Gamelan

Programme notes

This composition is inspired by the painting entitled Gamelan Orchestra painted by Sudjano Kerton in 1960 and the poem entitled Gamelan by Mohammad Yasin written in 1934. Sudjana Kerton (1922 – 1994) was an Indonesian painter born in Bandung, in the midst of political transition of the country from the Dutch colonial era to the independent Republic of Indonesia. Kerton's paintings are intertwined with the revolutionary era of Indonesia. He was an artist of a generation that was globally aware, politically active, and intensely involved with aesthetic and formal questions. Kerton is recognized as one of Indonesia’s most original and controversial artists. Yamin (1903 - 1962) was an Indonesian historian, poet, playwright, journalist and politician. Yamin started to write in Malay in the Dutch-language journal "Jong Sumatra", the literary publication of Pemuda Sumatera (or the Jong Sumatranen Bond), a semi-political organization of Sumatran youth. Yamin advocated a non-cooperative stance against the Dutch colonial administration, declining all invitations to join the civil service. He earned his living through writing and reporting. When I visited the Southeast Asian collection of the National Gallery to find an inspiration, Kerton's painting struck me at first sight: inspiration mingled with the joy of returning to gamelan. Indeed, from 1997 to 2003 I composed fourteen pieces for gamelan thanks to the instruments available at Lasalle-Sia College of the Arts. I marveled at the complex tuning system, so much so that I conducted extensive research that led in 2004 to a PhD on contemporary techniques in gamelan. To me, Kerton's cubist, sober and dense painting represents a gamelan in full sonic activity. Deconstructed human figures emerge from a whirl of angular lines. Shapes interlock. Yamin's poem dictated the formal structure of my composition. The limited palette of colours of the painting led me to restrain my musical language to one melody, one minor triad and one pentatonic mode. The poem ends enigmatically, so does the music. Musicians of a gamelan orchestra play multiple roles, so do the singers of the vocal sextet: the bass leads the exhalations, the baritone controls the tempo, tenor 3 heralds the title and the strophes, tenor 2 keeps the pitch, tenor 1 marks sonically the structure and the countertenor expresses visually the key words: moon, lost voice and heart.

Handwritten sketches and drafts

to be found in chapter XXX of the white cover, A3 size, 600 pages sketchbook 

Completion of the composition 

27-V-2021

Score

see page 81 to 105 of the combined score Pictures at a Southeast Asian Exhibition: special project (2021) under Articles

Score follower

see link 

Essay by R Casteels The sound of colour

see page 3 of the combined score Pictures at a Southeast Asian Exhibition: special project (2021) under Articles

Essay by S M Tan The colour of sound

see page 1 of the combined score Pictures at a Southeast Asian Exhibition: special project (2021) under Articles