British Forum for Ethnomusicology

Review: [untitled]
Author(s): Maria Mendonca
Reviewed work(s):
Music of Death and New Creation: Experiences in the World of Balinese Gamelan
Beleganjur by Michael B. Bakan
Source: British Journal of Ethnomusicology, Vol. 9, No. 2 (2000), pp. 148-152
Published by: British Forum for Ethnomusicology
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148 BRITISH JOURNAL OF ETHNOMUSICOLOGY VOL.9/1i 2000 148 BRITISH JOURNAL OF ETHNOMUSICOLOGY VOL.9/1i 2000
efforts for
peace
between Israel and her
Arab
neighbours,
this book
expresses
the
shared
heritage
of all those from Arab
lands, regardless
of
religion:
the
strong
identification
by
the
Syrian
Jewish
community
with the "classical"
Egyptian
repertoire
of such artists as the
singers
Umm Kulthufm and
Asmahan, and the
composer-performer
'Abd al-Wahhab,
echoes the esteem in which these artists
continue to be held in the transnational
Arab world
-
my
own work
among Iraqi
Jews in Israel confirms their continued,
strong
attachment to this
"golden
age"
of
Egyptian
music.
My only
criticism of the book is that
the
great
attention to detail is marred
by
some inconsistencies in the transliteration
of the Hebrew
song
texts. The main
weakness occurs
regarding
the letter
'ayin, clearly pronounced by
the
singers:
in the text it is sometimes indicated
correctly,
as in
"ra'yonai" (18, ex.1,
bar
3),
but omitted in numerous words in the
same
example (18-20);
other letters are
very occasionally
inconsistent
-
"h" and
"s" shown as "kh" and
"z", respectively
(19,
bars 41 and
45);
there are also
instances of incorrect vowel
transliteration
("rov"
and
"yassed"
shown
as "rav" and
"yossed",
bars
40, 59-60,
respectively), although
these
may
be
typographical
errors. The
pizmon
transliterations would benefit from
correction.
Furthermore,
as a
general
background,
a brief historical review of
Jewish
religious song
-
the
piyyut
and
associated
genres,
such as
baqqashoth
("supplications"), pizmonim
and zemiroth
-
would have been
helpful.
This
perceptive
and
attractively
presented book, together
with the
energetic performances
on
CD,
is
greatly
welcomed, and invites a wide audience.
References
Baily,
John
(1999)
"Music and
refugee
lives:
Afghans
in eastern Iran and
efforts for
peace
between Israel and her
Arab
neighbours,
this book
expresses
the
shared
heritage
of all those from Arab
lands, regardless
of
religion:
the
strong
identification
by
the
Syrian
Jewish
community
with the "classical"
Egyptian
repertoire
of such artists as the
singers
Umm Kulthufm and
Asmahan, and the
composer-performer
'Abd al-Wahhab,
echoes the esteem in which these artists
continue to be held in the transnational
Arab world
-
my
own work
among Iraqi
Jews in Israel confirms their continued,
strong
attachment to this
"golden
age"
of
Egyptian
music.
My only
criticism of the book is that
the
great
attention to detail is marred
by
some inconsistencies in the transliteration
of the Hebrew
song
texts. The main
weakness occurs
regarding
the letter
'ayin, clearly pronounced by
the
singers:
in the text it is sometimes indicated
correctly,
as in
"ra'yonai" (18, ex.1,
bar
3),
but omitted in numerous words in the
same
example (18-20);
other letters are
very occasionally
inconsistent
-
"h" and
"s" shown as "kh" and
"z", respectively
(19,
bars 41 and
45);
there are also
instances of incorrect vowel
transliteration
("rov"
and
"yassed"
shown
as "rav" and
"yossed",
bars
40, 59-60,
respectively), although
these
may
be
typographical
errors. The
pizmon
transliterations would benefit from
correction.
Furthermore,
as a
general
background,
a brief historical review of
Jewish
religious song
-
the
piyyut
and
associated
genres,
such as
baqqashoth
("supplications"), pizmonim
and zemiroth
-
would have been
helpful.
This
perceptive
and
attractively
presented book, together
with the
energetic performances
on
CD,
is
greatly
welcomed, and invites a wide audience.
