At the end of the Dialogue, the students performed the three pieces that were taught in the ensemble course. This music is not easy, and everyone did a great job after only five weeks of instruction.
The performance took place at the studio/home of Dewa Ketut Alit, our gamelan instructor, and is played on his personal gamelan with a unique, 7-tone tuning that is completely different than any other gamelan scale. His composition “Cencanangan,” performed last, exploits this tuning by modulating at various points throughout the piece.
The performances below were shot at night with low light available, so please excuse the dark video. Each piece in the performance is in a separate video, but they all stream from the one video below. Descriptions of the pieces follow.
1. Opening performance: Dance, “Rejang” (welcome dance)
Students Vienna Beanum and Lexi Tavares also studied dance for two weeks of the Dialogue, and opened our performance with a traditional welcome dance, “Rejang.”
2. ”Kompyang”
Traditional piece for Balinese gamelan, performed by the full student ensemble (with a few Balinese ringers brought in to fill in the group and help out).
3. ”Gilak”
A slow version of “Gilak”
4. ”Cecanangan”
Meaning a type of offering, this piece was composed by our teacher, Dewa Ketut Alit, and features two modulations (change of key/mode) throughout the piece. This highlights the unique sound of Alit’s Gamelan Salukat, tuned to a scale of his design that he feels hearkens back to earlier days of gamelan music.