“The music of the North Balinese shadow play; the dramatic function of
gender wayang in Tejakula”
The Dutch scholar Henrice Vonck has concentrated on the very different gender wayang tradition of North Bali, in the village of Tejakula (Vonck 1995 and 1997). Vonck notes that “names, melodies and the playing style of the compositions were different” from in the south (1995:146).
Vonck’s 1995 article shows how wayang stories are expressed as a “living text” through repeated performances, made up of the three threads of words, sung and spoken, puppet movements, and the accompanying gender
music (ibid.:145). She describes two categories of gender composition: the first illustrates the main action of the standard scenes, which vary in mood from coarse (keras) to neutral (sedeng) and refined (halus) or sweet (manis), while the second musically illustrates the characters of the particular puppets in the scenes, again ranging from coarse, through neutral to refined (ibid.:145).39
Vonck’s description of the three interactive “threads” of the performance (words, images and music), of the relationship between pitch level, aesthetic
on
I feel Vonck is right to stress this tripartite aesthetic division as the binary quality of Balinese categorisation has generally been over-stressed.
character (from manis to keras) and the developed use of character pieces will be omitted here as I describe them below in relation to her thesis,
“Manis and keras in image, word and music of wayang kulit in Tejakula,
North Bali”
Vonck’s 1997 thesis puts forward two contradictory theories surrounding the historical basis for the stylistic differences between North and South Bali (ibid.:29). In the first, North Bali is regarded as having more direct and closer contact with Java and thus more similarities with Javanese wayang. The second theory states that wayang was brought to North Bali from the south. The latter reflects the view that northern style is a "defective” version of southern, echoed by McPhee (1936:32). Vonck’s Tejakula informants agree that their style is unique, though not “defective” (1997:29). North Balinese wayang is not appreciated in the south: it is seldom performed there so audiences are not acquainted with the dalangs’ style or music and it fails to communicate meaning (ibid.:29). Vonck describes how her teacher, Made Sujana has forbidden the modernisation of gender wayang pieces in Tejakula, to preserve the unique repertoire, and other informants describe the Tejakala gender tradition as a very conservative one (ibid.:33).
The following are the main northern characteristics not found in the south: only two instruments are used, there is only one daiang’s assistant and the mallets are shorter and lighter, leading to a playing technique closer to Javanese gender style. The right mallet is harder than the left, giving it
prominence and a strong attack, while the left-hand melody hums more softly. A dish is used for a lamp instead of the southern bowl, while the way the lamp is hung, the attachment of the banana trunk and the open staging are similar to Java. The manipulation of the kayon puppet at the beginning of the play is closer to Java than to South Bali, being less elaborate and “more authentic" according to Vonck’s informants (ibid.:29-30).
Vonck discusses wayang kulit as a “living text” and, after describing the literary sources of the shadow play, explains what she calls the “three threads” of word, image and music, which go to make up a complete performance. Vonck expresses diagrammatically the relationship between senders (those
performing the threads of image, word and music), the synthesis of these threads, and the receivers (the audience) (ibid.:40). I feel however, that this model does not sufficiently express the multivalent relationships of dialogue between dalang and musicians, between the musicians themselves, or the feedback from the audience to the performers.
Vonck describes how cosmological concepts such as buana
agung/buana alit (macrocosm and microcosm), rwa bhineda (bipartition) and tri murti (an example of tripartition) are reflected in the staging of wayang kulit (ibid.:44-7): “the whole cosmos is projected on the microcosmic screen, so that people can watch and learn from it” (ibid.:46-7). Like Gold (1998), she links the opening “Pemungkah” with the creation of the “wayang world” (1997:49). Vonck stresses that the duality inherent in wayang symbolism should be understood as relative and no hierarchy is intended (ibid.:62).
Vonck examines how key cosmological concepts are reflected in the shape, colouring and character of the various puppets (ibid.:67—80). Tripartition is reflected in the assortment of characters according to upper, middle and lower worlds, while concepts of duality are reflected in the division of character- types into manis and keras, with the connecting classification of sedeng. Vonck shows how the subtler combinations of these three basic character types are reflected in the shape, eye-type and colour of each puppet. Such combinations include: manis outside with manis, keras or sedeng inside, sedeng outside with sedeng, keras or manis inside, keras outside with keras, sedeng or manis inside.
Vonck then looks at the subtext of word, both spoken and sung (ibid.:81- 104). She examines the hierarchy inherent in the use of Old Javanese and Balinese, and the contrasting keras and manis styles of speech as well as the voices of the clowns. She examines the use of sung extracts of kekawin (Old Javanese epic poetry) in the wayang, which seem to be used more frequently than in the south. In the south, such extracts are frequently termed bebaturan, and are given a different melodic contour to the one they usually have when sung as literature outside wayang, whereas in Tejakula it seems that the reng (melodic contour) of the kekawin is maintained.
Vonck then studies how the melodic contours and pitch emphases of various reng used for different wirama (different poetic metres of kekawin)
correlate with different wayang characters. She finds a clear linkage between the distinctive musical qualities of ambitus, melodic contour, dominant pitches and voice quality and subtle gradations along the line from the most manis (for instance “Wirat”) through sedeng to keras (for instance “Sragdhara”). Thus, the use of pitch to highlight subtle gradations of character is similar to the use of visual cues she describes in the previous chapter (ibid.: 104).
