Yesterday, I did my regular browsing activity on the net and stumbled across an interesting article entitled “Frequently Asked Questions about Gamelan” in www.dcgamelan.com, a site owned by Gamelan Mitra Kusuma, which is founded in 1997, Gamelan Mitra Kusuma is an ensemble composed of members from many different backgrounds, who all have a common interest in learning about and performing Balinese music and dance, as well as encouraging the enjoyment, experience, and appreciation of the culture and performing arts traditions of Bali, Indonesia. At residence at World Arts Focus in Mount Rainier, Maryland, the group draws its members from all over Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, DC. The name Mitra Kusuma means “Flowering Friendship,” which describes the warm and creative relationship cultivated by this group of musicians and dancers.
Without further ado here is the article.

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“Balinese are truly communal people”, this claim, of course need to be supported with a fact, and here is the fact.

flickr.com/photos/cafiso/

If there is a work to be done by the Balinese, they will create a group to perform this task no matter haw simple this work. In Bali, there is an independent group for every purpose and only one purpose per group. Even when new or temporary needs for working together arise, Balinese do not normally employ one of their already existing social groupings, but instead usually establish a new one.

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The word Gamelan is a Balinese term for “orchestra”; there are many types of Gamelan in Bali. Gamelan is a generic term, and there is dozen or more completely different kind of ensembles. Gamelan is a percussion-dominated musical ensemble.

The instruments that are used in a Gamelan ensemble usually consist of

Gangsas
Metallophones that look like xylophones, called gangsas, consist of a carved often gilded, frame containing bamboo resonator over which a series of bronze keys are suspended by hide lacing. The bronze keys are hit with little wooden hammers which causes bamboo resonators below the keys to vibrate. They may have four to fourteen keys and are grouped in matching pairs according to size and number of key. After the keys have been hit by the hammer in the right hand, the left hand immediately grasps the key to stop the sound merging in the next note.

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A generic term for any number of Balinese percussion-type orchestras first depeloved on Java. Made up mainly of bronze and wooden xylophones shaped likediscs, cylinders, keys, or bulbous hollow bowls beaten with hammers, sometimes accompanied by chorus of singers, drums, bamboo flutes, and bronze gongs.

This year, Lila Cita has been invited to perform at the prestigious Bali Arts Festival. This festival, known locally as Pesta Kesenian Bali or PKB, is the biggest showcase of Balinese visual and performing arts and is now in its 28th year. For a whole month (17 June to 15 July), artists and performers from all over Bali and selected groups from other countries will pack the busy daily programme. Have a look at the last year’s PKB programme.

Lila Cita will be on stage in Denpasar at 8pm on 8 July 2006. We will be playing both Gamelan Gong Kebyar and Gamelan Semar Pagulingan and will be the first foreign group ever to play Gamelan Semar Pagulingan at the Bali Arts Festival.

More information visit http://www.lilacita.com/

No visit to Bali can be called complete without witnessing at least one performance of the spectacular mix of grace and spirit, passion and power that is Balinese dance. Whether it is the delicate beauty of the Legong dance, where angelic young girls move with breathtaking grace to the silvery tones of a gamelan orchestra, or the uncanny magic of the Calonarang drama where the evil witch Rangda does battle with the legendary Barong and his legion of dagger-wielding followers, or the spine-tingling action of the Kecak, whose hundred man chorus sends up an eerie symphony of sound into the still night air, a performance of Balinese dance is something the visitor will never forget.

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