music
globalisation by ch loh
Ramayana revival
How did you set up Multifoon, and what
kind of challenges did you face?
In 1994, I got the idea of writing a piece for
a chromatically tuned gamelan. I was then
Understanding Sita in the 21st century
very active playing gamelan in different
formations. In my own Balinese gamelan
2007 WAS QUITE a year for the
At age ten, Wullur moved from her
group, Irama, I played the gender wayang
Ramayana, its heroine Sita in particular.
hometown Bandung to settle in Holland
and the gong kebyar style. I was part of
By some sheer cosmic alliance, KL had its
in 1968, and in her formative years there
the Javanese gamelan group Widosari as
Ramayana revival with Adeline Wong’s
studied gamelan music and composition
a singer and gamelan player. I also played
Empunya Yang Beroleh Sita Dewi, while
with teachers like Ton de Leeuw and Louis
in ensemble Gending, which performed
across the globe in Holland, Indonesian
Andriessen. She returned for a few months
contemporary compositions written for the
composer Sinta Wullur staged her
to study gamelan and singing with a few
Javanese gamelan.
gamelan opera Sita’s Liberation with
teachers in Bali and Java. Upon her return
As a composer, I had composed several
her experimental group Ensemble
she founded several gamelan groups in
works that were based on gamelan ideas
Multifoon. At roughly the same spaceHolland, in particular the contemporary
and structures. In my creation process
time-continuum, Yii Kah Hoe was also
gamelan group, Ensemble Multifoon.
I felt the need for a gamelan orchestra
commissioned to write his own wayang
that can perform the pitches I use in my
kulit epic for Chinese orchestra.
What challenges do you face writing for compositions. I am used to working with
Wullur’s Sita is special, as it brings the
Western music for gamelan and Western combinations of modes, and I like to have
gamelan-wayang kulit tradition into the
ensemble?
modulations in a composition. I loved the
21st century in a truly global manner. The
When one writes Western music for
gamelan instruments, but felt limited by
epic, which had its hold over the entire
gamelan and Western ensemble in general,
their possibility to produce only five to
South and East Asian culture for centuries,
you have to find gamelan players who
seven notes because of their basic slendro
is finally taking on the world. Performed by are able to perform Western music, and
and pelog scale.
a Western, fully-trained gamelan orchestra
musicians on Western instruments who
With this idea, I contacted Pak Suhirdjan
with additional percussion, string quartet
are able to retune their instruments to
in Yogya, who was enthusiastic. I sent him
and bass clarinet, a chorus and two soloists, the specific tuning of the gamelan. With
twelve tuning forks with the pitches of
complete with wayang kulit and dancers,
Ensemble Multifoon and the chromatically
the twelve tones of the equally tempered
this is serious opera crafted out of the
tuned gamelan on which they play, the
chromatic scale. The design was drawn
ancient Ramayana performance aesthetics as tuning is no longer a problem – players in
based on the design of the marimba and
well as Western classical models – a brilliant Multifoon are percussion players who are
vibraphone. The pitches from the ‘black
marriage of two cultures, no less beautiful
familiar with playing gamelan instruments. keys’ of the piano are separated from the
for its mixed blood, as Wullur once said.
pitches from the ‘white keys’.
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APR2008
1
2
Main picture Sita’s
Liberation 1 &
3 Scenes from the
production 2 Sinta
Wullur
The idea and the music performed on the
chromatic gamelan have been well received.
Musicians and the public are always
enthusiastic about it.
How popular is gamelan today still, in
Holland, and in Europe in general? Why
are they still so fascinated by it?
The gamelan is popular in Holland and
Europe, and it is becoming more and more
popular in general. In the West, there is a
tendency to appreciate music from other
cultures as an alternative to classical and
modern music. Together with the growth
of world music, gamelan music gains
more attention from the public and music
organisations. The serene and noble sounds
of the Javanese gamelan or the hectic
and energetic percussive sounds from the
Balinese gamelan awake a special experience
in their public and in the players.
