MUSIC102 Lecture Notes - Lecture 22: Heterophony, Voice Leading, Quickness
27 Jun 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Oct. 23/17
Wednesday: Bring at least 4 colored pencils/crayons and a ruler
Different way of listening (guided listening exercise)
JAVA: Bronze (gongs), Stone (temples), and Buffalo Skin (where you hit the drum)
- Close-up and cultural context
- Green set of islands on slide pic
- Premise: Indonesia was globalized long before era of globalization (globalization: when
everyone starts having radio waves, having pop songs)
- Global roots were in effect long before “globalization”
- Globalized world in indies was long before the era of globalization in the
americas
- 9CE (picture of Buddha, Borbudur (??))
- Enlightenment
- Drum, flute, carved into stone (monument to Buddhism)
- Rama and Sita (??) [kind of like Romeo and Juliet]
- Hindu story, Hindu values
- With the stories came religious and social ideas (how to be a good human, how to be
ethical, how to behave with others, etc)
- Buddhism and Hinduism are linked and in Java
- Indonesia is the largest Muslim country in the world
- Java is its most populous island
- Javanese Muslims have found creative ways to blend their Muslim religion with flexible,
hybrid cultural traditions
- Recognize as being valuable and useful, worth cultivating
- Premise: Music, Dance, and Theatre are integrally connected
- Shadow puppet tradition (also made from buffalo skin): Wayan kulit → Indian epics are
the basis
- Shadow puppetry dramatizing stories for moral value and entertainment
- Tells story of Rama and Sita
- Difference between puppets of the god vs devil: colours, nose shape
- Part of palaces/court tradition and villages as well
- Something to celebrate: you’d bring in a Wayan Kulit
- Side tangent: Gamelan modes tell people what time of day it is
- Every play begins with mountain puppet in the palace
- Hero puppet is refined, meditative, and spiritually refined
- Magically potent, can defeat the monster/devil puppet with one flick of their finger
- Once order has been restored, play ends with mountain puppet
- Connecting the music: Gamelan (ensemble of bronze instruments from Java)
- Music accompanies Wayan Kulit
- Gong: big metal disk
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
- There’s a spiritual understanding because it comes from the earth
- Java is a volcanic island, fertile land (allows it to support civilization).
Idea that land is both sacred and dangerous
- Lots of respect for the gamelan (as if it were almost human)
- Take off shoes, tip toe around it, etc.
- See slides
- Numbers are the melody
- P (kimpool (?)), N (kanong), G (gong)
- Gong is like the mountain puppet (starts and ends each piece)
- Gong plays once per cycle
- N plays four times per cycle
- P plays 1, 3, 5, 7 per cycle
- 8 beats, gong plays on 8
- Cyclical structure (in cycles)
- “Udan Mas”
- What do you hear: 16 beat cycle
- What to hear: loud style instruments (all bronze, metallic), gong at the beginning
(there was an intro, but when gong sounds entire orchestra came in) and the
end, cyclical structure (connected to gong) [hear punctuated points in the cycle],
tempo determined by drum cues (brings ensemble forward or slow you down,
gives cues, etc)
- Plays, Gong Cycles, even Calendars
- All work cyclically
- Before Islam, they had a 5 day calendar (that’s around the time you run out of
food). Islam brought 7 day calendar
- There’s two calendars, connecting the points that Java is a place of
globalization with their own ideas but also others and the grander idea of
cyclical structure
- Connecting to reading: What does it take to become a court musician?
- Decades of practice
- Ability to play every instrument
- Ability to listen
- Understanding how gamelan fits with theatre and dance
- Orchestras: Compare and Contrast
- JAVA: Cues given by the drums (aural), everyone can play everything, ensemble
is the bronze instruments, cyclical music
- Javanese musician wouldn’t be considered proficient until they could play
all the instruments
- Instruments thought to be sacred, they are the ensemble (owned by
community league, palace, etc)
- Gamelan is the ensemble
- Musicians bring it to life, but gamelan is still there no matter what
- WESTERN classical music: Cues given visually, specialization, ensemble is the
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Wednesday: bring at least 4 colored pencils/crayons and a ruler. Java: bronze (gongs), stone (temples), and buffalo skin (where you hit the drum) Green set of islands on slide pic. Premise: indonesia was globalized long before era of globalization (globalization: when everyone starts having radio waves, having pop songs) Global roots were in effect long before globalization . Globalized world in indies was long before the era of globalization in the americas. Drum, flute, carved into stone (monument to buddhism) With the stories came religious and social ideas (how to be a good human, how to be ethical, how to behave with others, etc) Buddhism and hinduism are linked and in java. Indonesia is the largest muslim country in the world. Javanese muslims have found creative ways to blend their muslim religion with flexible, hybrid cultural traditions. Recognize as being valuable and useful, worth cultivating. Premise: music, dance, and theatre are integrally connected.