References
Baily,
John
(1999)
"Music and
refugee
lives:
Afghans
in eastern Iran and
California." Forced
migration
review
6
(December):
10-13
("Music
of
Iraqi
Jews in
Israel", p.13).
Clifford, James
(1994) "Diasporas."
Cultural
anthropology
9:302-38.
Feder, Stuart
(1981)
"The
nostalgia
of
Charles Ives: an
essay
in affects and
music." Journal
of psychoanalysis
10:302-32.
Foucault, Michel
(1986)
"Of other
spaces,"
translated
by Jay
Miskowlec.
Diacritics 16:22-7.
Habusha, Moshe
(musical director)
(1989)
Mizmor shir
leyom
hashabat
-
bakashot
songs of
Shabat
("Sing
a
song
for the Sabbath
day
-
baqqashoth songs
of the
Sabbath").
Jerusalem: Yeshivat
HaHayim
VeHashalom.
(Set
of 18 cassettes,
with
accompanying
booklet of
song
texts.)
Manasseh, Sara
(1999)
Women in music
performance:
the
Iraqi
Jewish
experience
in Israel. PhD
thesis,
London
University.
Soja,
Edward W.
(1995)
"Heterotopologies:
a remembrance of
other
spaces
in the citadel-LA." In S.
Watson and K. Gibson
(eds)
Postmodern cities and
spaces,
pp.
13-34. Oxford: Blackwell.
Someck, Ronny (1989)
Panther. Tel
Aviv: Zmora Bitan
[in Hebrew].
SARA MANASSEH
Kingston University
sara(&manasseh.co.
uk
California." Forced
migration
review
6
(December):
10-13
("Music
of
Iraqi
Jews in
Israel", p.13).
Clifford, James
(1994) "Diasporas."
Cultural
anthropology
9:302-38.
Feder, Stuart
(1981)
"The
nostalgia
of
Charles Ives: an
essay
in affects and
music." Journal
of psychoanalysis
10:302-32.
Foucault, Michel
(1986)
"Of other
spaces,"
translated
by Jay
Miskowlec.
Diacritics 16:22-7.
Habusha, Moshe
(musical director)
(1989)
Mizmor shir
leyom
hashabat
-
bakashot
songs of
Shabat
("Sing
a
song
for the Sabbath
day
-
baqqashoth songs
of the
Sabbath").
Jerusalem: Yeshivat
HaHayim
VeHashalom.
(Set
of 18 cassettes,
with
accompanying
booklet of
song
texts.)
Manasseh, Sara
(1999)
Women in music
performance:
the
Iraqi
Jewish
experience
in Israel. PhD
thesis,
London
University.
Soja,
Edward W.
(1995)
"Heterotopologies:
a remembrance of
other
spaces
in the citadel-LA." In S.
Watson and K. Gibson
(eds)
Postmodern cities and
spaces,
pp.
13-34. Oxford: Blackwell.
Someck, Ronny (1989)
Panther. Tel
Aviv: Zmora Bitan
[in Hebrew].
SARA MANASSEH
Kingston University
sara(&manasseh.co.
uk
MICHAEL B.
BAKAN,
Music
of
death and
new creation:
experiences
in the
world
of
Balinese
gamelan
beleganjur
The
University
of
Chicago Press,
1999. xxiii +
384pp.,
17 halftones,
8
tables,
notes, index, glossary,
MICHAEL B.
BAKAN,
Music
of
death and
new creation:
experiences
in the
world
of
Balinese
gamelan
beleganjur
The
University
of
Chicago Press,
1999. xxiii +
384pp.,
17 halftones,
8
tables,
notes, index, glossary,
BRITISH JOURNAL OF ETHNOMUSICOLOGY VOL.9/ii 2000
bibliography, discography.
CD.
ISBN 0-226-03487-9
(cloth ?42);
ISBN 0-226-03488-7
(pb. ?21).
The
subject
of this book
(which
builds on
Bakan's doctoral
dissertation)
is the
Balinese gamelan
beleganjur,
the
powerful
processional ensemble
comprising
a
range
of hand-held
gongs,
cymbals
and drums.
Originally
with
martial and ritual
functions, gamelan
beleganjur
has
undergone
a
rejuvenation
through
the recent institution of
beleganjur competitions.