Vonck then applies this analyis to the content of the “subtext music” (ibid.:105-60). She studies the relationship between music, wayang puppets and their actions, classifying the pieces according to their use at points of entry, meeting, departure, and for scenes of sadness, love or war (ibid.:108-11). She then analyses this relationship in categories of pieces from manis to keras. She starts with the most manis in style, such as “Lor-loran” for “female heavenly beings and refined female Pandawas”, the equivalent of the southern “Rebong” (ibid.;119).
The piece “Sronca” is manis, but also sums up the characteristic of sadness, like the South Balinese “Mesem” . Like “Lor-loran”, it contains both a cenik (high register) section and a lower register one (gede). The piece “Sikandi”, used for the entry of Kresna, also exhibits very halus features
(ibid.:120-7). Vonck highlights the use of gebugan wayah (“old strokes”) in the playing of this and other halus pieces, as opposed to the simpler and easier gebugan nguda (“young strokes”). The former feature intricate embellishments and “the coordination between the two parts and the resulting chords is no longer synchronic, but syncopated” (ibid.:125).40 Vonck points out subtle
expressive differences within these halus-sty\e pieces: in “Sikandi”, the music is less focused and songlike than in “Lor-loran” and there are no descending fifths, “so no-one is moved to tears” (ibid.:127).
Vonck then looks at pieces that can be placed “from halus to sedeng in music and wayang type" (ibid.: 128-32). These pieces often emphasise the middle range of the register, which is neither halus nor keras, or alternate between high and low. A description then follows of the characteristic galak- manis (strong outer appearance with a refined inner nature) (ibid.: 132-8), which
40 Interestingly, when I once played a cassette of gender wayang from Tejakula to Loceng, who was not familiar with north Balinese genc/er style, he interpreted the disjunction of the parts between the gender in such pieces as poor ensemble playing (Loceng, personal
likewise combines halus and keras musical features, for instance “Glagah Tunon”. After this, Vonck explores compositions in which the keras elements take over, starting with pieces that can be classified as keras-manis, for instance “Caak Mrengang” and “Rundah Mrawa”(ibid.: 138-48). Then she describes pieces which can be categorised as keras, for the evil Korawa characters, such as”Sekar Sungsang Korawa”, “Angkatan Burisrawa” and “Batel” (ibid.:148-52), and finally kasar (even more coarse than keras) for instance “Bapang” (ibid.: 152-5).
Bafe/ostinati based on the two lowest notes of the gender are used “to accompany fights of the keras type wayang puppets” (ibid.: 150). The lowest to fourth pitch levels upon which batel can be based are classed as keras,
keraslsedeng, sedeng/manis and manis and accompany such character types respectively (ibid.:150). Tejakula has its own special type of piece, called batel kekawin, for accompanying sung kekawin quotations (ibid.: 152).
Vonck concludes that the instrumental ambitus is divided into two opposing parts of which the top octave, called cenik, is regarded as manis and the low octave, called gede, is keras (ibid.: 156). Each octave too is divided into two opposing parts: “The upper two pitches constitute the manis part, the lower two pitches the keras part, while the one in between is the neutral pitch”
(ibid.: 156). Furthermore, many compositions are centred on two pitch levels, often one note apart. The higher-pitched of these alternating tonal centres is known as cenik (small) and the lower, gede (large). Manis pieces start and end on the cenik episode and keras ones on the gede episode (ibid.: 156). Similar subtleties are expressed by way of chords, which can be more or less
consonant and can also express manis and keras through their appearance in the different registers. Slendro fifths and octaves are most consonant and classed as refined when they appear in the upper octave but keras in the lower. More complex chords are rame (crowded) and thus less refined (ibid.: 156).
The manis/keras distinction is found in melodic type too: “The long, winding melodic phrases with sparse motifs are the most refined. In contrast,
music based on an ostinato in the left-hand part and interlocking in the right- hand part is once again percieved as rame and keras (ibid.:156). Perhaps strangely, the gebugan wayah is regarded as making the music sound keras, because it makes it more busy, rame, but it is an indispensible feature even of
refined pieces as it is such an important playing technique (ibid.:156). Tempo, dynamics and song style are all also important aesthetic indicators in
determining the degree to which a piece is manis or keras (ibid.:157). Vonck shows how the three subtexts are woven together to create a whole in a performance of the lelampahan (play) Pati Jayadrata as performed by Jro Dalang Made. She shows the tight co-ordination of pieces, puppet types and actions and the way that pieces flow from one to the next (ibid.: 164-87). This seems familiar from South Balinese practice, for instance in the way batel pieces can be brought in suddenly, but it is clear that the music is more
continuous in Tejakula than in the south. Vonck describes how pieces switch between manis, keras and gradations in between to reflect action and
character, and shift between background and foreground (ibid,:190—1). Vonck concludes that the North Balinese style of gender wayang represents a tradition distinct from the south in several ways. In Tejakula, gender music is played almost continuously. As a result, the repertoire is larger than in the south. Distinct from the southern tradition, too, is the very thorough and consistent application of the aesthetic continuum between manis and keras: outlines of this scheme are also present in the south but not so systematically applied.