Java | Gamelan Calung Banyumasan | Ricik-ricik inovasi

This videoclip features a performance of gamelan calung, a musical ensemble from the Banyumas district, on the border between Central and West Java (Sunda).
In 2024, celebrating the 75th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Italy and Indonesia, the Intercultural Institute of Comparative Music Studies (IISMC) invited to Venice a group of ten artists from Banyumas, a region renowned for its significant artistic heritage, which revolves around bamboo music culture. Recognized music and dance experts with rich and diverse backgrounds from art centers, academic institutions and professional troupes engaged in the preservation, transmission and dissemination of Banyumas performing arts are involved in the project.
In the notes for the concert programme, Daniele Zappatore writes that gamelan calung are small ensembles introduced in the Banyumas area in the early decades of the last century. The ensemble includes bamboo idiophones (calung barung and penerus, dendhem, kethuk-kenong), drums (kendhang ciblon and ketipung) and an aerophone with a gong function (gong sebul). The vocal component plays an important role with both sindhenan (female solo singing) and senggakan/ gerongan (male chorus). Calung music is characterized by sustained performance tempi, dense rhythmic interlacements, sudden dynamic changes, and intense interplay between vocal and instrumental parts. Such elements confer to it a bright and very lively character.
The repertoire consists primarily of gendhing banyumasan, orchestral pieces of local tradition, usually passed down orally. These pieces, sung in the regional dialect, are about love or refer to agricultural life, and recount situations of rural everyday life through references to natural elements, riddles, and puns. In addition, the repertoire includes reworkings of 'pop' songs and, most importantly, new creations by contemporary composers. In its constantly developing path - also linked to the emergence of new cosmopolitan creativity - calung music continues to convey the sense of belonging, ethical values and collective memory of Banyumas communities, becoming an emblem of local cultural heritage.
The video features a performance of a composition by Maestro Darno, based on the traditional piece bearing the same name, one of the best known in the local repertoire. Darno explains that it is a piece with a wetanan ('oriental') character, markedly influenced by the elaborate style of Central- Javanese classical music and characterized by a bipartite melody (question and answer) cyclically iterated. Darno revisited this piece in 2001 in Surakarta, in collaboration with the art collective Pring Sedhapur using the vocal line as the primary element, ornamenting it with the traditional elaborative techniques of instrumental interlocking. In the faster part of the piece the singing is performed chorally, in unison, while in the slower part it takes the form of a dialogue - at times very tight - between the female voice and the chorus of instrumentalists. The ricik-ricik melody is here dismembered, constantly emerging and disappearing. It is accompanied by percussive patterns of different origins (Bali, Makassar), in an extremely dynamic blend of sound elements, rooted in tradition and at the same time open to hybridization and experimental innovation. The lyrics of the song use expressions from rural everyday life and references to the natural world to invite reflection on the theme of love and the benefits of living a simple existence away from earthly needs and vices.
The performance, curated by Daniele Zappatore, was organized by the Intercultural Institute for Comparative Music Studies of the Fondazione Giorgio Cini in collaboration with the Benedetto Marcello Conservatory of Music in Venice, the Indonesian Embassy in Rome and the Indonesian Ministry of Education, Culture, Research and Technology (Danaindonesiana Funding Program).
Fondazione Giorgio Cini, Venice, 22 May 2024
The ensemble: Yusmanto (coordinator), kethuk-kenong (Sanggar Seni Sekar Shanty); Darno (artistic director and composer), calung (Institut Seni Indonesia di Surakarta); Muriah Budiarti, sindhen (Institut Seni Indonesia di Surakarta); Hadi Sumarto Sukendar (instrument maker), kendhang, gong sebul (Troupe Langen Budaya); Sarmin, calung (Troupe Langen Budaya); Eko Kuntowibowo, dendhem (Oemah Gamelan / SMK Negeri 3 Banyumas); Rumpoko Setyo Aji, kendhang, gong sebul (SMK Negeri 3 Banyumas); Cipto Subroto (dancer and musician), gerong (Universitas Jenderal Soerdiman Purwokerto).
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Video: Marco Lutzu, Daniele Zappatore, Gianluca Chelini, Costantino Vecchi
Editing: Daniele Zappatore
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