These have not
only
nurtured interest in the ensemble
and its traditional
repertory,
but have also
spawned
a new musical
style,
kreasi
beleganjur,
which in
keeping
with the
newer
competitive
context is more
overtly
formalized and virtuosic.
The book is divided into four sections
that
correspond
to the four movements of
the
opening
demonstration section
(demonstrasi)
of a
piece
for a
beleganjur
contest:
awit-awit, kawitan, pengawak,
pengecet.
As with the drum
prelude
that
begins
the
demonstrasi, Bakan's awit-awit
attempts
to
juxtapose
various
fragments
in
an
impressionistic way;
the kawitan
(the
central section of the
demonstration)
is the
musical
ethnography;
the
pengawak,
the
slower more
lyrical movement,
here
comprises
the
problematization
of the
preceding
musical
ethnography,
and the
pengecet,
the "movement of freedom and
release"
(19)
is Bakan's reflexive
section,
a frank discussion of his own
experience
of
learning beleganjur drumming,
and
more
broadly speaking,
a discussion of the
value of reflexive
writing
in
ethnomusicology.
The introduction is somewhat diffuse,
combining
a number of different
angles
on the material. In
particular,
the
relevance of this
opening
reflexive
section to the rest of the book is
unclear;
the circumstances described do not seem
to surface elsewhere in the
writing.
The
remainder of the introduction describes
the ensemble and its
context,
followed
by
a discussion of
conceptions
of
ethnomusicology
and
ways
of
writing
ethnography (his
view of the radical
position
of his
ethnography
seems a little
overstated).
The section
"Discovering
Beleganjur"
is
perhaps
the most
successful, and sets
up
the
ethnography
that follows.
"Part Two: Kawitan"
begins
with the
chapter
"The Gamelan
Beleganjur
in
traditional Balinese musical
life", which
discusses the
history
and format of the
ensemble and its
relationship
to other
Balinese ensembles. Bakan
points
out
that, because of the
power
and influence
of the
competitive beleganjur
format
(1986 onwards),
most of the information
on traditional
practice
is based on the
observations of his teachers rather than
his own
experience,
as traditional
beleganjur
has
largely
been
displaced by
the
competition version. The central
section of the
chapter
is a detailed
discussion of the musical
processes
involved in the
genre
as this relates to the
function of each of the main instruments
in the ensemble. This discussion is clear
and well-illustrated
by
both written
musical
examples (some
in modified staff
notation, others in table
format)
and
recorded ones
(the
tracks on the CD tie in
well with the
text).
The final
part
of the
chapter
discusses the various contexts and
functions of the ensemble in traditional
Hindu-Balinese life. These centre on the
five
categories
of ritual
offerings,
the
panca yadna (beleganjur's primary
ritual
role is to
accompany yadna processions).
Of
particular
interest is his evocation and
explanation
of the role of
beleganjur
in
ngaben (cremation) and memukur
(purification
of the
soul) ceremonies. It
brought
to mind
vividly
the
presence
of
beleganjur
at the first Balinese cremation
ceremony
I
attended; his
description
is
thoroughly
readable and
accompanied by
some excellent recorded
examples.
149
BRITISH JOURNAL OF ETHNOMUSICOLOGY VOL.911i 2000
The
chapter
titled "Lomba
Beleganjur"
is a
fascinating
account of
the rise and
development
of the
beleganjur
competition,
which has
achieved such
"widespread popularity
and official endorsement" that
beleganjur
has become a site for the
interplay
of
multiple ideologies
and
agendas,
"a
symbol
of mediation
among
traditional
Balinese cultural values, modem
Indonesian
political ideals, and the
realities of
contemporary
Balinese
Indonesian life"
(85).
Bakan connects the
contemporary competition
to inter-court
gamelan competitions
in
pre-colonial
Bali, but his focus here is the
way
in
which "the
products
and
performances
displayed
and
comparatively
assessed in
lombas reference the
specific
localized
cultural worlds of their
origin,
while
symbolically transforming
those worlds
into
something
more
globally
'Indonesian"'
(87).
The
following
chapter
is a detailed breakdown of the
musical
specifics
of kreasi
beleganjur
(the style
created
by
the
competition
format), again
illustrated
by
numerous
written and recorded
examples.
