FEATURES THURSDAY June 9, 2016 | 24

The last piece: An original 78 rpm record from the historical recordings of 1928-1929 with infor- mation on the label printed in Balinese script. This particu- lar record contains “Pubupuh Adri” and 1928 is the only existing disc in the world. REVIVING

m a d r e t s m A f o THE LEGACY y it s r e It is a story nearly 90 years in the making that has iv n U s, e taught a large number of people, from prominent iv h rc A scholars to village musicians, how a past legacy can st un K ap Ja invigorate present tradition. of sy rte Cou

Every beat: Musicians from Kapal village in Badung regency play Preserved: The Janger dancers of Kedaton, a hamlet in . The photograph was taken by Walter Spies, an artist who played a prominent role in popularizing Bali in the West. gangsa metallophone.

He was a passionate student and meticu- perience of the whole journey, witnessing the I Wayan Juniarta lous researcher, two qualities that enabled teary-eyed young people listening in awe to THE JAKARTA POST/DENPASAR him to overcome numerous obstacles in his the music performed by their grandfathers,” next task: searching for the “missing” discs. Herbst noted. he story began in mid-1928, when representatives from German re- “During the 1980s and 1990s, Philip Yam- In July 2015, the Bali 1928 Repatriation cording company Odeon and Beka traveled across Bali to record the polsky was able to locate 101 matrices [sides Project launched a collection of fi ve CDs and traditional music and songs of the island, which by that time of the 78 rpm records] at various archives in DVDs containing the remastered music of Thad become known in Europe as a bewitching tropical para- , the US and Holland. Yampolsky 111 discovered matrices of Odeon and Beka, dise in the East. shared this information with Arbiter and visual footage of Bali in the 1930s from the It was a crucial time in the island’s musical history. Bali was in myself, facilitating our worldwide eff ort to estates of Colin McPhee, Miguel Covarru- the midst of an artistic revolution with kebyar becoming the new access and reissue each and every 78 disc,” bias and Rolf de Maré, as well as fi ve schol- dominant style of music. orchestra groups had their older Herbst said. arly texts written by Herbst that provided in- ceremonial instruments melted down and reforged in the new style. Yampolsky is a musicologist who has sights into each CD. Intense competition between villages and regions stimulated young played Javanese and Balinese gamelan music The research and production of the collec- composers to develop impressive innovations and techniques. for nearly 40 years, while the New York-based tion was cofi nanced by the Andrew W. Mel- The recordings were made under the guidance of Walter Spies, a Ger- Arbiter of Cultural Traditions is an institu- lon foundation and Denpasar-based STIMIK man painter and long-time resident of Bali. Spies possessed an intimate tion dedicated to the preservation of authen- STIKOM Bali, an information technology col- knowledge of the island and knew most, if not all, of Bali’s top artists and mu- tic music from cultures across the world. lege cofounded by Bandem. sicians at the time. It took him eight years to gain permission “All the materials in the CDs and DVDs In 1929, the diverse sampling of new and older Balinese styles appeared on 78 from each archive and to visit most of the col- were legally acquired through offi cial chan- rpm records with subsequent releases for international distribution. Although lections. The journey took him to the shelves nels. I am truly grateful for the cooperation the medium limited tracks to three-minute excerpts, the records contained re- of the University of California in Los Ange- extended by the estates of McPhee, Covarru- markable examples of a broad range of musical genres — vocal as well as instru- les (UCLA), an auction in a rural Texas town bias and De Maré in making this project pos- mental — and outstanding composers, performers and ensembles of the period and, eventually, to a fortunate meeting with I sible. They were enthusiastic upon learning who are now famous teachers of legendary groups — I Wayan Lotring, I Ny- Made Bandem, one of Bali’s most prominent that we will bring this stunning footages back oman Kaler and the gamelan gong of Pangkung, Belaluan and Busungbiu. cultural scholars. to Bali,” Marlowe said. It was the fi rst and only commercially released recording of music made in Bandem assisted Herbst in cutting The team has carried out public screenings Bali prior to World War II. Unfortunately, it was not a commercial success and through Indonesia’s notorious red tape and listening sessions of Bali 1928 in seven quickly went out of production. when the latter tried to access the audio col- places across the island as part of the ongoing The late Andrew Toth, noted ethnomusicologist and a leading expert on lection of the National Museum, and later on dissemination of the repatriated materials. Balinese art, wrote that a third of the Odeon and Beka recordings appeared Golden era: Sampih, one of Bali’s most fa- tasked his son, Made Marlowe, with helping Meanwhile, the number of people involved in in Europe and America, though the majority had been intended for local sale mous dancers, performs as the character Herbst bring the Odeon and Beka collection the repatriation initiative continues to grow. in Bali. For this reason, the information on the labels was printed in Malay, Condong of the classic legong repertoire. back to Bali. In February, noted photographer Rio Hel- the lingua franca of the archipelago at the time, and in some cases in Balinese. He was part of the Dancers of Bali, which “The pieces started falling together in 2013 mi agreed to restore and print 55 of 110 old The ambitious plan to develop an indigenous market was a complete failure, toured the US in 1952 and appeared on and little did we know at that time that this photographs in the Bali 1928 collection. The however, as few Balinese were interested in the new and expensive technology the Ed Sullivan Show. collaboration project would grow into a major photographs, printed on premium-grade — especially when there was a world of live performances happening daily in repatriation project,” Marlowe recalled. archival paper, were exhibited in March at temples and households across the island. gamelan palegongan under I Made Gerin- Eighty years after the recording sessions, his gallery in Ubud. In August, a dedicated “McPhee was the only customer to purchase these 78 rpm discs in an en- dem in Teges Kanginan, gong-making tech- the research team visited the oldest knowl- Bali 1928 archival wing will open at STIMIK tire year from one frustrated dealer; his collection contains most of the copies niques at Tihingan and Balinese classical edgeable artists — many in their 80s or 90s STIKOM Bali. that are still preserved to this day, for the agent later smashed the remaining dance drama from the legendary I Nyoman and one aged 100 — in villages whose mu- “Cultural repatriation is always an ongo- stock in a fi t of rage,” he wrote, referring to Colin McPhee, a Canadian musi- Kakul of Batuan. sicians and singers were recorded in 1928. ing process, a multifaceted dialogue. Hopeful- cologist known as the fi rst Western composer to make an ethnomusicological Later, Herbst had the privilege of studying They played a CD of music that no one had ly, by bringing this legacy back home we will study of Bali. under other great Balinese masters, includ- heard for 80 years. While some of the reper- be able to spur the present generation of Ba- The present generation of Balinese artists would not have had the opportu- ing mask performer I Made Pasek Tempo of toire has endured, much of the style and aes- linese artists into initiating their own golden nity to listen to the magnifi cent music contained on the records if not for the Tampaksiring, arja vocalist Ni Nyoman Can- thetic has changed and many compositions period of creativity,” Bandem said. hard work and perseverance of an American scholar. dri of Singapadu and composer I Ketut Rinda had been forgotten. Edward Herbst fi rst visited Bali in 1972 to study wayang (puppets) and of Blahbatuh. “I believe that was the most rewarding ex- — PHOTOS COURTESY OF BALI 1928

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