Music for the Gods

As with many nations in the 20th century, Indonesia has felt the strain of having its rich spiritual and cultural traditions come into contact, and sometimes conflict, with the modern world. Although Indonesian music, running a gamut from folk to classical to popular, is far from endangered, it is threatened by the growing influence of a Western performance value. Musicians are making their performances more theatrical to satisfy foreign audiences, and thereby changing the form and meaning of the art. There is concern that gamelan music will be stripped of its cultural functions as it is incorporated into the growing world-music genre. The collection of recordings on "Music For The Gods" provides a chance to experience the state of the gamelan art as it was over a half-century ago, and may never be again.

The selections on this CD were recorded by Bruce and Sheridan Fahnestock in 1941, after an expedition across the South Pacific for the American Museum of Natural History led them to believe that the tourist trade and the influx of Western popular music would presage the indigenous music's extinction. A second expedition yielded a collection of recordings, photographs, films, and manuscripts that together paint a portrait of the island cultures as they existed before World War II.

As the CD title implies, there is a deep spiritual component to gamelan music. Whether played for the human world or as a medium of spiritual offerings, gamelan performance is inseparable from ritual. The selections here represent different genres, each with its own specific musical arrangement. Gamelan Semar Pegulingan, the "love gamelan," ("Semar" is the god of love) is played on xylophones, gongs, cymbals, bells and drums, and is characterized by a sweet simple melody. Yet, from the three pieces representing this gamelan, it is clear how broadly it can be interpreted.

"Taboehgan" is as delicate as a music-box lullaby, whereas the frantic pace of "Sekarinotan" evokes a film chase scene. "Merakngila" is like the random compositions of a breeze on a set of wind chimes. Music surrounds everyday rituals as well. In "Laghoe Dindang," a harvest song, a chorus of voices is propelled by a saronen (an oboe-like instrument), small gongs, and a drum. The performance accompanies sacred offerings, and dances by men, women and young girls. "Pedat," a melody over a repeating rhythmic pattern, is the soundtrack to the Madurese bull races. The tongtong (slit-drums) featured here are hollowed-out logs which imitate the sound of running bulls.

This CD marks the first time these recordings have ever been released commercially. When they were found in the attic, where they had been stored for over forty years, the disc's acetate coating had almost completely deteriorated. It seems ironic that the western technological advances that helped disrupt and transform Indonesian culture, have also managed to preserve it for the future, with an honor for the past.

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