1. Pemangku 2. Wrestling Monks (Putut Gelut) 3. Rubber Spike 4. Palaran/Bolero 5. Jarak Jauh 6. Walking/Falling 7. The Traps All compositions created/arranged by Nick Brooke. recorded/mixed partly by Julie Last at Coldbrook studios. Final mixes by Nick Brooke, Julie Last, and Jeff Cook. Mastering by Oscar Zambroni at 2nd Story Sound Artwork by Nindityo Adipurnomo. Cd image from Portrait of a Man Amsterdam Series Any profits from this CD will go towards Klenengan Pujangga Laras, a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting gamelan performances in Central Java. Please support them at www.gamelanbvg.com/pl Performers Wrestling Monks: Chris Miller, Nick Brooke, Gendèrs Palaran Bolero: Christina Campaniella, voice Jarak Jauh: Margaret Lancaster, Flute Walking Falling: Matthew Gold, percussion All other parts performed by Nick Brooke Pemangku "Pemangku" is Javanese for seat or lap. The "Pemangku bumi" (roughly, “the seat of the world”) is the court ruler of Central Java. "pemangku irama", or the cradle of time, is made up of five gong-like instruments--kenong, kethuk, kempyang, kempul, and gong--that form the rhythmic frame of the gamelan. Over this frame, the other elaborating instruments and singers inlay their florid counterpoint. Far from stable, the cradle of time rocks between tempi, sometimes gradually, sometimes at the signal of a drumstroke. As the cradle of time slows down, the elaborating instruments crowd into the empty spaces--making music with an odd sense of speeding up as it slows down. In Pemangku, I use the Central Javanese tune Puspawarna. Its structure--its cradle--is always there, sometimes only barely emerging from the kitchen sink of sound thrown in with it. A gamelan is not always a fixed set of instruments; I add sounds, among others, associated with a two year-stay in Yogyakarta. I take inspiration from Javanese composers who frequented toy shops and auto mechanics to find soundmakers to create their own personal "gamelan". Puspawarna, which means "the color of flowers", is the signature tune for the Mangkunegaran court in Surakarta; my computer "gamelan" is based on the tuning of a court gamelan there. This piece is dedicated to the memory of Puspawati, the dancer who first choreographed it. Created partly through Dan Trueman’s Cyclotron app. Sample From Nonesuch, Java: Court Gamelan, 1971 Puro Paku Alaman Wrestling Monks Wrestling Monks is based on a melody called "putut gelut" (roughly, "wrestling monks"), which is played on the Javanese gender. In this ornate fragment,the hands of the gender player cascade over each other in ultra-quick hocket, wrestling with each other without ever touching. Wrestling Monks is also about two harmonic systems, pelog and slendro, whose tunings wrangle with each other in sympathy and dissonance. The two players in Wrestling Monks sit side-saddle to the genders and move in slow choreography that push and pull like two magnets. Palaran (Bolero) Possibly the most popular musical form in gamelan, the palaran is based on Javanese poetry with subtle moral teachings. Pangkur is the most well- known palaran, based on a poem written by a 19th-century sultan. The poem extols subtlety and integrity, as well as the properties of being two-faced, “wrapping oneself in irony” and never expressing oneself directly. The music of this palaran—an elastic groove that stretches to fit the verse—also has a two-faced quality to it, as these moral teachings are accompanied by elok-elok, meaningless syllables that are somewhat flirtatious. In my piece I mix a translation of the Pangkur text with fragments of Ravel’s Bolero (another piece with a constant ostinato and a free melody). As the piece progresses the bolero and palaran fight for dominance, as do themes of seduction, instruction, and competition. I’m inspired by the impassive style of Ravel’s one-theme piece (Ravel once called Bolero his great work, but said that it was “without music”), and the ways that crosscutting the two works adds subtexts into the older Javanese poetry. Sample from Lokananta CD Aneka Palaran. Javanese translation by Nick Brooke with help from friends and the Atmopuro/Hatch translation of the Serat Wédhatama. Rubber Spike The rebab, or spike fiddle, is one of the more nasal intrusions into the Javanese gamelan orchestra. It’s the instrument that’s most often omitted by American composers for the gamelan. Yet its buzzing sound guides the rest of the orchestra melodically, and its near-constant playing stretches like spandex as the gamelan descends through different rhythmic levels, or irama. In this piece, I’ve stretched out a solo rebab introduction, or buka, until all the rebab’s scratches, bounces, and ricochets become amplified. This piece began as a collaboration with the ensemble Sekar Anu, and a version was premiered in 2004 in Bali. Walking/Falling Laurie Anderson once said that walking is a form of falling where we catch ourselves at every step. Javanese gamelan also walks a fine line between mistake and finesse. All 20+ instruments of the gamelan orchestra play roughly the same melody, elaborating with often simple 1-2 oom-pah alternations. But these walking patterns constantly speed up and slow down, and never quite synch up. As the orchestra switches rhythmic speeds (there are four irama in gamelan), players use their own rubato; the result can sound like a stuttered cacophony. Walking/Falling uses a melodic chestnut of the repertoire, Ladrang Wilujeng, which begins 2-1-2-6 2-1-2-3. My piece takes this tune through increasing spirals, on a homebuilt set of hubcaps, pans, dinner gongs, and six bonang pots, all tuned to the Javanese systems pelog and slendro. Thanks to Matthew Gold for revitalizing this piece, originally a ZOOM Series commission for Dan Druckman/Merkin Hall. Jarak Jauh Jarak Jauh is inspired by the saluang tradition of West Sumatra, in which two flutes play a single melody in close unison. Subtle differences in each saluang’s tuning and rhythm create a shimmering filigree. In Jarak Jauh, Margaret Lancaster plays against a recorded doppelganger of herself, which begins in distant canon. Slowly, the flutes become one. Sumatran saluangs also enter the mix, further blurring the distinction between live musician and recording. The piece is influenced by the keening, chromatic tradition of some Western Sumatran music, in which the singer often bemoans the fact that one’s “other half” is missing or distant. In the matrilineal culture of West Sumatra, men have tended to “merantau”, or travel far away in search of a livelihood, leaving the women to sing about their absence. “Jarak jauh” means long distance. The Traps “The Traps” was a collaboration commissioned by New Music USA for Mugiyono Kasido and Talujon percussion. This piece emerged from material developed in high-energy improvisations between Mugiyono and Nick in Central Java in 2013. The work explores frenetic addictions to change and the culture of the “cut”. Mugiyono writes about the work: “Orang takut untuk berhenti, waktu selalu berjalan dan kehidupan tidak bisa ditebak” (“People shudder to stop, time just passes, and life is unguessable”). For the work, Nick constructed attaché case gamelans, an orchestra in a box, each tuned to one of the 6 modalities of central Javanese gamelan. Each modality is associated with a time of day, and as the piece progresses, the different tonalities accumulate. The orchestration is inspired by the “traps”, boxes used for silent film sound effects, as well as the Javanese dhalang tradition, where knockers held by hands and toes create a makeshift foley. Though Javanese gamelanis only somewhat audible here, the piece takes a cue from the sampak, the fastest structure in gamelan, used for fight scenes in the shadow puppet plays. In tempo with Mugiyono’s breakneck shifts, the music is built on gestures that repeat compulsively, break, then re-form.