Aesthetic and Spiritual Correlations in Javanese Gamelan Music

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Aesthetic and Spiritual Correlations in Javanese Gamelan Music SUSAN PRATT WALTON Aesthetic and Spiritual Correlations in Javanese Gamelan Music There are striking similarities and intriguing con- in part, to support, manifest, and express that sys- nections between the tradition of gamelan music tem. The stated aim of music making, the structure in Java and Javanese mystical traditions. A game- of the music, the leadership styles, and the creation lan is an ensemble of gongs, metalophones, drums, of melodies have remarkably close parallels in the bowed lute, xylophone, zither, bamboo flute, and Javanese mystical world.2 singers. Gamelans of many different types exist in My analysis of the link between Javanese mu- Java, Bali, and Lombok, as well as in Malaysia. sical and mystical traditions centers on the con- Some include only a few gongs; others have up cept of rasa, which is crucial to both traditions. to fifty instruments. The type of ensemble that I start with the ancient Sanskrit theory of rasa, concerns us is the largest of these ensembles, the then move to the central role of rasa in contempo- gamelan of Central Java. Its most important func- rary Java musical groups, followed by an analysis tion is to accompany dance, theater, and ceremo- of Sumarsam’s “inner melody” theory of Javanese nial occasions, such as weddings, in both ritual and music. Finally, I show that rasa is not merely an commercial settings. abstract construct accessible to an elite cadre of The links between the musical and mystical tra- the most knowledgeable gamelan musicians: it is ditions of Java have not been much noticed or ex- the basis of music making for many musicians, es- amined in the scholarly literature. The focus of pecially those of the older generation. gamelan research has been elsewhere: on the per- Before delving into the links between the mys- formance styles of particular instruments or mu- tical and musical traditions of Java, I need to flesh sical groups, the history of the tradition, including out the concept of rasa. The primary meaning is the effects of Westernization, analysis of mode, feeling. As ‘feeling,’ it refers to the physical senses musical cognition, and Javanese music theory. Ju- of taste and touch and also to emotional feelings. dith Becker, in her fascinating and suggestive Rasa can also mean ‘meaning.’ The example Clif- Gamelan Stories: Tantrism,Islam, and Aesthetics in ford Geertz gives is: “rasa is applied to words in Central Java, does point out that vestiges of ancient a letter, in a poem or even in a speech, to indi- mystical practices can be found in pitch names, the cate the between-the-lines ‘looking north and hit- titles of musical pieces, and in the sacred bedhaya ting south’ type of allusive suggestion that is so dance.1 These observations are symptoms, it seems important in Javanese communication.”3 As this to me, of more fundamental and more pervasive example illustrates, rasa can mean the essential, links between gamelan music and spirituality in often hidden, significance of something obscure. Java. I contend that gamelan music mirrors and This concept of rasa points back to the first no- manifests a central system of thought, experience, tion of rasa as feeling and taste. For the Javanese, and belief in Javanese culture: mysticism. Though to fathom something obscure, one has to engage waning in recent decades, mysticism has long been all one’s senses, feelings, and intuitions, as if one a focal point in Javanese culture, so it is not surpris- were tasting the essence of the thing. Touse merely ing that Java’s musical system is organized, at least one’s intellectual capacities is not enough. 32 Global Theories of the Arts and Aesthetics i. RASA in sanskrit aesthetic theory and The rasa magnetizes the viewer, pulling her or in sufism him into the dramatic situation so that the viewer can relish the work in an almost gustatory way, ex- Rasa is an integral part of two Javanese mystical periencing it in mind and body.9 Enthralled by the traditions: Tantric Shaivism and Mahayana Bud- rasa, the viewer is freed from her or his usual men- dhism on the one hand, and mystical Islam (Su- tal chatter, liberated from the ego. Masson and fism) on the other hand. Patwardhan explain: Sanskrit aesthetic theory constitutes a key el- ement in Java’s Tantric Shaivism and Mahayana Buddhist mystical traditions. Sanskrit aesthetic for the duration of the aesthetic experience, the normal ... theory was first articulated in the Natyasastra, the waking “I” is suspended all normal emotions are gone ... ... main Sanskrit treatise on dramaturgy dating some- we experience sheer undifferentiated bliss for we where between the second century and eighth cen- have come into direct contact with the deepest recesses tury CE, and was further developed in the tenth of our own unconscious where