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CHAPTER 12 Indonesia

syncretic faith that is quite public because of the vitality of its expressive arts. In Bali, to be a “good Hindu” means devoting oneself to the arts as an outward ex pression of spirituality, whether those arts feature wood or stone carving, painting, mask-making, dancing, or musicianship. Visitors from abroad are often surprised (and delighted) at the ubiquitous and readily accessible nature of the arts on Bali, particularly in contrast to the less publicly obvious performing arts on Java. But that has as much to do with the functioning of a well-oiled tourist machine touting Bali as a type of paradise as it has to do with significant—much older—differences in the artistic and religious contexts of the neighboring islands of Bali and Java. Gamelan gong kebyar is relatively new on the scene; its development, sudden popularity, and repertoire date largely from the 1920s. The Dutch takeover of Bali was completed by the 1920s, even though they had colonized other islands long before that. Because of the Dutch, many of the local rulers in Bali fell out of power in the early 20th century. Without power, they were unable to maintain the large ensembles of gamelan that had previously provided a type of sonic accompaniment to their rule. As a result, local gamelan ensembles shifted from being owned by local rulers to being owned collectively, through a type of multifaceted commu nity organization known as banjar . These banjar organizations continue to exist today as a type of community group to which each Balinese person must belong; everyone in a banjar knows each other, many of the musicians play together, and it is the responsibility of all members of a banjar to come together in times of crisis or when there is a need for a collective work project. Beginning in North Bali, kebyar quickly spread throughout the island. Kebyar became so popular, in fact, that some older ceremonial gamelan instruments were melted down and reforged as kebyar instruments with new tunings! As is the case with Javanese gamelan, the instruments are primarily made of bronze; the tunings include pelog and—for some non-kebyar ensembles—slendro (though those are fairly recent terms for the Balinese, who have had their own names for the tunings). The pelog and slendro of Balinese music, however, are not the same as those in Central Java, but they are related. In gamelan gong kebyar, there are five keys per octave in a gapped scale. One thing that sets gamelan gong kebyar apart from many other Balinese en sembles is that it is primarily secular; it isn’t tied to any one particular religious ceremony but performs in many contexts. New compositions are being created for gamelan gong kebyar all the time. In Bali’s lively and competitive atmosphere, it is the norm to use new compositions in competitions. In listening to it after hearing Central Javanese gamelan, you will easily be able to discern some important differ ences as noted above, but also some similarities.

banjar —community collective in Bali PROPERTY OF OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS