Traditional music
Although also characteristic of Javanese music, the gamelan is by far the emblem of Balinese music. Derived from the Javanese word gamel, meaning "hammer", and the verb to hold, strike or manipulate, the term gamelan designates an instrumental ensemble - a large body of sound - made up of gongs, blade metallophones and possibly bronze and bamboo xylophones. In fact, although there are several types of gamelan involving flutes, hurdy-gurdies (rebab) and drums - all bearing a specific gamelan name - this Balinese ensemble remains undeniably associated with the idea of percussion and metallophones.
Inherent in gamelan is the idea of an ensemble functioning as a single body. The gamelan is almost, indeed, a single instrument, with each musician responsible for a part of the overall melodic line. What's more, there is no conductor as such, although the kendang (drum) plays a leading role. This esprit de corps is accentuated by the fact that all the instruments in a gamelan must be made at the same time and by the same blacksmith - the pandé. It is the pandé who finally tunes the gamelan instruments. It is therefore a single overall sound, and another gamelan cannot be created from scattered instruments belonging to other gamelans. Also, in every gamelan, certain instruments are paired (male/female) and tuned in such a way that when played alone, without their pair, they sound out of tune.
Another important point is that the gamelan serves above all a ritual function. The gamelan is rarely, if ever, heard in concert. Its performance is always accompanied by offerings and rituals. Among the modern forms of Balinese gamelan, one of the most important (and most widely exported) is kebyar, a style renowned for its energy. It's via the kebyar (or kebyar gong) that you can get the best taste of the art of playing, the colorful orchestration, the rhythmic complexity and all the vitality of Balinese music. The music played by the kebyar consists mainly of new compositions freely adapted from older pieces. The style of the South is more conservative and delicate than that of the North, which is a little shrill, syncopated and revolutionary. Visible in competitions, the gamelan gong kebyar has become an essential part of modern Hindu ceremonies in Bali. It is required for annual temple anniversary ceremonies, or as an accompaniment to sacred dances.
Clearly, the kebyar gong is a modern form of the gedé gong, an ancient large-scale gamelan orchestra dating from the 15th and 16th centuries, indispensable for public ceremonies and temple festivities, playing all night long. The melodies of the gong gedé are played with large gongs, and exude a deep, uniform majesty, lacking the delicate modulations of the kebyar. Dating from around the same time, the gamelan semar pegulingan is an ancient structure from the 17th century, originally played near the palace bedrooms to lull the king and his concubines to sleep - the name is derived from Semara, the god of love in Balinese mythology. Today, the semar pegulingan is mainly used to accompany the legong (see "The dance" paragraph) and can be seen and heard in Peliatan (a village famous for the quality of its legong).
Another very visible style in Bali is the gamelan beleganjur. More or less equivalent to the Western military band, the original purpose of the beleganjur was to accompany armies into battle. Today, however, it has lost its warlike vocation and is played at festivals or competitions, and remains essential to Bali's Hindu religious ceremonies, such as the ogoh-ogoh parades that precede the Balinese New Year, Nyepi.
Less traditional and more secular in its roots but perfectly authentic, joged bumbung is a variant of gamelan where the instruments are mainly made of bamboo. The ensemble takes its name from joged, a flirtatious dance in which women invite a male partner into the audience by handing him a belt. They usually choose the shy one who's trying to hide or the show-off so that he's the target of his friends' mockery. Choreography is usually improvised, mimicking domestic scenes or more daring ones. This dance - and by extension the accompanying gamelan - has become very popular in Bali, and jogèd bumbung can easily be seen in villages all over the island.
