After school on Monday I had a karawitan lesson with Pak Haryo, the SMKI vice principle. It was very interesting, but like my dance classes, also left me feeling intimidated by everything I still have to learn about gamelan. I found out there are two different scales in gamelan- slendro and pelog. So, there are actually two kinds of each instrument in the gamelan set, one for playing slendro, and the other for peloq. So far I have been practicing on the bonang, which is the low coffee table instrument with the acorn pots all in a row, suspended by strings. The slendro bonang is easier to play, because it only has two rows of 6 pots, while the pelog bonang has two rows of 7 pots.
An example of the sheet music we use in school looks like this:
Ketawang Madumurti Laras Pelog Pathet Barang
Umpak
7 5 6 7 3 5 3 2
5 3 2 7 3 2 7 6
Ngelik
7 7 . 7 6 6 7 2
6 7 2 3 6 5 3 2
6 7 3 2 6 3 2 7
5 5 6 5 7 6 5 3
6 7 3 2 6 3 2 7
3 5 3 2 3 7 5 6
Each number is a different note (pelog uses 7, or 'pi' in Javanese, while slendro only goes until 6 'nem') and with the bonang you play each set of two notes twice (like above would go- 7575 6767, etc). There are different variations for the bonang, too, where you play different notes whenever there are certain pairs grouped together. I also newly learned that there are two tempos for the bonang. Irama I (tempo I) is played like I just described above, but in Irama II the pattern is syncopated and you play each pair of notes four times, instead of two. Irama II is used during the singing sections of the song, so it is much slower than the first tempo and the sarongs play quietly (otherwise the sarongs are usually the dominant sound). What I find most interesting is the role of the drum in gamelan. In order to switch the whole gamelan from playing Irama I to Irama II, there is a certain drum sequence (that everyone is supposed to recognize- I still can't think about the drum sounds and my own sounds at the same time, though) which signals everyone to switch.
As I have learned so far in class, there are four different sounds when playing the drums. These are pronounced tak, ket, thung, and dhang. I haven't tackled playing this instrument yet, but I hope to learn sometime during my exchange because it seems like useful knowledge. Whenever there are dance sequences which are difficult to time with the music (like head and arm movements) the teachers and students at SMKI always recite the drum sounds- ket tak ket tak ket thung dhang (this is the only sequence I can remember, from my tari gagah routine)- to help the dancers get it right. And the drum leads the gamelan ensemble, too, so it would be a good skill for me to learn.
My poor attempts at explaining gamelan certainly don't do it justice- you have to hear it in order to appreciate the complexity, I think. However impossible it seems that I'll ever understand it all, I'm still enjoying my gamelan lessons immensely. There's always something new to learn! Another addition to my to-do list here: bahasa Jawa. I've come to realize that no one uses straight Indonesian except when they are talking with me- otherwise it's a mix of Javanese and Indonesian. Frustrating. I feel like I'm almost getting the hang of the language here, but now there's a whole other language to learn, and I don't even have a head start. Javanese is much more difficult than Indonesian. There are three different levels (each has a different vocabulary), and the level you speak depends on the age of the person you're talking to (if you are speaking with your parents or another elder, you use a higher level than if you were speaking to your friends or someone younger than you). Lately in my bahasa Jawa class we've been singing songs in Jawa kromo (the highest level in Javanese). I asked a few times what the translation to Indonesian was, but everyone said that it was "odd language" and they didn't know. Apparently, only the first level of Javanese is used on a daily basis (according to my bahasa Indonesia teacher) and many don't know the upper levels. It seems odd that students are required to memorize lyrics/words that they don't know the meaning of- but I guess it's a means of keeping Jawa kromo alive. I was speaking with the husband of a Yogya Tugu Rotarian earlier today, and he said that one year is not enough to learn Javanese (crap...), and that if a foreigner wants to really learn it they should live in a rural village where Javanese is used almost exclusively, as opposed to in the city.
Today I spent a little bit of time in a village outside of Yogya (and indeed, after I introduced myself I was almost always asked "Sudah bisa bahasa Jawa?" Can you speak Javanese? "Belum." Not yet...) There was a social service event put on by the Yogya Tugu Rotaractors, where they donated goods to a village in need, and I was allowed to tag along.
We started off the day by packing plastic bags with rice, noodles, cooking oil, towels, and undergarments. There were over 150 bags when we finished (and the towels all had the Gucci monogram on them. Fake brand name products are popular here). Then we packed everything in two vans and took an hour and a half drive outside of Yogya.
At the village we set up a clinic in one of the buildings where three volunteer doctors performed basic check-ups for anyone who wanted one (it ended up being over 200 people), and there was also a huge assortment of medications (supplied by Yogya Tugu Rotary club) which were distributed accordingly to villagers in need.
There was also a used clothing sale going on at the same time as the clinic- each article
was priced at 1000 rupiah (6 cents US).
This is an unrelated picture- but I just figured out (after three months of living here) that I can see the Merapi volcano from the front of my house. About a year ago, Merapi erupted and the maid told me it 'rained gray' all over the neighborhood from the ashes.
There hasn't been much going on the past two weeks, but time is still flying by (the reason why I haven't posted a blog entry in awhile). It's almost December already! Hard to believe. The other Yogya inbounds and I have plans to make Christmas cookies near the end of next month, but we have yet to find an oven (all of our host families have them, but none are in working condition) and real butter to bake with. Until then, I plan on buckling down in school and trying to make some progress on everything that I have to learn here- dance, karawitan, bahasa Jawa, dan lain-lain. Semoga sukses. Lastly, a belated tribute to the recent American holdiay: I am very thankful to be here, in Indonesia, and thankful that I get to attend SMKI. Cultural exchanges aren't always a walk in the park, but I feel incredibly lucky that I'm able to take part in this challenge. I never thought I'd be learning so much! I am anxious to see what the next 8 months will bring, and hopefully I won't forget to blog :) Selamat hari berterima kasih! Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
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