Gamelan is not strange anymore; many
travellers to Indonesia have heard them.
Because of Holland’s history with Indonesia,
there are many Dutch people who have a
connection with Indonesian culture.
with music that is a crossover between the
gamelan accompaniment of wayang kulit
and dramatic Western music, could be the
lifework I had always wanted to make,
especially when a choir is involved that
performs a sort of kecak music.
In 1997, I already made a composition for
choir using the kecak mixed with a Western
choir idiom. In 2001 and 2003, works in
progress were made before the opera was
perfomed with wayang kulit in 2007.
I am lucky that I have a very good writer
for the libretto. Paul Goodman is a Canadian
poet and musician who lives in Holland.
3
He made a beautiful libretto, which fits
very well in my music. In the opera, the
chromatic gamelan was combined with
On the flipside, is the contemporary
string quartet, percussion and bass clarinet.
work of Multifoon strange in Indonesia? The solo singers were a soprano for the role
It depends which type of music Multifoon
of Sita, and a tenor as the narrator, together
plays. The atonal contemporary
with the choir. Because of the narrations
compositions made by the modern
from the tenor and choir, the form of the
composers will be well received by the
opera is comparable to an oratorium like
contemporary music lovers, maybe not
Bach’s St Mattheus Passion. The opera was
by the general public. The general public
staged with wayang kulit projected onto a
of Indonesia will love the more tonal
large screen combined with dancers and the
music played on the chromatically tuned
acting singer in front of the screen.
gamelan, especially the creative new fusion
compositions. I can imagine that people
What drove your choice of story?
from the city who have had lessons in
I chose the Ramayana because of the
the Western classical music tradition will
monkey chant that I wanted to use with my
like this crossover between gamelan and
kecak choir. And also because among the
Western music tradition.
traditional Indonesian stories, the Ramayana
is one of the most dramatic stories which
How did the idea for the opera Sita’s
adapts very well as an opera. There is a
Liberation come about?
dramatic line that builds up in tension and
The idea to write a gamelan opera came in
there is a catharsis at the end.
2001 when the Concertgebouw orchestra
The emotions in this story are universal:
had finally completed the chromatic
there is the happiness of the wedding of
gamelan instruments with twelve gongs,
Rama and Sita; there is the excitement
genders (a xylophone-like instrument
when the golden deer appears and when Sita
made of metal bars), bonang panerus and
sends Rama to hunt after the deer; there is
kenongs. I imagined that a fusion between
a Western opera and wayang kulit theatre,
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71
music
anxiety when Sita is left alone in the woods; there is sorrow when
she regrets that she has sent Laksamana away and called him a
coward; there is the tension of war and fight between Rama and
Rahwana. and, of course, happiness again when Sita is liberated.
These emotions are recognisable to everyone.
What is your take on the ending, though? I notice that in
your version, Sita passes the test of fire. As far as I know,
the original Ramayana had a very bleak ending for Sita.
In the original Ramayana, there are several endings. Sita passes
the test of fire directly after her liberation. But when she was back
in Ayodhya and she was pregnant, people started to talk about
her, suggesting she was pregnant before Rama liberated her. That
was the reason that Rama sent Sita away; he couldn’t bear being
humiliated by his own people.
I had chosen, for the opera’s form, [the concept] ‘Ramayana
through flashbacks’, as experienced from Sita’s point of view. I
try to identify with Sita’s role as a woman. Then I found out that
she is treated very badly in the story. After being imprisoned for
fourteen years she still has to risk her life by undergoing the test
by fire. Despite her faithfulness to Rama, she is sent away while
pregnant. These facts reveal [discrimination] by male-dominated
society; I am glad that women are treated better these days. I
only regret that Rama, a symbol of the Good, actually was cruel
towards his beloved wife.
Is there a bigger motivation for creating this opera then?