the memory of a primeval century by the Tantric Shaivite philosopher, Ab- unity between man and the universe is still strong. Inad- ... hinavagupta, of Kashmir.4 Java and other parts of vertently we have arrived at the same inner terrain 10 Southeast Asia were strongly impacted by Indian as that occupied by the mystic. culture during the first millennium of this era. The products of this influence include Indian religions, Thus for Abhinavagupta, aesthetic enjoyment mythology, and, as Laurie Sears posits, Sanskrit and mystical experience are intimately connected, aesthetic theory.5 for through works of art a person reconnects with A crucial concept in Sanskrit aesthetic theory the fundamental oneness of all things, what some is the notion of rasa. According to this theory, may call the Absolute. But that Absolute resides the hallmark of a good drama is its ability to within oneself. As a person fully experiences an develop a particular rasa, which then dominates aesthetic work, one merges with the object of con- the work.6 The Natyasastra mentions eight pri- templation, identifying completely with it, and ex- mary rasa: the erotic (srngara), the comic (hasya), periences his or her pure self, or “highest Self.” the pathetic (karuna), the furious (raudra), the Masson and Patwardhan explain: “We can thus heroic (vira), the terrible (bhayankara), the odi- see that all of Abhinava’s efforts focus on one ous (bibhatsa), and the marvelous (adbhuta). Ab- important need: to crack the hard shell of the ‘I’ hinavagupta added a ninth rasa: the santa rasa, and allow to flow out the higher Self which auto- or tranquil sentiment associated with mystical ex- matically identifies with everyone and everything perience. The exact production of rasa is not around.”11 This notion of art as a tool for achiev- fully explained in the Natyasastra and has thus ing oneness explains a seeming anomaly in this been interpreted differently by different Indian theory: the word ‘rasa’ refers both to the feelings philosophers. The Natyasastra states: “The Sen- experienced by the viewers of dramatic works and timent is produced (rasanispattih) from a com- to the most profound mystical awareness. For Ab- bination (samyoga) of Determinants (vibhava), hinavagupta, the two are the same, for one cannot Consequents (anubhava), and Transitory States truly appreciate a work of art without achieving (vyabhicaribhava).”7 Determinants are the causes that mystical experience. of emotion, such as elements in a drama that However, not everyone is capable of experienc- might bring forth old memories and rouse the ing this level of aesthetic and spiritual bliss. Only a emotions. The consequents are the physical effects person who can transcend his or her ego, merging (for example, blushing) arising due to the determi- completely with the work of art, can do so. Such a nants. The vyabhicaribhava are secondary, tran- person is called sahrdaya, “sensitive.”12 sient emotions, such as weeping with joy. As these Crucial to this theory of aesthetics is that the three elements work together, the aesthete expe- essential meaning of a work, its rasa, is never riences one of the eight sthayi bhava, the primary stated directly, but only suggested. This is true emotional states. “The welling up of this emotion for two reasons, according to Abhinavagupta. causes a state of total engrossment, which con- First, a work that makes veiled allusions “car- comitantly leads to the loss of ego ... The to- ries far greater beauty” than one that bluntly tally unhampered experience of the sthayi bhava asserts its truths.13 Second, the very act of un- welling up from within is rasa.”8 earthing the hidden meaning in an aesthetic work Walton Aesthetic and Spiritual Correlations in Javanese Gamelan Music 33 has spiritual value, for it “impels us to great de- Both G. W. J. Drewes and Judith Becker stress votion for another truth, beyond the phenome- that Tantric mysticism and Sufi mysticism in Java nal world.”14 The fundamental meaning of an aes- shared so many features that the transition from thetic work is hidden, just as knowledge of ulti- the Indian to the Arabic form was probably quite mate reality is believed to lie deep within a person. smooth.20 Several tenets in rasa theory touch on key is- sues of Western aesthetics. Abhinavagupta’s focus on individual experience of intense emotion sug- ii. RASA in contemporary javanese spiritual gests that for him, aesthetic meaning is located in contexts the perceiver, not the aesthetic work. For example, the rasa of pathos (karuna) resides in the aesthete Moving toward my goal of exploring the similari- and is not an inherent element of the work itself. ties between Java’s spiritual and musical traditions, Furthermore, for Abhinavagupta, an individual’s I focus in this section on the central role of rasa response to a work is a product of his or her cul- in Javanese mystical groups.
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