In
contrast to this dense technical
discussion, the
following chapter
focuses
on I Ketut Sukarata and I Ketut Gede
Asnawa, two
major participants
in the
beleganjur
world and Bakan's two main
teachers. Bakan
presents biographies
of
the two,
discusses their
contrasting
positions
in the
beleganjur
world and
their musical
styles.
"Part Three:
Pengawak" begins
with a
careful
investigation
of the
"high
stakes
of
competition", pointing
out not
only
the
complex feelings
that
competition
engenders,
but more
broadly
how
Western
anthropology
has constructed
the Balinese as more interested in
process
than
product,
and how "the modem
lomba,
with its formalized evaluation
criteria and
quantified grading scheme,
may
bear the indelible marks of Western
influence, but the goal-directed
competitive
fervor exhibited
by
participants
in modem Balinese music is
'indigenous"' (213). Through
his
observations of
competitions,
the author
explores
the
strategies participants
use to
negotiate
the local, regional
and national
levels of interaction and the
complicated
politics
this often involves.
Gender is the
topic
of the
following
chapter,
which introduces the
subject
of
women's
beleganjur groups,
the
ways
in
which
they
are
perceived
and
presented
by
both
participants
in the
beleganjur
world, and more
broadly,
the
governmental agencies
behind their
promotion.
Bakan's conclusion is that
women's
beleganjur
is more radical and
subversive than other
genres
that have
seen female
participation
in recent
years,
because
beleganjur
is seen as a "male
form of
expression
and a formal
expression
of maleness"
(275).
This is a
fascinating topic,
with several "voices"
presented,
but the
chapter
nonetheless
suffers from
being
based
predominantly
on the
perspectives
of older male
musicians. The
opinions
of
only
a few
women
players
are cited. In addition,
composer
and drummer Suandita seems
to be the
only younger
male voice, and as
his
perceptions
of female
beleganjur
groups
seem
by
contrast to be more
open,
it is
interesting
to
speculate
whether the
arguments presented against
women's
groups (by
the
majority
male
musicians)
are in
part
indicative of the
generation
interviewed,
and whether the arena for
women will
open up
in the next few
years
(or
indeed has
already opened up,
as the
research for this book was conducted
up
to
1995).
The final
part
of Bakan's book I found
particularly interesting.
Here he addresses
what he terms the "intercultural musical
encounter" between himself and his
teacher Sukarata. Bakan relates the
teaching-learning
method that he and
150
BRITISH JOURNAL OF ETHNOMUSICOLOGY VOL.9/ii 2000
Sukarata devised in the course of their
interaction and the
way
it
compared
with
traditional Balinese musical
pedagogy
(maguru panggul, literally, "teaching
with
the
mallet"). Bravely,
he charts the
development
of his lessons, including
his
failures with his successes: "In our efforts
to understand each other and make music
together,
we
improvised, compromised,
and often
struggled through conflicting
personal agendas
and
frustrating
misconceptions,
musical and otherwise"
(292).
Even more
bravely, perhaps,
he
exposes
his own
ways
of
learning,
identifies their inherent Westem-ness,
and
describes his own motivations for
adopting
them. It is a sensitive account of
the
development
of a
working
relationship
between teacher and
foreign
student/researcher that raises
many
questions.
As he
points out,
this
type
of
encounter is
usually pushed
to the
fringes
of musical
ethnography,
and his
argument
here focuses on its
centrality
to
any
such
work. He
questions
whether an outsider
"can understand a music 'from within' at
all"
(294), following
on from Brinner
(1995),
Berliner
(1994)
and Rice
(1997).
Drawing
on
Blacking (1992),
Bauman
(1978)
and Bruner
(1986),
he rather
controversially suggests
that
"...
'understanding'
need not occur within
a context of shared
conception
of
meaning
in
performative
action. As
long
as
multiple participants
in a
performance
all believe themselves and each other to
be
functioning effectively,
and as long as
they
are
collectively meeting
the
objectives
demanded of the
performance,
those
participants
are all
operating,
on
some level at
least,
from a
position
of
'understanding',
even if such
understanding
lacks
language-like
criteria
of mutual
intelligibility" (297). Citing
Blacking's
1977 notion of
"tuning
in to an
alien musical
expression" (316),
the final
chapter
demonstrates this
type
of musical
understanding,
in an account of the
recording
session that he and his teacher,
Sukarata,
had
agreed
would mark the end
of his initial research
project.
