International Journal of Interreligious and Intercultural Studies (IJIIS) ISSN: 2654-2706, Volume 3, Number 1, April 2020

Intercultural Transfer and Balinese Gamelan Preservation

Emma Lo Humboldt University Berlin, Germany

Abstract

The influence and spread of traditional Balinese music over time and across regions has been conducted through a number of different channels. In addition to locally-focused efforts, cultural transfer has also contributed to the preservation of traditional Balinese arts. From the self-interested, strategic support of gamelan music by Japanese occupational forces to the global experimental music scene today, Balinese arts have been shared, supported, translated, and appropriated in various ways by a number of different actors to political, artistic, and commercial ends. Building on Michel Espagne’s definition of cultural transfer and Stephen Greenblatt’s concept of cultural mobility, this paper aims to outline different modes of cultural transfer (or “bridges,” as Espagne would say), with explicit attention to power dynamics and multi-way flows of influence. Several key historical and contemporary examples of the transfer of traditional Balinese music will be discussed in an effort to better understand the relationship between cultural transfer and preservation.

Keywords: cultural transfer, tourism industry, music preservation, digitalization

I. Introduction genre. Starting with the trajectory of This paper examines several Bali’s tourism industry, followed by an instances of the intercultural transfer overview of intercultural collaborations of gamelan, and discusses potential in contemporary music, the paper impacts these instances have had on concludes with a probe into how new the preservation of the instrument and digital technologies make the sounds

27 Intercultural Transfer and Balinese Gamelan Preservation of gamelan more available and more of rootedness” (Greenblatt et al 2009). malleable than ever in the global The tension between self-identity and marketplace. With each instance, the branded identity becomes an issue for author analyzes the conditions under Bali’s cultural agents, and is discussed which the transfer is taking place, using later in this paper. Michael Toggweiler primary source interviews, secondary and Manuela Rossini (2014) explain literature, and recordings to examine that “cultural transfer does not mean what might be lost or gained in transit. transfer between static and essentialized ‘cultures’ or the transfer of ‘Culture’ II. Theoretical Framework but, rather, a differing game and its Cultural transfer emerged as a term very real yet unstable discursive effects in the 1980s through Michel Espagne (differences, identities) within the and Michael Werner’s scholarship analytical framework of the ‘cultural’”. on the transfer of literature and art In this contribution to the ‘differing between France and Germany in the game,’ the term ‘transfer’ is used to 1900s, and has gradually developed contextualize cultural mobility, and into a field of study over the last several emphasize the factors that enable decades. Jin-Ah Kim (2015) made the Balinese gamelan, or aspects of it, to case to broaden the field beyond its move between cultures. Borrowing from focus on printed media and culture, to Toggweiler and Rossini’s framework connect the study of cultural transfer (2014), the author will interpret with the fields of music sociology instances of cultural transfer as sets of and music anthropology. Although “conditions and dynamics of selection, the terminology is still contested and translation, adaption or mutation within therefore loose, the author employs highly asymmetrical power relations.” the following definitions for the Musical exchange and collaboration do purposes of this paper. The working not happen in vacuums, but rather, are definition of ‘culture’ here leans on made possible by specific historical, Stephen Greenblatt’s concept of cultural political, and economic conditions. mobility, which identifies dynamism Those conducting intercultural as an intrinsic quality of culture, and transfer may try to decontextualize moves away from strict, geopolitical the transaction in the name of cultural delineations of culture by nation-state relativism or universalism, but this (Greenblatt et al 2009). Understanding merely obscures the living legacies culture as dynamic, however, can of colonialism and late capitalism be at odds with the performance or that enable such interactions. In marketing of said culture, as tourism differentiating contexts for several “often depends on a commodification examples of the transfer of Balinese

