Re: More on Indonesian music

[patrick@his.com (Patrick Smith)]

>On Sat, 2 Nov 1996, Matthias Grob wrote:
>
>> For me even more impressive was a theatre with about 30 male singers 
>around
>> the "stage", creating the coments to the piece (I did not understand
>> anything of) using also impressive mouth and body rythms, noises and
>> screams. Although sitting, they had a choregraphy, moving toards or away
>> from the actors, shaking heads, showing fear, support and so on. Hard to
>> imagine, huh?

And then Andre wrote:

>I think I saw this sort of thing staged here at CalArts a couple of years
>ago -- it's called Monkey Chant.  If done as it's supposed to be done,
>it's apparently very impressive.  Unfortunately I only saw the version
>that was staged by students here at school, many of whom had little if
>any tangible affinity for music.  But still very interesting.
>
>--Andre

Anyone interested in this check out the film Barkaka. There is a beautiful
segment where they film the Monkey Chant outdoors, in Indonesia. It is also
available on a Balinese Court Music CD, but not the same.

I had the priveledge of seeing a Balinese Orchestra a few years back at the
University of Maryland, and many smaller ensembles at the Festival of
American Folklife in DC.

If you ever visit DC, you can sit in with either a Balinese or Javanses
Gamelan at the Indonesian Embassy.

Patrick