexploration. The addition of the Western violin in heterophonic relationshipwith the female vocals produces a seductive ambience shattered only by rapid kotekan (interlocking patterns). “Sekitar12-14 Menit...