Gamelan is everywhere in Bali, and every ceremony is an opportunity to hear one of these ensembles. Even in unexpected festivals like Nyale, on Kuta beach, a great ritual where thousands of Sasaks gather to harvest fluorescent marine worms and eat them (grilled or raw). The party lasts all night, punctuated by gamelan performances. Otherwise, certain villages are renowned for their gamelan, such as Ubud or Sebatu, whose orchestra is much appreciated by the French, as it has been touring France regularly for many years. A visit to Sebatu is an opportunity to hear its extraordinary semar pegulingan. Away from the festivities, it's worth noting that in Sanur, the Tandjung Sari restaurant has a reputation for offering some fine gamelan performances from time to time.
The dance
Along with gamelan, dance is the other great national discipline. That's how the country generates such passion and wealth, and manages to achieve such a degree of perfection. Over the centuries, dance here has reached an extraordinary technical level, nurtured by rigorous training and practice. It leaves no room for improvisation or individual performance. However, dancers enjoy a certain degree of freedom, depending on their fame or charisma.
Historically, in Bali, dance has been a popular and, above all, a religious art form, drawing its strength from ceremonies, particularly odalan, or temple anniversaries.
By way of comparison, in Java, the dancer is a man of the court or even sometimes the prince himself, whereas in Bali, the dancer is usually a villager, whatever his caste. The dance here is in motion, firmly set to the speed of new musical styles and often spectacular in its violence of emotion, ardor, musical outburst and succession of gestures. A culture of excellence made possible by a priestly apprenticeship that can last for years, until the student is imbued with the spirit of each gesture, its significance in the dance as a whole and its eventual autonomy from the gamelan.
In 1971, the Balinese authorities decided to classify the country's dances into three categories:
The "sacred" wali, which can only be performed in ceremonies requiring purification: gabor, sanghyang dedari, rejang, baris gedé, sanghyang legong, berutuk, mendet, baris pendet.
Ceremonial" bebali dances, which accompany the ceremony but are not the ceremony itself: gambuh, topeng pajegan, wayang wong.
Secular balih-balihan dances, which can be sold to the general public (i.e. "tourists"): sendratari, legong, kebyar, janger, tari tani, parwa, arja, baris, panyembrana, topeng panca, prembon, jogèd, abuang kalah, gebyog, cakapung, godogan, taruna jaya).
Among these, a few are essential to know (and see), starting with the barong. Possibly the most powerful of Balinese mythological figures, the barong is a kind of lion, "Lord of the forest" and leader of the forces of good. During the performance - a purifying ceremony - he is usually represented by a hair-covered rattan frame and a magnificent lion mask, worn by two men whose mission is to make him dance. A complex and highly codified choreography follows, centered around impressive trances.
The legong, another must, is performed at public and private celebrations. It is by no means a sacred dance. Accompanied by gamelan and expressing the quintessence of femininity and grace, this highly codified dance imposes precise gestures on dancers dressed in green brocade fabrics embellished with gold, and on crowned heads. Unsurprisingly, it's the dance of choice for tourists, who flock to Ubud in particular.
Also accompanied by gamelan, baris is a martial dance imitating the movements of a warrior. Solo, the dance is called Tunggal baris, a fascinating technique whose movements have become the basis of all male Balinese dance. There are some twenty types of baris on the island, most of them collective. These bring together twelve to twenty dancers performing a number of fairly rudimentary movements, such as simulating a battle with their spears.
In the 1930s, a young dancer shook up the Balinese choreographic landscape with a new dance that combined the fierce virility of epic dances like the baris with the delicacy of the legong. The novelty lay in the fact that the dancer never stood up, moving only above the waist, accentuating the movements of the torso, arms and hands, and focusing attention on the expression on the dancer's face. This dance is called kebyar duduk, and was born as an echo of the rapid rhythms of the kebyar gong gamelan, forever inscribing Mario's name in Balinese history.
