Search - Gamelan of Peliatan 1952 :: Dancers of Bali

A lifetime of fascination

Nonesuch Explorers | Too Close To L.A. | 03/28/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Selections from this album, reissued on London International (TW-91308) in the early 1970s as "Musical Memories of Bali", got us hooked for life on Balinese classical gamelan music, particularly shadow theater pieces. We found it in 1972 in a remaindered bin at a discount store. Best 49c we ever spent.



Everything that murni says about this album is spot-on. Listeners unfamiliar with Balinese music can get a good idea of various styles. I've noticed that some of the other albums released at about this time feature kebyar style to an extent that you don't get a sense of the other, older traditions (although "Bumblebees", which was written in the 1940s for a famous male dancer, is worth the entire album). The twenty-minute Legong was the one featured on side B of the vinyl album, labeled "Classical Legong", along with the first few minutes of a Kecak (the monkeys' chant from the Ramayana), which is missing here.



Along with this album, consider the Nonesuch Explorer series that was released about the same time, especially "Music for the Shadow Play" and "Gamelan of the Love God". There is another one that's a bit harder to find, "Exotic Sounds of Bali", a sparkling set of wayang pieces on gong sekar anjar conducted and recorded by Dr. Mantle Hood (assisted by Tjokorda Mas and Wajan Gandera, Columbia MS 6445); search for it in Zshops as it has not yet been released on CD.



Explorer: Bali - Music for the Shadow Play



Bali: Gamelan Semar Pergulingan:Gamelan of the Love God



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Enchanting

murni@murnis.com | Ubud, Bali | 07/20/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is the CD of the music played during the first tour of Balinese music and dance in the USA in 1952. The show caused a sensation. The group, who had never been out of their remote village of Peliatan, near Ubud, left Indonesia on 21 August 1952. First they went to London, where they were a great success.



In September, they flew on to New York. The Fulton Theatre, Broadway, was sold out for seven straight nights. Everyone courted them. Richard Rodgers, who put on South Pacific with its famous Bali Hai song, came to the show. Ed Sullivan televised parts of the Bumblebee Dance and the Monkey Dance to an audience of 30 million. The American comic actor Joe E. Lewis commented to Ed Sullivan, `I think they were on something.' Then they were off to Boston, Philadelphia, Newark, Washington, Cleveland, Cincinnati, St Louis, Chicago, Las Vegas and Los Angeles.



World Arbiter has reissued the original Columbia Records LP Dancers and Musicians of Bali. The performances are the first modern recordings made of a gamelan orchestra. It is lively, loud and frenetic; 66 minutes 16 seconds on a digitally restored CD, originally recorded in September 1952. The 6 minutes' Kebyar composition, which accompanied the Kebyar Duduk dance, is very different from the version used today and therefore historically interesting.



The gamelan was under the direction of Anak Agung Gede Mandera. His family continue the tradition today in Peliatan. There are 9 tracks: Overture - Kapi Radja (melody from North Bali), Angklungan (an experimental piece), Oleg Tumulilingan (bumblebee dance), Baris (warrior dance), Gambangan (an ancient melody), Kebyar, Gender Wayang: Angkat-Ankatan (music for shadow play) and Legong (both versions - the New York studio recording and one (live) from Winter Garden Theatre, London).



There is a 24 page booklet of detailed notes, photographs and bibliography. Laura Rosenberg writes a note on John Coast, the English producer of the show, and the John Coast Foundation [...], which was formed to further his dream of disseminating and preserving traditional Balinese culture.



I play in a ladies gamelan group myself in Ubud and heartily recommend the CD.



Murni

Ubud, Bali

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