Some
may object
to the
way
in which
the author
inevitably
becomes the centre
of the discussion here, or the extent of
some of his claims
(which
sometimes
exceed the amount of evidence
available). However, the focus on the
ethnomusicologist's
role as musician
(rather
than
researcher)
in the
construction of
ethnography
was
refreshing
and
thought-provoking
rather
than conclusive.
One additional small
point:
as Suharto
was
officially toppled by
the time this
book went to
press,
it would have been
useful to
recognize
this in the text
(which
refers to the
regime
as if it were still in
operation).
This aside, the book is an
informative, multi-perspective
account of
a
previously unmapped
Balinese
genre,
well illustrated with audio
examples.
The
final
chapters, dealing
with
reflexivity,
fieldwork and the notion of musical
understanding,
should
provoke
some
interesting
discussion.
References
Bauman, Zygmunt (1978)
Hermeneutics
and social science. Columbia:
Columbia
University
Press.
Berliner,
Paul
(1994) Thinking
in
jazz:
the
infinite
art
of improvisation.
Chicago: University
of
Chicago
Press.
Blacking,
John
[1977] (1990)
"Some
problems
of
theory
and method in the
study
of musical
change."
In K.
Kaufman
Shelemay (ed.)
Garland
readings
in
ethnomusicology:
musical
processes,
resources and
technologies, 6, pp.
259-84. New
York and London: Garland
Publishing.
(1992)
"The
biology
of music-
making."
In H.
Myers (ed.)
Ethnomusicology:
an introduction, pp.
151
152 BRITISH JOURNAL OF ETHNOMUSICOLOGY VOL.9/1i 2000 152 BRITISH JOURNAL OF ETHNOMUSICOLOGY VOL.9/1i 2000
301-14. New York: W.W. Norton & Co.
Brinner, Benjamin (1995) Knowing
music, making
music.
Chicago:
University
of
Chicago
Press.
Bruner, Edward
(1986) "Experience
and
its
expressions."
In V. Turner and E.
Bruner
(eds)
The
anthropology
of
experience, pp.
3-10. Urbana and
Chicago: University
of Illinois Press.
Rice, Timothy (1997)
"Toward a
mediation of field methods and field
experience
in
ethnomusicology."
In
Greg
Barz and
Timothy Cooley (eds)
Shadows in the
field:
new
perspectives
for fieldwork
in
ethnomusicology.
New York: Oxford
University
Press.
MARIA MENDON(A
St David's
Hall, Cardiff
meml @nildram.co.uk
301-14. New York: W.W. Norton & Co.
Brinner, Benjamin (1995) Knowing
music, making
music.
Chicago:
University
of
Chicago
Press.
Bruner, Edward
(1986) "Experience
and
its
expressions."
In V. Turner and E.
Bruner
(eds)
The
anthropology
of
experience, pp.
3-10. Urbana and
Chicago: University
of Illinois Press.
Rice, Timothy (1997)
"Toward a
mediation of field methods and field
experience
in
ethnomusicology."
In
Greg
Barz and
Timothy Cooley (eds)
Shadows in the
field:
new
perspectives
for fieldwork
in
ethnomusicology.
New York: Oxford
University
Press.
MARIA MENDON(A
St David's
Hall, Cardiff
meml @nildram.co.uk
ANN BUCKLEY
(ed.) Hearing
the
past:
essays
in historical
ethnomusicology
and the
archaeology of
sound. E.R.A.U.L.
86 (Etudes et Recherches
Archeologiques
de l'Universit6 de
Liege)
1988.
251pp, illustrations,
plates,
musical
transcriptions.
Depot legal:
D/1998/0480/25
"The
people
that come
together
at
conferences to discuss
early
music
cultures are a
pretty motley group,"
observes Kenneth DeWoskin in his
chapter
about
interpreting early
Chinese
instruments from this volume. This is
reminiscent of
meetings
of
ethnomusicologists,
where the
participants
tend to hail from a
variety
of
different
backgrounds
and
disciplines
and
to
approach
their areas of
study
with
varying degrees
of adventurousness
-
some
scarcely peeking
outside their
immediate areas of studies and others
using
their material as launch
pads
to
ponder
broader or even universal
ANN BUCKLEY
(ed.) Hearing
the
past:
essays
in historical
ethnomusicology
and the
archaeology of
sound. E.R.A.U.L.
