Seniman tua - Old masters

Gede Manik
Gede (or Gde) Manik (1912-1984) helped give shape to the gamelan gong kebyar style in Bali. Known for his energetic drumming style and extensive improvisations, he embellished and modified the classic kebyar work, Kebyar Legong, composed by his teacher Pan Wandres around 1920, to create Taruna (or Teruna) Jaya. The process of modification took many years, until the late 1940s or early 1950s. The fame of Taruna Jaya spread throughout Bali over the following decade; gamelan clubs needed to master the piece in order to confirm that they had “made it” as a legitimate kebyar club.

Taruna Jaya
The choreography of Taruna Jaya drew many elements from the kebyar bebancihan works of the 1940s, which highlighted the interplay of male and female elements. Since it developed out north Bali’s Kebyar Legong dance, it also fused elements of kebyar with the courtly, more restrained legong. With its frenetic chain of melodies, tempi and textures, Taruna Jaya is considered a quintessential kebyar dance composition. During the 1950s, Manik shortened it from 55 to about 16 minutes, apparently to conform to President Sukarno’s request for more compact and digestible works for domestic and tourist consumption. Despite his many other accomplishments, Gede Manik will always be remembered primarily for this piece.

From the north to the south
Born in Jagaraga in north Bali, Manik was in one of the crucibles of kebyar innovation. His village and near-by Bungkulan (among others) set off the kebyar craze in 1914-15, and remained fiercely competitive for decades. The north Bali style was considered wild and violent, with musicians “hurling” themselves at their instruments. As the style drifted southward, musicians added sensibilities derived from the more refined court genres. After 1949, when the district capital of Bali moved from north Bali (Singaraja) to south Bali (Denpasar), the center of kebyar innovation shifted south as well. I Gede Manik had always been a zealous proponent and teacher of the style, but after World War II he further fraternized with many southern clubs. His influence with southern musicians (Wayan Beratha among others) in the 1950s may have inadvertently completed the transition of artistic authority from the north to the south.

Author: Wayne Vitale, January 2007

Ni Luh Menek
Ni Luh Menek was born in Jagaraga, North Bali in 1939. She achieved extraordinary fame as a kebyar dancer, primarily through her interpretations of Taruna Jaya, learned directly from its two creators, Pan Wandres and I Gede Manik. She started dancing at the age of ten and first performed Taruna Jaya in 1954, at the age of fifteen. These early performances gained her immediate fame, and many groups throughout the island asked her to perform.

ni luh menek

Education
As Wayan Dibia recalls (2004), when Menek rehearsed under the tutelage of both Gede Manik and Pan Wandres, she did so with a full kebyar gamelan orchestra (most dancers only rehearsed with two or three musicians before tape recorders came on the scene). This gave her the advantage of total immersion into the music, something that is intrinsic to kebyar style gamelan, where the dancer must be able to emote what the music is saying through her body and her facial expressions. Studying under these great men was not easy. She admits that she would often get confused as to which step came next, which made her teachers kick her feet and yell at her. The people watching the rehearsal would laugh at her. But instead of losing her confidence, this only made her tougher and she was determined to fully fathom what she was being taught.

Taruna Jaya
Taruna Jaya (“Victorious Youth”) portrays the many moods of youth, and it nowadays usually performed as a solo female dance. As such it contains a fundamental challenge for the perfomer, since the character conveys the changing emotions of a young man.Taruna Jaya is a dance of restless energy, both in the music and choreography; the dancer (like the drummer, who leads the other musicians) must know not only when to release that energy, but when to restrain it. One of Menek’s many masteries lies in at controlling her energy through her breath.

Palawakia revival
In 1995, she was invited by the Semara Ratih troupe in Ubud to perform the piece Palawakia, which features a dancer playing solo the trompong and simultaneously reciting poetry known as kakawin. Menek helped to revive this piece and it is now performed all over the island. Her principle is art for the people’’. She will perform anywhere and help other gamelan and dance troupes who need her to teach.

Author: Wayne Vitale, January 2007

Gede Merdana
In the pantheon of 20th century Balinese composers of kebyar music, Merdana (?-1965), also known as Gede Merdana, occupies a unique place. He was a composer, and the director and lead drummer of his gamelan in Kedis Kaja, North Bali. We know him almost entirely through his music: the dance compositions Tari Nelayan and Wira Jaya, and the virtuoso instrumental pieces Gambang Suling, Hujan Mas and Kebyar Susun.

Merdana, a member of the Partai Communis Indonesia, composed Tari Nelayan (Fisherman’s Dance) in response to the party’s demand for dances celebrating the lives of ordinary people. An excellent composition, it is still widely played despite its unfashionable theme.

He was a powerful and original talent, but, in general, other composers did not adopt his techniques. Merdana was killed in the civil strife of 1965-66

Compositions
Wiran Jaya
Teruna Jaya , also called Wira Jaya, is a brilliant kebyar dance piece. It was unknown outside North Bali until 2002 when Wayan Gandera reconstructed it from memory and taught it to the Çudamani gamelan of Pengosekan in South Bali. It should not be confused with the Teruna Jaya that is played everywhere.

Gambang Suling
Merdana’s instrumental pieces are more experimental and imaginative. Gambang Suling is typical. It is ostensibly based on the Javanese gending composed by Ki Nartosabdo, but most of the piece is devoted to virtuoso solos and duets for reyong and suling. In one section, for example, the reyong is played as though it were a trompong.

Kebyar Susun
Kebyar Susun is a short, occasionally whimsical, kebyar composition designed to show off the various sections of the gamelan. There is a lengthy kendang solo, and there is even a brief solo for the kempli, a small gong that acts as time beater.

Hujan Mas
Hujan Mas is apparently unknown, even in North Bali, and exists only on a tape recording. It is episodic and idiosyncratic, highlighting suling and reyong, with the latter again played as a trompong. One section features the popular Central Javanese song, Suwe Ora Jamu. (Merdana’s piece should not be confused with the hugely popular Hujan Mas by his contemporary, Gede Purana.

Conduit to the south
Gunung Sari, the famous gamelan club of Peliatan, where Wayan Gandera was musical director, was the conduit from Merdana to the south. His music came first to Peliatan and then, via Gandera, to other clubs. Some of his compositions are known and played in South Bali even today.

Author: Ruby Ornstein, January 2006