Waton by Komang Astita by Elaine Barkin
SCORE Waton by Komang Astita by Elaine Barkin Waton was the work which really engaged strongly “pulsed” beleganjur style, syncopated or Komang’s versatility and creativity during his interlocked; meditatively freer at both the opening residency at UCLA. Waton — from the Balinese word and the close. Lingering timbres shift and resonate watu, meaning stone — refers to “the foundation of a throughout Waton’s essentially palindromic design structure.” The work owes its very being and (yet the durations differ). Downbeat and “end gong” originality to Komang’s talent in architecture, which feelings and senses inhabit the work, albeit one at a he studied at KOKAR, and to the unusual choice of time. instruments. He used Javanese gender , gongs, and As Waton opens, a listener might feel a bit pelog saron; Balinese gangsa, kajar, calung, ceng- uncertain as temple bowls, Tibetan bells, kempul, ceng, and kendang; plus Chinese temple bowls, clapsticks, guiro, and whirlies softly and dreamily various sizes of rain sticks, Aboriginal clapsticks, bounce and click off one another. After a few minutes, guiro, Tibetan bells and bowls, and colored plastic high gangsas join in, rippling and glissing; a slow, whirlies (which I’d bought over the years in toy stores unhurried yet filled in jam karet [lit. “rubber hour” in and Chinatown, and cut to different lengths to Indonesian, refers to a relaxed attitude toward time] produce a wide range of tones and partials). sound. After several more moments, an underlying, at For Waton, Komang made a graphic score — a first in audible sense of order subtly and gently first for him — which underwent numerous changes begins to make its presence known as sarons enter in, before it became the score we used in performance.
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