The Kyai Fatahillah Ensemble

Improvisational elements are highly valued in West Javanese music. Though there are hardly any village orchestras in existence today, renowned institutions have taken their place and are training a rising generation of professional talent. This ensemble, invited specially to Berlin for this evening, recruits young musicians from one of today’s most thriving centres for New Music, the UPI Teacher Training University. Traditional and contemporary pieces will be performed. Iwan Gunawan, musical director of the ensemble and himself a composer, explores new rhythmic methods, including computer sounds, not least as a reaction to minimal music.

The Evening’s Compositions

Keliningan (Trad. Wayang Golek, arr. Iwan Gunawan )

“Keliningan” is the Sundanese name for a style that is used for performing particular songs or puppet shows, either during intermissions or to clarify certain plot developments. The individual melodies are often performed as a medley, although the tempi often vary considerably. The actual length of the performance depends on signals givens by the puppeteers.

The piece Keliningan is comprised of five parts, including a prelude and a typical conclusion. A distinctive feature in this case is the independent motion and structure of the melody played by the largest and deepest of the knobbed gongs.

Kulu-Kulu 2004 ( Iwan Gunawan , 2004)

This piece goes back to a composition of the same name from 1997 for two differently tuned gamelan sets (a difference of approximately a semitone). The original work was characterised primarily by a unique and aggressive sound that emphasised the percussive nature of the piece. In the new version presented here, the composer has significantly increased its rhythmic complexity. Additive and subtractive methods, vaguely reminiscent of Philip Glass, are employed by the composer in an individualistic fashion, thus superimposing a macrostructural organisation on top of microstructural rows.

Ligar ( Uus Kusnadi , 2005)

Ligar was written for two “rebabs” (two-stringed instruments without a fingerboard) and four “sulings” (recorders) of varying sizes. The title refers to a musical technique on the rebab, in which both open strings sound at the same time. The resulting interval is most accurately described as a fourth and serves as the basis for further harmonic experiments founded on Sundanese tuning systems. Here, the rebabs and sulings are employed in an innovative fashion, eschewing traditional and purely melodic ways of playing.

Nyurup ( Iwan Gunawan , 2005)

The word “nyurup” stands for something that is harmonious, in-tune or balanced. Seen from a conventional point of view, however, the sounds chosen for this piece are precisely the opposite. Three sulings sound together, each in a different pitch, thus building chords and other special textures. The knobbed gongs are arranged in such a way as to allow for the production of unusual constellations of sound, even though the musicians play their instruments in an entirely conventional manner.

GAME-Land ( Slamet A. Sjukur , 2005)

The title is a play on words that reveals a bit about the composer and his approach: the word “gamelan” hides in the letters of “GAME-Land”. In this piece, Sjukur works with a number of precisely, as well as graphically, notated levels of sound. In a playful manner, these continuously oscillate between amorphous noises and clearly defined musical scales. The work is dedicated to the Tsunami victims and was written in memory of the Dutch composer Ton de Leeuw, who died ten years ago and was one of the first Western composers to write for gamelan ensembles.

Hujan Munggaran ( Mang Koko , 1966)

This piece by one of the most famous innovators in Sundanese music, Mang Koko, marks a clear departure from the traditional music that came before it. Hujan Munggaran was considered a “kreasi baru”, or “new creation” in 1966. The piece is about longing for rain, or “hujan”, after months of drought. As the rain finally did come, the people greeted it with great joy, for their crops had been saved.

Racikan ( Gungun Gunarsah , 2002/2005)

The Sundanese word “racikan” captures in just one word the phrase “fruit of one’s labour” and is most often used in connection with the preparation of a culinary dish. “The origin of this piece lies in an everyday situation of collective gamelan playing during our studies,” says the composer Gungun Gunarsah. “When the class was officially let out, we would often sit with our instruments and improvise freely in search of new sounds. Originally, it was only the specific musical situations arising from spontaneous improvisation that led to this piece. In the new version presented here, however, I have emphasised the juxtaposition of two tuning systems. This ties the piece together thematically. In the process, the piece thus develops two different methods of playing: with the vertical combination of both tuning systems, I attempt to place in the foreground a sort of harmonics characterised by typically gamelan sound. With the linear and interconnected use of both tuning systems, however, I am concerned more with extending the melodic characteristics of the piece with regard to the intervals.”

Fonem ( Iwan Gunawan 2005)

This song was written for soprano, gamelan ensemble and computer-processed sounds. The underlying concept is based on the use of sounds that correspond to syllables of words in foreign languages. Through this “desemanticisation” of the syllables, our perception turns more to the musical sound, as opposed to the words or syllables we would normally hear. Furthermore, the composer is interested in a special communication between the voice and instrument, thus creating a shared texture.

Iwan Gunawan: Kulu-Kulu 2004 (1997/2004)

Trad. W. Golek (arr. I. Gunawan): Keliningan

Uus Kusnadi: Ligar (2005)

Iwan Gunawan: Nyurup (2005)

INTERVAL

Slamet A. Sjukur: Game-Land (2005)

Mang Koko/arr. I. Gunawan “Hujan Munggaran”

Gungun Gunarsah: Racikan (2005)

Iwan Gunawan: Fonem (2005)

Musical director: Iwan Gunawan

Composers: Iwan Gunawan, GunGun Gunarsah, Kusnadi (Bandung)

Guest composer: Slamet Abdul Sjukur (Jakarta)

Within the framework of the Asia-Pacific Weeks, which are supported by the Stiftung Deutsche Klassenlotterie Berlin (DKLB).