EVERY GENRE PROJECT - June 2 - Gamelan semar pegulingan
Genre of the Day - Gamelan semar pegulingan
Album of the Day - Gamelan Semar Pegulingan Saih Pitu by The Heavenly Orchestra of Bali (1991)
June 2, 2024
INDONESIA ALERT! INDONESIA ALERT! <3 🇮🇩
My fondness for Indonesia is well established by this point, and this is the fourth time I’ve been graced by an Indonesian genre in this column. Indonesian techno was probably one of my top five favorite listens so far out of the dozens of genres I’ve heard. The sounds Indonesian musicians produce, from modern DJs to orchestras with hundreds of years of history, are so distinctive from anything else, and by this point five months into this endeavor I believe I have some authority to say that.
Music can transport you to worlds both familiar and untouched, but this form of gamelan takes us to none other than the bedchambers of medieval kings in Bali. A saucy undertone is certainly a definitional aspect of how the genre is presented: another one of the top-rated gamlan semar pegulingan albums on RYM is literally titled the love god’s gamelan. A key difference in this form of gamelan’s cultural context is that Bali is an isle of both traditional animism and Hinduism in a majority Muslim archipelago, so ensembles and their traditional purposes relate directly to the many gods that populate these cosmologies. As Lisa Gold deftly translates in her brilliant “Music in Bali”, one of the few sources I could find on this genre, the name of this gamelan ensemble form translates to the Balinese god of love, Semara, sleeping. Music was an integral stamp of royal luxury in Bali, and it soundtracked many waking moments: that didn’t stop at sleep, as this gamelan format was intended to lull the king and whoever shared his quarters to sleep.
Musically, this ensemble touches on softer textures like the gamelan equivalent of the silk that would’ve covered the king as he slept; it employs the seven-tone scale known as pelog as opposed to most other gamelan’s pentatonic mode, stimulating melodic exploration. Smaller, softer timbres like finger chimes and glittering bells pervade the compositions, and drumming punctuates rhythmic structure rather than dominates it. Free wheeling flutes lend melodic intrigue and the musical hypnosis that might put a noble at ease.
After I recently discovered the beautiful instrument the celesta, a piano invented in the 1880s that uses tuning forks rather than strings as its sonic driver and is used for its fairy-like chime sounds in tunes like the Sugar Plum Fairy, I’ve been appreciating music that is meant to evoke dream and fantasy. To experience a gamelan ensemble’s religiously and royally intertwined take on it is quite special. There’s dozens of gamelan formations, after all; you’re bound to find a form that suits your musical interests.
No time is spared in a good lullaby, as these songs extend to a minimum of ten minutes. When you’re performing for the king, it’s understandable that you’d demonstrate your dedication and flex your ability to improvise through such lengthy compositions. Across these tracks, the flute ensnares your ears to draw you into the music. It allows your mind to melt into the twinkling metallic bells with a spellbinding array of timbres. Given that you’re not the one with over a dozen musical performers in a massive bed chamber, it may not hit the exact same, but its purpose and melodies as ornate as the gorgeous instruments that produce them makes this genre an object of fascination, even if it won’t put the average listener to sleep as well as whale sounds.
If you’d like a shorter taste than today’s album, enjoy this video below.