My motivation for creating this opera is also to make a dream
come true, where East and West meet in music, drama and theatre
form. I think my message is, please listen to your heart and don’t
bother what people in the surrounding gossip about you or your
family. This is a charge against the banishment of Sita at the end
of the story. What is more important, love or pride?
Was there a time in the production that you thought, ‘This
isn’t going to work’?
As soon the production has started, all went smoothly. Musically,
it had all been done before, with a different choir and musicians.
For the staging, it was the first time that we put all the elements
together. Happily, we could do it in the short time that we had. Of
course, we wished that we had more money and time to get the
things perfect.
What are planning to embark on next – any more operas?
My next project is a fusion between Indian music and gamelan.
In 1990, I embarked on a course in Indian singing with a teacher
at the school of world music in Amsterdam. I did it intensively for
seven years. I did this so I could learn, through practice, about the
Indian raga and tala. After composing crossover music between
gamelan and Western contemporary music, [I think] there is now
a need for a different approach of crossover composition.
This is new, Indian raga sounding on gamelan instruments
and played in a gamelan structure in different talas. I work
together with a sarod player, a bansori player and a tabla player.
They are all Dutch, but studied for years with Indian teachers in
the Netherlands. On April 18 this year, two compositions will
be played in a concert in the Muziekgebouw, an institute for
contemporary music and recorded for the radio. I would also like
to make another gamelan opera, that’s for sure!
Ensemble Multifoon has been performing new compositions by composers around the
world, creating music in different styles from avant garde to folk and jazz. Their CD Gongs
and Strings was released by the label BVHaast in the Netherlands in 2000. For more
informationm visit www.ensemblemultifoon.nl
The opera Sita’s Liberation can be heard at www.malaysiancomposers.com
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APR2008
Return to
innocence
Polish ultra-modernist composer Krzysztof
Penderecki goes back to the basics
IN THE HEYDAY of the
European avant-garde,
Krzysztof Penderecki stunned
the classical-going public
with his musical kamikaze:
his Threnody for the Victims
of Hiroshima used every
method of producing sound
from the violin that was ever
thought possible, and then
some, producing eerie screams
and scrapes of string sounds
never before heard with such
The composer
audacity. The piece truly
emulated the deadly whir of
atom bombs spiralling down towards sleepy Hiroshima and
the unearthly sounds that must have inhabited the devastated
landscape of its aftermath. The nuclear age of music had
arrived, along with it a whole new notation system to indicate
all the hitherto unimaginable things the musician was expected
to do to his beloved instrument.
Half a century later, that complex system so much still in
vogue with today’s musical avant-garde has gone out the window
with the Polish veteran, who made a complete about-face. Just
when everyone had caught up with Penderecki, he returned to a
tonal and conventional language, seeking simplicity and harmony
as the preferred form of expression. Has experimentalism thus
become mainstream and tonality now the new avant-garde?
Time has certainly caught up with the modernist movement, and
perhaps the most controversial thing a composer these days can
write is a major chord.
Proof lies within the extensive symphonic cycle that
Penderecki has been building over the past decade, each
one beautifully documented by Naxos. If you thought you
weren’t quite ready for Penderecki before, think again. Just
start backwards, with the deeply beautiful 8th Symphony that
has just been released. You can hear all seven symphonies
(minus the 6th, which has not been composed yet) on www.
naxosmusiclibrary.com. Perhaps by the time you reach the
beginning of his output, you may just find Threnody to the
Victims of Hiroshima a jolly good tune to hum to!
Krzysztof Penderecki, Symphony
No 8 (Songs of Transience), Dies
irae, Aus den Psalmen Davids
Antoni Wit, Warsaw National
Philharmonic Orchestra & Philharmonic
Choir
Naxos 8.570450
Naxos clinches a first with this
premiere recording, which is a
breathtaking achievement and an attractive proposition. Not
only is it history in the making, but you also get to compare
it to two similar works from Penderecki’s more adventurous
youth. All three are based on contemporary poems and
selected religious texts, and are pointed commentaries on the
human condition. Each reflects a different approach to music
SCHOTT PROMOTION-KATHARINA FREIBERGER
CONTINUED FROM PREVIOUS PAGE
review by ch loh
Top
Pend
and shows how Penderecki has grown as
an artist, and it’s a fascinating as well as
refreshing insight.
