Relationships of Musical and Cultural Contrasts in Java and Bali

JAVA AND BALI SHARE MANY BASIC MUSIC-STYLE ELEMENTS. The predominant instruments in both traditions are struck metal idiophones and idiophone sets, large ensemble performance is the ideal, and solo instrument traditions are rare. The same kind of tuning systems are found in both areas. Musical form is delineated by colotomic or interpunctuating instruments (gongs) while agogic instruments( drums) control the kinetics of flow; and the prevailing texture is that created by several musical levels, or strata, elaborating or abstracting a basic melody. Music is primarily an adjunct to ritual, dance-drama, or puppetry, the literature of which derives from the Hindu epics Mahabharata and Ramayana. Despite these shared characteristics, the two music styles give decidedly differing impressions. Javanese music is refined, controlled, serene, intellectual, '' ... each note is so soft, so tender, so vaguely thrilling, so changing-bur ah! how compelling, how bitterly beautiful: that is no tinkling of glass, of copper, or wood; it is the voices of men's souls that speak to me ... " {Kartini 1964:50) Balinese music, on the other hand, is dynamic, lively, full of contrast and excitement, with " ... a beauty that depends upon form and pattern and a vigour that springs from a rhythmid vitality both primitive and joyous." (DeZoute 1939:6) The Javanese gender, a set of thin bronze keys suspended over tuned bamboo resonators, is struck with a round padded beater, producing a mellow sound of long duration; by way of contrast, the Balinese gender is struck with a hard wood beater, and is played in pairs tuned so as to create audible beats, producing a bright and shimmering sound. The instrument used to give signals and underline dance rhythms in Java is a woodblock ( keprak); the same function in Bali is realized by a pair of small cymbals ( tjeng-tjeng); again the dull-bright contrast. The Javanese bonang family (like the Filipino kulintang) has two Balinese counterparts, the trompong and the rejong. The trompong, like the bonang, is played by one man, and is relatively soft. Recently, however, the trompong was used by the famous dancer Mario as a dance-prop in his popular kebyar dance, and has therefore declined sharply in musical significance. The rejong, however, is played by four men, and