28 Emma Lo gamelan, this paper will examine the 1930s, Bali was attracting several agents, funding structures, site, and time thousands of tourists, mainly artists and of transfer. anthropologists, who returned home to The spread of Balinese and project orientalist images of “the last Javanese gamelan over the past paradise” across Europe (Picard 1996). two centuries has been extensive, Although Japan’s occupation of the conducted through both intracultural Dutch East Indies from 1942-1945 saw and intercultural channels of transfer. a period of reduced tourism, Japanese At the core of gamelan’s preservation occupational forces strategically and evolution are local efforts, which promoted the preservation of Balinese can be categorized into different types arts in hopes of consolidating power of intracultural transfer: through state- through a political and cultural funded music academies and annual campaign for Asian solidarity (Cohen music festivals, intergenerational and 2010). In 1967, General Suharto’s interfamilial education, as well as the “New Order” regime rapidly reopened more recent incorporation of female Indonesia with the construction of performers into coed ensembles and hotels and a new international airport, formation of female ensembles (Harnish leading to an explosion in numbers 2005). While these mechanisms of local of visitors (Picard 1996). In response transfer are vital to the preservation to this sudden influx, new legislation of gamelan, this paper will focus throughout the 1970s solidified Bali’s on recent instances of intercultural commitment to cultural tourism and transfer, understood as transfer attempted to address its challenges. conducted between native and non- In trying to separate agama (religion) native musicians, communities, and from adat (tradition), and constructing markets, and will enumerate some of the categories for types of dance (sacred, complex implications of these activities. ceremonial, and secular), these policies aimed to protect certain aspects of III. Early Intercultural Encounters Balinese culture from foreign influence with Balinese Gamelan and secularization, and commodify The most well-developed and other parts for foreign consumption highly visible site of intercultural (Harnish 2005). transfer of gamelan is Bali’s tourism Bali’s cultural tourism industry industry. Michel Picard (1996) continues to expand and to influence characterizes the birth of Bali’s cultural Balinese identity construction (Ardhana tourism industry as a Dutch attempt 2017). Harnish (2005) elaborates on its at appeasement after their conquests impacts on Bali’s musical identity over of 1846-1908. By the end of the decades of transfer conducted through

29 Intercultural Transfer and Balinese Gamelan Preservation the tourism industry, arguing that “the “Modernisation has quickened the pace of life and altered tourist industry, foreign researchers, values of the arts. The resulting and global market have forever changed compartmentalisation-along with tourism, telecommunications and arts Balinese perceptions of themselves and entities-has triggered modifications their arts.” Not only have non-local in music and theatre forms. Music is often faster with greater ornamental interferences affected local perceptions, parts (kotekan) and theatrical they’ve also influenced the evolution of performances shorter. In many styles of theatre, the shorter length has gamelan music. In this way, the cultural reduced the number of compositions tourism industry has dual qualities, and the language preferences have shifted from archaic Javanese (Kawi) viewed as both the cause of ‘cultural to common Balinese while humour is pollution’ and an agent of ‘cultural more emphasised than philosophical teachings.” renaissance’ (Harnish 2005). Fallout from colonial policies supposedly The adjustments to ensemble, influenced the innovation of new styles length of piece, and content seem of gamelan, according to Harnish: to have been influenced by cultural “The twentieth century gong kebyar, exchanges between Balinese performers the style that catapulted Bali into and tourist audiences, and these changes the international eye, developed as a result of colonisation. With most have endured. of their revenue terminated in the early colonial years, the court centres could not support their gamelans, IV. Contemporary Intercultural and so pawned them to village Collaboration and Hybridiza- organisations that transformed and tion decontextualised gamelan music for new aesthetic ends. The kebyar Connections made through style first emerged by 1915 at competitions in north Bali, and, Bali’s cultural tourism networks have by the 1930s, was dominating and supported the emergence of intercultural defining Balinese music locally and internationally. Musicians and collaboration on musical projects. dancers, many of them commoners, From the intercultural avant-garde pushed the music in new directions; the style required creativity and and minimalist pieces of the 1970s- experimentation and the resulting 90s, to the rise of non-native gamelan virtuoso and richly ornamented playing influenced similar elements ensembles in Europe, Japan, and the in the plastic arts. With its increased United States, there is ample evidence popularity, many clubs dismantled other gamelans to forge gong kebyar of cultural transfer through intercultural and the ensemble began to assume projects in the modern era, as Andrew the repertoires and functions of these other gamelans.” Clay McGraw (2014) describes: “During the second half of the In the wake of World War II, the twentieth century the conditions pressures of the modern era had further enabling Western artists to collaborate with local practitioners ramifications for the performance around the globe were underwritten gamelan, as Harnish (2015) describes: by Western military and economic