A contemporary of kebyar, kecak (pronounced " kechak ") appeared in the 1930s and remains one of the island's most emblematic choreographies. Based on the story of the Ramayana (the great Balinese epic poem), the kecak dance is also known as the "monkey song" and sees a chorus of around a hundred men, bare-chested and dressed in poleng cloth, sitting in concentric circles and singing " chak " percussively as they move their hands and arms. The words, gestures and onomatopoeia are intended to exorcise evil spirits. In the 1930s, German painter and musician Walter Spies became deeply interested in this ritual while living in Bali. He choreographed it to be performed before an audience of Western tourists. Today, this choreography is performed all over the island, notably at Pura Luhur in Uluwatu.
Another choreography created by Mario, oleg tambulilingan or the "bee dance" is often performed in a legong show. Initially a solo dance, the role of the bumblebee who flirts with the beautiful bee was later added. The dance brings out the coquettish characters and whims of the sweet young girl, while the man tries to seduce her by imitating the poses and gestures of the kebyar.
Dating back to the 16th century, gambuh is undoubtedly the oldest Balinese dance, although it's best placed in the repertoire of sung theater. Probably originating in Java, gambuh tells the story of the Javanese prince Panji, prince of Koripan, who wants to marry Raden Galuh, princess of Daha. This majestically beautiful sung and danced theater is not based on a narrative, but on the successive presentation of characters, preceded and accompanied by their servants. A complete gambuh performance involves around 25 actors and dancers and lasts from 7 to 9 hours, depending on the repertoire. Traditionally, gambuh was only danced by men, but now both men and women can perform it.
Also on the borderline of dance, rejang is classified as a ritual. Performed exclusively in a temple, it involves the entire female gender, regardless of age. All dancers line up in a very slow processional movement, taking two steps forward and one step back. Hand movements are performed low on the hips, with long, sweeping turns of the hand face.
The rejang can be seen at the odalan of Batuan's Pura Dalem. In fact, Batuan is where Bali's greatest dancers were born and still live. Otherwise, Ubud is one of Bali's great dance cities, and its Royal Palace hosts dance performances every evening. To the east of Ubud is the Pura Abianbase, where traditional dances are often performed by a dozen troupes competing in virtuosity. You'll see legong, barong kedingkling, wayang wong and the real cak, the ancestor of kecak. Also worth mentioning is the Aman Budaya Ou Art Center in Kuta, which offers a good synthesis of what contemporary Balinese artists can produce in the arts of dance, music and painting. Every year, between mid-June and mid-July, it hosts a major festival of classical and contemporary dance: the Bali artFestivasl.
The theater
Shared with Java, wayang kulit, shadow theater, is a great Balinese specialty. In this theater, the puppets - made of finely chiselled, colorful cowhide - are manipulated by the dalang (narrator) in front of a screen. The dalang lends his voice to all the characters, sings and conducts the gamelan orchestra that stands - usually - behind him. He is literally a one-man orchestra, at once composer, linguist, dancer, orator and, of course, actor, enhancing the text, events and epic situations. The wayang's performances take place during various ceremonies(yadnya) that are nonetheless important, such as weddings or tooth filing. Wayang is both entertainment and a concentrate of culture, puns, political aptness, mysticism and religious beliefs that delight Balinese young and old alike.
In Bali, there are five types of wayang: Ramayana, Parwa, Calonarang, Gambuh and Cupak. The wayang inspired by Ramayana and Parwa are more deeply rooted in the collective imagination than the last three. Shadow theater represents the world. It stages the principle of opposites and balance(Ruwa Bineda).
A nocturnal practice, wayang can also be performed in broad daylight. In this case, the figures are planted in the trunk of a banana or palm tree, and the puppets are manipulated in full view of the audience. Daytime wayang is called wayang lemah.
Some villages are renowned for the quality of their wayang kulit. Sukawati is a case in point. This village is one of Bali's artistic centers, and is home to many Brahmins who have perpetuated the art of dalang. Alternatively, in Denpasar, at the Jagatnatha temple(Pura Jagatnatha), you can sometimes attend a traditional leather puppet show in front of the entrance. Another example is Oka Kartini in Ubud, where a shadow puppet show is performed every Wednesday, Friday and Sunday at 8pm.
