Gender Wayang Transcription Preview
CRANE GANG QUAVERS
...a Gender Wayang transcription by Zachar Laskewicz...
#cangakmerengang #cranegangquavers #zacharplaysgamelan #salingasah #balinesegamelan #interculturality #genderwayang #eviltwin #sangsih
This is an excerpt from my recent recording of me testing the "sangsih" interlocking part of a Balinese composition in preparation for a complete recording of all four parts
In the meantime I've made a preliminary "recording" version for playback through a tiny headphone that I'll be putting in one of my ears; I'll be able to see the performance so that I can try to line up some of the movements, although admittedly there are not very many for this composition as it was difficult enough to transcribe and perform the notes let alone develop a set of movements for it.
You see, for me this is quite new territory. I've basically had to learn it from scratch, which has meant a lot of hard listening. As with any transcriptions of a medium which is not necessarily notated at all, the form that I end up putting it in will result in a product which is my own variation on the recordings I based it on, and I haven't based it on a single performance, rather my favourite moments from a number of different recordings as everyone plays it slightly differently. If you want to learn it yourself, you are welcome to use my score, but I encourage you to listen first to as many performances as you can so you can make it out yourself the best way to play it.
The recording I used in this short film are from where it speeds up and enters the transition to the second and third sections. After this transition, the composition enters into a sort of transition which includes themes from the first melody and a simple kotekan in the right hand. It gets quite exciting before it enters the third and final section where the left hand heads up and down the instrument in a very sweet (and typical Kayumas) melody. Although this is composition belongs to that school of compositions based around Denpasar known for the sweetness of its melodies and its less abstract and technical musical development, this piece has a lot of insistent abstract and very exciting dynamic changes.
Note that although transcribing the composition makes it easier for me to learn, that I basically learn it by heart. I'd never imagine playing it from a score. It's just learning it in small pieces, fragment by fragment. Given that with no one to actually explain it to me, being able to analyse the music from so close up, so intimately, forcing me to understand how it is kept together and how the two musical parts work in tandem with one another. You may be one of those people who think that you only really learn a piece when you learn it live from a teacher. In which case, you hardly need my score, now, do you? I'm happy for you people to go on thinking that if it makes you happy; but I can tell you - you're wrong. Experience has taught me that if I end up playing it in the same way, and that learning it leads me to a deeper understanding of the music, then my experience of the music is equally valid. But as a sign of respect to everyone, I give my transcription my own name so that it is clearly distinguished from the "canon" version that is taught by Balinese teachers.
I recently learned, for example, that I wasn't actually welcome to the ceremonies held at the Balinese temple because I am not married to a Balinese woman. I was genuinely shocked by this. Who knows what people think about the fact that I've been so impertenent as to notate this music that I didn't learn from a Balinese teacher? Therefore - to make it easy for these people: you are not playing Cangak Merengang if you learn from this score. You are playing CHAIN GANG QUAVERS, my transcription and interpretation of that composition.
In other words: up yours to anyone who wants to restrict the way I promote intercultural musical understanding because I intend to go on elevating and promoting Balinese music even though I am not actually Balinese and even though I'm not actually married to a Balinese person.
I've finished the whole transcription, but I'm not going to release my version of it until I have made the complete recording, and I'm going to include a description of the volume and speed changes that I ended up applying. Obviously if anyone else uses this score, they are free to interpret in their own way.
I've used my own notation system which is designed for easy reading. The ten notes of the Gender Wayang are mapped to notes on the 10 lines of a two stave part, two staves per instrument, and two instrument lines per score. There are no clefs or key signatures on these scores as these symbols are entirely irrelavent. The score doesn't show the notes as they appear, but instead the notes as they are played; in the place of clefs the letters "R" and "L" to designated the right and the left hand. Although there are 5 lines in each of the stave for the upper and lower octaves respectively, if the right hand goes lower than the upper five notes, then rather than move to the other stave, it shows these notes below the stave. It's always clear what is played by the right and left hands.
__________________
CANGAK MERENGANG - the composition that I transcribed from various recordings and films - is quite a remarkable music composition. What you are hearing here is from the repeating melody that is played increasingly more dramatically with each repetition before it suddenly transforms into its quite remarkable second section.
The excitement inherent within the music as it develops is so blatantly clear in this exquisitely melodic piece of Balinese creativity. Here no holds barred as far as making the most out of the dynamic variations possible smashing the suspended brass metal slabs.
This recording was made to assist me learning the other interlocking part. The part I'm playing is called "sangsih" musical part it usually plays higher than the other part and is often the most difficult of the two or at least the hardest to learn. You may be wondering why I recorded this first. It's more because someone else was learning the other part, and I wanted to be able to play it with them. I never intend to not actually learn both parts, and it's better to start with the polos because the sangsih, although essential to a complete expression of the music, the sangsih is often based on the polos which has the core melody. The Gender Wayang gamelan basically consist of two or four instruments, one of which is tuned slightly higher than the other. The lower tuned instrument is called "pengumbang" and the higher tuned "pengisip". The sangsih part is associated with the latter of these two instruments. I have also played it on my higher tuned instrument.It would probably sound that same to any westerner who heard the instrument on its own. But I can sure hear the difference; the distance between the notes is sufficiently different for me to hear, but I suppose that's to be expected since I've been playing this music for so long.
Note that although the "sangsih" part is often considered to be more tricky than the polos part, this is not really the case in Cangak Merengang. Usually the sangsih part is the one playing on the off beat when the melody is divided up into imbal/hocket style. This is not the case for Crane Gang Quavers. What sets this piece apart is this very fact: what in one section has one performer playing on the off beat in an "interlocking" melody, is suddenly exchanged between performers which makes is a little more complex to learn.
It also has some very exciting dramatic moments, one of which you can clearly hear in this film as it reaches the transition to the second section.
There is nothing quite like "Cangak Merengang" which sorts of translates to the "The Stork Wobbles". So just as the STORK IS WOBBLING, the CRANE GANG IS QUAVERING... especially considering the fact that this is about a musical transcription after all. My chosen title is just perfect... I mean you can imagine all those insistent little quavers in the right hand...
I mean... you don't know it actually doesn't have any quavers in it, do you? In my defence, I chose to write it out in crotchets because that is easier to read. Although quavers would probably be suited to how the music sounds, this is a score to assist learning not performance. It's intended as a tool rather than a reflection of what actually happens musically in the composition. You can get an ethnomusicologist for that; I want to make it easier for you to learn the piece yourself. ...And CRANE GANG CROTCHETS sounds perfectly awful!
New Post to the Zachar Plays Gamelan Website:
https://nachtschimmen.eu/zacharplaysgamelan.html
https://nachtschimmen.eu
