Skali-Niskala - Cto for keyboard and Balinese gamelan
Bill Alves
About this work:
Like many Western composers, I have been captivated by the startling, shimmering, dynamic sound of the Balinese gamelan orchestra from my first exposure to it, through my participation in gamelan in the United States, and my Fulbright-sponsored stay on the island in 1994. Being a composer, I naturally wanted to write for the ensemble, but without evoking or imitating the sound of Balinese traditional music for the sake of empty exoticism. At the same time, I could not and did not want to ignore the tradition behind the instruments. Instead, I created a work based on a Western genre (the concerto) and structures with traditional influences that are idiomatic to the instruments while still retaining a voice that is distinctively my own and from my culture. The first movement, for example, combines the drama of the Western concerto with that of the kebyar non-metrical opening that characterizes the most common genre of modern Balinese concert music. Other Balinese techniques include interlocking figuration, or kotekan, and the asymmetrical 5+3 rhythm of the more ancient gamelan. These techniques are freely adapted and combined with Western ones, such as the decidedly un-Balinese triple meter of the second and third movements.
Year composed: 1998
Duration: 00:16:30
Ensemble type: Chamber or Jazz Ensemble, Without Voice:Other Combinations, 10+ players
Instrumentation: ,1 Unspecified Keyboard Instrument(s) soloist(s)
Instrumentation notes: For retuned piano or keyboard and Balinese gamelan: reyong (4), kantilan (2), pemade (2), ugal, penyacah (optional), calung, jegogan, kempur/gong