30 Emma Lo

dominance. The reinvestment humanism, and human rights, in cultural diplomacy following 9/11 re-energized the intercultural staging apparent demonstrations of project, bringing together artists the freedoms extended by the West from America and its geopolitical allies in an effort to demonstrate the while too often reproducing status acceptance of American democratic quo relations of inequity.” The principles through the arts. The precarious entanglements of inequity McGraw describes is visible contemporary Balinese culture and in differences in visa permissions, geo-politics are exemplified with the American gamelan movement and compensation, and creative control. recent intercultural projects.” This persistent power imbalance in The influence of foreign investment intercultural projects has both musical is evident at the annual Bali Arts and cultural consequences: “The Festival, first held in 1979. The festival asymmetrical relationship that marks has become increasingly intercultural many of the contemporary intercultural over time, featuring more and more projects with which the Balinese are foreign acts and musik kontemporer, engaged reminds us of Said’s point that a genre that combines gamelan with the orientalist works like a ventriloquist elements of contemporary classical to make the Orient speak rather than composition. In an interview with its speaking freely” (McGraw 2014). McGraw (2014), composer and This asymmetry may not be evident to musician Dewa Ketut Alit reveals the Western audiences, but for the Balinese festival’s current agenda: “Festival composers and musicians involved committee members suggested that in intercultural projects, the results our intercultural performance would of Western direction can produce demonstrate to local audiences the puzzlingly inauthentic results, as extent to which the Balinese performing McGraw (2014) describes: “Non-native arts could go internasional.” Sumarsam performers have used the tradition in (2014) describes a similar trend at ways that sometimes dumbfound native the Yogyakarta Gamelan Festival. practitioners, including the occasional In an effort to appeal to the younger performance of anachronistic repertoire generation, “hybridizing ‘ethnic’ with and the association of gamelan with Western music is the main feature of the meditation, music therapy, elementary festival’s music” (Sumarsam 2014). education, and prison programs.” Modern intercultural projects are V. Extraction and Digitalization not without evidence of the underlying While intercultural collaborations national agendas. McGraw (2014) still solicit active input, if not direction, argues that “intercultural performance from local artists, what happens when has for decades wound together the instrument is completely extracted rhetorics of civic universalism,

31 Intercultural Transfer and Balinese Gamelan Preservation from its native environment and cultural beginning of the 20th century to market context? Digital tools developed over Bali as a tourist destination (Picard the last two decades separate, for 1990). the first time, the recorded sounds While this project preserves high of gamelan from its performers and levels of articulation and nuance repertoire. In 2008, Soniccouture, captured by its extensive recordings a virtual instrument production of each instrument, it also disrupts company, run by Dan Powell and James essential elements of gamelan. By Thompson, released a sample library allowing the consumer to isolate assembled from 8,000 recordings of The individual instruments and notes, the London Symphony Orchestra’s Semara ‘thick’ texture of gamelan vanishes. In Dana Gamelan Ensemble and Gamelan addition to deviations in sound, there Batel Ramayana in Toronto. These is an obvious loss in the elimination of recordings have been transformed into a interpersonal transmittal. The gamelan plug-in for music production software, tradition of teaching and learning by in which composers and producers can rote rather than by notation necessitates separate and recombine 30 different a teacher-student relationship to conduct instruments from both ensembles, as the transfer of knowledge, whereas the well as retune to any scale, be it pelog, digital package provides the consumer slendro, or the Western heptatonic scale. with the instant ability to ‘play.’ The The product, marketed under an ‘Ethnic’ London Symphony Orchestra itself category on Soniccouture’s website, offers a free, although limited, online is “ideal for anyone who wants the composition game, which also offers essence of gamelan–the magical flavor– short descriptions of instruments and without breaking the bank or the hard suggestions for how to arrange a short drive,” despite being one of their most musical phrase. In some ways, these expensive products at 199 Euro* . The digital developments are similar to 48-page instruction manual contains a other forms of intercultural transfer brief history of gamelan, a breakdown in the way they both preserve and of traditional scales and modes, and also detract from musical traditions, an introduction to each instrument. harkening back to the cultural pollution The product’s literature and product vs. cultural renaissance duality. But the reviews are punctuated by words such new technology seems to go far beyond as ‘magical,’ ‘ethnic,’ ‘exotic,’ and early field recordings, which detached ‘ancient’—the same orientalist and gamelan music from live performance, essentialist vocabulary used at the but preserved the sound of the cohesive ensemble and documented traditional * Soniccouture Website. “Products page.” http:// www.soniccouture.com/en/products/ Accessed April compositions. Soniccouture’s sampling 6, 2020

32 Emma Lo library functions differently in that music, and intercultural collaborations it increases the range of mobility of are just a few examples of the ways gamelan, but severs the instrument’s gamelan has been transferred across sounds from the instrument itself, and cultures and over time. These different puts great distance between the product kinds of cultural transfer have had a and the culture from which it originates. range of consequences on gamelan music and the way is it performed. VI. Conclusion Recent digital developments reopen The long history of intercultural lines of inquiry about how the integrity transfer involving the Balinese of gamelan music is impacted by gamelan has seen many developments cultural transfer, how far preservation in the ways in which transfer occurs. stretches alongside the evolution of the Distribution of recordings, local genre, and the gatekeepers of gamelan performances for tourist audiences, today.[] non-native gamelan ensembles, Western compositions inspired by Balinese

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