86 (Etudes et Recherches
Archeologiques
de l'Universit6 de
Liege)
1988.
251pp, illustrations,
plates,
musical
transcriptions.
Depot legal:
D/1998/0480/25
"The
people
that come
together
at
conferences to discuss
early
music
cultures are a
pretty motley group,"
observes Kenneth DeWoskin in his
chapter
about
interpreting early
Chinese
instruments from this volume. This is
reminiscent of
meetings
of
ethnomusicologists,
where the
participants
tend to hail from a
variety
of
different
backgrounds
and
disciplines
and
to
approach
their areas of
study
with
varying degrees
of adventurousness
-
some
scarcely peeking
outside their
immediate areas of studies and others
using
their material as launch
pads
to
ponder
broader or even universal
questions.
As with
many
volumes of
collected
essays
that result from
conferences, there is little sense of
coherence in the
approaches
of the
contributors to
Hearing
the
past.
However, there is much food for
thought
for
ethnomusicologists,
not least in terms
of
helping
us reflect on the status and
objectives
of our
discipline,
and
sometimes to feel fortunate that we can
hear, see and interact with
living
musicians
-
even then still
struggling
to
understand what on earth is
going
on!
Issues of status and
objectives
of the
discipline
are
initially brought
out in a
short
paper
entitled "What is
wrong
with
music
archaeology?" by Cajsa Lund,
who
identifies the low value ascribed to the
work of music
archaeologists by
mainstream Scandinavian
archaeology.
She concludes that a "broader social
perspective"
should be
applied
to the
study
of sound tools
(though sadly
without
giving any practical examples
herself).
The focus of some branches of
music
archaeology
often seems to
concern
questions
of whether or not an
archaeological
find is a
potential
sound
tool,
and
thereby
whether it
may
be
appropriated
to
specifically
musical
concerns, from which other
archaeologists
-
as
non-specialists
-
are
tacitly
excluded. A somewhat
analogous
relationship
has sometimes
emerged
between
ethnomusicologists
and
anthropologists,
where
specialization
in
"music" has led to a sense of
exclusiveness with the
consequence
that
ethnomusicological insights
have
frequently
failed to feed into broader
anthropological
discourse. It is no
coincidence that some of the most
respected figures
in
ethnomusicology
refuse to be dubbed with the title
"ethnomusicologist", asserting
instead
that
they
are
anthropologists. Similarly
a
number of the other contributors to this
volume
present
music as a
privileged
questions.
As with
many
volumes of
collected
essays
that result from
conferences, there is little sense of
coherence in the
approaches
of the
contributors to
Hearing
the
past.
However, there is much food for
thought
for
ethnomusicologists,
not least in terms
of
helping
us reflect on the status and
objectives
of our
discipline,
and
sometimes to feel fortunate that we can
hear, see and interact with
living
musicians
-
even then still
struggling
to
understand what on earth is
going
on!
Issues of status and
objectives
of the
discipline
are
initially brought
out in a
short
paper
entitled "What is
wrong
with
music
archaeology?" by Cajsa Lund,
who
identifies the low value ascribed to the
work of music
archaeologists by
mainstream Scandinavian
archaeology.
She concludes that a "broader social
perspective"
should be
applied
to the
study
of sound tools
(though sadly
without
giving any practical examples
herself).
The focus of some branches of
music
archaeology
often seems to
concern
questions
of whether or not an
archaeological
find is a
potential
sound
tool,
and
thereby
whether it
may
be
appropriated
to
specifically
musical
concerns, from which other
archaeologists
-
as
non-specialists
-
are
tacitly
excluded. A somewhat
analogous
relationship
has sometimes
emerged
between
ethnomusicologists
and
anthropologists,
where
specialization
in
"music" has led to a sense of
exclusiveness with the
consequence
that
ethnomusicological insights
have
frequently
failed to feed into broader
anthropological
discourse. It is no
coincidence that some of the most
respected figures
in
ethnomusicology
refuse to be dubbed with the title
"ethnomusicologist", asserting
instead
that
they
are
anthropologists. Similarly
a
number of the other contributors to this
volume
present
music as a
privileged