The astonishing 8th, subtitled Songs of
Transience, spans twelve short movements
based on poems by various poets like
Goethe, Rilke and Eichendorff to form a
continuous narrative that examines the
cycle of life through birth and death, trying
to find resolution in the process, reflecting
perhaps on the scarred history of the
composer’s own homeland which had seen
both so meaninglessly disregarded.
Mezzo Agnieszka Rehlis makes a superb
opening statement in this somewhat
Mahlerian edifice, her ever-climbing
arpeggios laden with expectation. The
work then traverses a number of moods
from urgent to forlorn as soprano, mezzo,
baritone and chorus take turns at the
texts, culminating in the climactic setting
of Achim von Arnim’s O green tree of life
with its biblical bass trumpet declamations
and thundering tuttis, ending this grand
symphonic cantata literally on a high note
as the chorus spirals upwards hauntingly
into stratospheric heights, evaporating to
nothingness.
Skipping back a few decades, one sees
much rawer emotions in the composer’s
1967 Dies Irae, written for the Auschwitz
memorial; a direct response to the Holocaust
that some in our midst claim never
happened and others mutter ‘just as well’
(painfully dumb but true). And pain is at the
heart of Penderecki’s electrifying oratorio,
which brings emotions close to the listener
through some pretty harrowing modern
vocal techniques.
By now, going back to the beginning with
the composer’s early 1958 From the Psalms
of David seems almost logical, and we hear
the young Penderecki’s mastery over a new
language as he weaves a powerfully moving
choral canvas out of selections from four
Psalms that enunciate the horrors of war
and persecution with its seemingly innocent
setting. The work, conceived for voices
and percussion, won the Second Warsaw
Competition of Young Polish Composers.
This recording by the Polish orchestra
under Antoni Wit is stunning in its power
and breadth. The singing is superb and
engaging and, once caught in its magic, the
issues surrounding Penderecki’s possible
artistic sell-out seems totally irrelevant.
Krzysztof
Penderecki,
Symphony No 7
‘Seven Gates of
Jerusalem’
Antoni Wit,
Warsaw National
Philharmonic
Orchestra &
Philharmonic Choir
Naxos 8.557766
Written a decade earlier, this magnificent
choral symphony saw Penderecki reinventing himself with his new, accessible
language. As he famously said, ‘We can
still use old forms to make new music.’
Seven Gates proves this repeatedly with its
relatively straightforward style that still
possesses immense power to move the
listener. Dramatically more potent than
the introspective 8th, the work begins
unabashedly with a cataclysmic declamation
complete with splashes of gongs from
heaven or hell, depending on your
perspective. Cast in seven movements, the
work begins an epic narrative that moves
from a passionate soprano solo against eerie
cymbal scrapes and sliding string, to a quiet
tableau for chorus leading to a dramatic
return of the second movement’s themes.
The final three movements total halfan-hour, forming a continuous sequence
that begins on a menacing build-up
of percussion and a chanting chorus
reminiscent of Britten’s War Requiem.
Brilliant passages for tubaphones, plastic
tubes struck with mallets, propel the
music into a frenzied climax, heralding the
final arguments by a narrator that brings
the work to full circle with a thunderous
restatement of the opening Magnus
Dominus, the wrath-of-God declamations
mingling with tentative afterthoughts in
celebration of three hundred years of a
city scarred by human folly, reflecting on
the tainted joy that must mark any sort of
jubilation of a holy citadel torn by the very
forces that shaped it.
This recording is a brilliant achievement
for Antoni Wit, whose earlier recordings for
Naxos have not seen this level of electricity,
making his cycle of Penderecki’s symphonies
truly memorable.
APR2008
SXC
Hiroshima A-bomb
dome
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