This book is an examination of the music of the Balinese gendér wayang, the quartet of metallophones - gendér - that accompanies the Balinese shadow puppet play - wayang kulit. The book focuses on processes of musical variation, the main means of creating new music in this genre, and the implications of these processes for the social and historical study of Balinese music, musical aesthetics, concepts of creativity and compositional methods. Dr Nick Gray tackles a number of core ethnomusicological concerns in a new way, including the relationship between composition and improvisation, and also highlights issues specific to Balinese music, including the importance of flexibility in performance, an aspect that has been largely ignored by scholars. Gray thus breaks new ground both in the study of issues relating to improvisation and composition and in Balinese music studies.

This critical edition is at once a memorial to Bapak I Wayan Loceng following his passing in October, 2006, and a tribute to his great musical genius. This edition documents nine compositions from the esteemed Balinese gender wayang or shadow play repertoire. The music documented derives from the musical mastery of Bapak I Wayan Loceng (1926–2006), arguably the most renowned gender wayang expert in Bali, who lived in the village of Sukawati. This edition places the music within a historical, cultural, and biographical context and introduces a broad theoretical framework that contains a new definition for the discipline of ethnomusicology, and substantial discussion of the genres of musical biography, musical ethnography, and ethnomusicology of the individual. This edition will introduce the reader to pertinent scholarly perspectives, offer biographical information pertaining to Bapak I Wayan Loceng, delineate the cultural concepts and contexts for performance and background of the shadow play tradition in Bali, and clarify key aspects of the music itself.

While many Western scholars have discussed the technical aspects of Balinese music or the traditional contexts for performance, little has been written in Western languages about Balinese discourses on their music. This dissertation seeks to understand the experience of music in Bali according to Balinese voices through an analysis of oral and written dialogues on music, mainly by musicians and dalangs (shadow play puppeteers) from the village of Sukawati, scholars, teachers, administrators and students from the Indonesian College of the Arts (STSI) in the City of Denpasar. The study examines the influence of modernization on the traditional arts and their role in society. A concentration on Balinese discourses enables individual performers and scholars to represent themselves to a greater extent than previously seen in ethnomusicological scholarship, making this study more of a critical discussion among equals than a Western interpretation of 'others'. This approach permits a rare view into contemporary Balinese conceptions and practices of music.

Preface I have been teaching the history of performing arts and Javanese dance, Yogyakarta style, for twenty years, and there have always been two features of this history that made me think and rethink: (1) wayang wong was never performed outside the palace’s walls until the first quarter of the twentieth century, becase it was considered a pusaka (sacred heiloom): and (2) wayang wong performances were always put on the Tratag Bangsal Kĕncana stage and started at dawn. Numerous ex-wayang wong dancers of the Yogyakarta court gave me the same answers to my questions about hese facts. They said that: (1) wayang wong was a pusaka because it was created by Sultan Hamĕngkubuwana I; and (2) wayang wong performances we put on stage at the dawn of the day because it was karsa-Dalĕm, the Sultan’s will. In my opinion, there must be something particularly significant behind the creation of wayang wong, because the Surakarta court never performed this dance genre, and I realized that to obtain satisfactory answers to these questions I would have to do extensive research on this subject. In August, 1977, when I participated in the World Music Congress at Berkeley, I met Professor Judith Becker. On onve occasion I taled with her concerning the possibility of my pursuin a Ph.D. degree at the University of Michigan with a dissertation topic, “Wayang Wong”. She responded wholeheartedly and, without any delay, made a long distance call to her husband, Professor Alton L. Becker. Both of them became my teachers, advisors and co-chairmen. After my return from Berkeley I started to do research on some aspects of wayang wong. In 1980 I began my course work in Southeast Asian Studies at the University of Michigan emphasizing three areas of study: (1) Southeast Asian Performance Traditions; (2) Southeast Asian History; and (3) Southeast Asian Literature. With the assistance of the Asian Cultural Council I continued my research at the Asia Society and the Library of Performing Arts in New York. There I scrutinized wayang wong films, especially the one of the lakon Mintaraga made by Mr. Tassilo Adam in 1926. Although the film is very choppy, it gave me priceless information about he magnificent production and also about the large audience of kawula-Dalĕm, the Sultan’s subjects. Who witnessed the perfor-mance. With the assistance of the Asian Cultural Council, the Ford Foundation and the University of Michigan I returned to Java during the summer of 1981 to continue by research at the Yogya-karta court libraries. The Sanabudaya Museum, and to interview numerous ex-wayang wong dancers. From these activities the first evidence for my hypothesis emerged, i.e., that wayang wong was a state ritual and not just a mere entertainment in the Yogyakarta court. By reading numerous wayang wong texts –Sĕrat Kandha and Sĕrat Pocapan, all in Javanese handwriting--, manuscripts about he Yogyakarta’s pusakas, and by analysing the conception of kingship of Mataram, I obtainded enough data to confirm my hypothesis further. It became apparent to me that wayang wong was created by Sultan Hamĕngkubuwana I in the late 1970’s as a revival of the Old javanese wayang wang. Photographs play a significant role in this work, since visual information about this dance drama gives us a clear image of numerous scenes. With the exception of figures nos. 1317, 69 and 84 all the photographs and pictures are from my own collection and drawing. Photographs are, nevertheless, motionless shots of dance movement and, therefore, cannot distinguish the movements of one character from another. Hence I have felt it necessary to put the basic movements of the twenty-one wayang wong types of character in Labanotation.

In Radical Traditions, author Andrew Clay McGraw shows how music kontemporer embodies the tensions between culture as represented and lived. Through a highly interdisciplinary approach this book presents an all-encompassing social and musical history of musik kontemporer.

The Balinese gamelan, with its shimmering tones, breathless pace, and compelling musical language, has long captivated musicians, composers, artists, and travelers. Here, Michael Tenzer offers a comprehensive and durable study of this sophisticated musical tradition, focusing on the preeminent twentieth-century genre, gamelan gong kebyar. Combining the tools of the anthropologist, composer, music theorist, and performer, Tenzer moves fluidly between ethnography and technical discussions of musical composition and structure. In an approach as intricate as one might expect in studies of Western classical music, Tenzer's rigorous application of music theory and analysis to a non-Western orchestral genre is wholly original. Illustrated throughout, the book also includes nearly 100 pages of musical transcription (in Western notation) that correlate with 55 separate tracks compiled on two accompanying compact discs. The most ambitious work on gamelan since Colin McPhee's classic Music in Bali, this book will interest musicians of all kinds and anyone interested in the art and culture of Southeast Asia, Indonesia, and Bali.