The mystery and beauty of traditional Balinese music and dance will be presented at Ohio State in a month-long collection of special demonstrations, workshops and performances.
The Gamelan Wrhatnala, from Boyds, Md., will be holding a series of performances and classes, highlighting time-honored Indonesian art forms until May 15 at various locations across campus.
“It’s great that this is being offered here because practicing Gamelan is very expensive,” said Charles Atkinson, professor in the School of Music. “It’s not something that students can usually just pluck down the money for to play.”
Founder and director of Gamelan Wrhatnala, I Gusti Supartha Agung Ngurah Supartha, will be residing on campus throughout the month to instruct the workshops.
A member of the Balinese royal family, born in the Court of Puri Agung Buluh Kenana, Supartha has toured the world several times as a cultural ambassador for his country. He is considered a master Balinese dancer and musician, as well as choreographer, composer and shadow puppeteer. His company has traveled throughout the United States, performing at several universities and such prominent cultural institutions as the Kennedy Center, the Smithsonian Institute and the Library of Congress.
First invited to OSU in 1998, the Gamelan Wrhatnala was one of the featured groups in “Sounds and Sensibility: Music, Body, Culture,” a year-long series of special lectures and concerts held in honor of the opening of the OSU program in ethnomusicology.
This year, the department of ethnomusicology has the financial means to hold actual classes emphasizing the customs and music-related practices of cultural groups worldwide, said Dr. Margarita Mazo, professor of Russian music and ethnomusicology in the School of Music.
Derived from the ancient Balinese root “gambel,” meaning to play musically, the contemporary word “gamelan” has broadened to encompass all of Indonesian music as its own style.
Comprised mostly of instruments such as gongs, chimes, bells, cymbals, bronze kettles, hand-held drums and crude xylophones, Gamelan music groups are not always percussion-dependent. They also can be extended to include bamboo flutes, reed horns, zithers, spiked fiddles and various other bowed string instruments.
The eight-member Gamelan Wrhatnala group also features instruments referred to in their native tongue, such as the gong kebyar, gender wayang, joged bumbung, gong suling, tektekan, genggong and godogan.
Opening their month-long residency with a free outdoor concert, Balinese dancers, musicians, actors and the Gamelan Wrhatnala orchestra dazzled passersby on the Oval Monday. An extended keynote concert was held Monday evening in Sullivant Hall Theatre, as well.
Following a ceremonial procession, the dancers, dressed in elaborate and brightly-colored Balinese garb, proceeded to conduct a spectacular, hour-long show of ritualistic and feverish dance moves accompanied by the rich and exotic sound of the Gamelan orchestra.
A farewell concert is scheduled to take place at 8 p.m. on May 15 at Sullivant Hall Theatre, 1813 N. High St. It will feature the Gamelan Wrhatnala as well as OSU students taking the corresponding classes. It will be free to the public.
Workshops and special consultations focusing on Balinese Gamelan music and dance will be held on Mondays and Fridays at 2 p.m. in Hughes Hall room 213.
