"Gamelan Anytime" at Yogyakarta Gamelan Festival

Jogja, Jogjatrip.com—The Annual Yogyakarta Gamelan Festival (YGF), an annual event, is now held for the 15^th time. The international cultural event is held by Komunitas Gayam 16 and opened on Friday (7/16) at Taman Budaya Yogyakarta (TBY). Bringing in the theme ‘Gamelan Anytime’, YGF will last until Sunday (7/18) and be jazzed up by many participants from Yogyakarta, Bandung, USA, Netherlands and Singapore.

Ari Wulu, the oldest son of the late Sapto Rahardjo as well as the 15^th YGF Steering Committee stated that the theme ‘Gamelan Anytime’ symbolized the efforts to enliven gamelan at anytime and anywhere. “The theme aims at taking gamelan sounds more often at anytime. The most important thing is of course the spirit of gamelan itself,” explained Ari, quoting his late father.

The opening ceremony at TBY Concert Hall performed three gamelan music groups namely KPH10, Kyai Fatahillah meets Ensemble Gending and OrkeStar Trio with Ramu Thiruyanam. The three groups from different countries played gamelan very well and enchanted the audience.

The first group to perform was the KPH10 which was a composite of eight gamelan players from USA and Yogyakarta. This was their tenth performance in YGF and this time they performed a composition entitled ‘In Pelog’ by Alex Dea. For 25 minutes they did the ‘cycling’ and ‘phasing’, playing the melody repeatedly until it results in resonance.

The next performances were by Kyai Fatahillah meets Ensemble Gending bringing in four compisitions. This group is a composite of 16 gamelan players from Bandung and 11 others from Netherlands. They performed more dinamically than the previous group.

The last performance was by the OrkeStar Trio with Ramu Thriyunam from Singapore. Unlike the previous groups, OrkeStar consists only of four young musicians. Through their performance they showed their spirit in exploring the context and diversity of Malay music. They presented an attractive and energetic performance by combining traditional and modern melody. They were using such musical instruments as keyboard, flute, six-stringed, violin, drum and percussion instruments.

In addition to the gamelan concert held every night at the Concert Hall for three days, the 15^th YGF is also holding gamelan workshop on Saturday (7/17) at TBY at 02.00 p.m. There is also ‘Gamelan Anytime’ exhibition at the Concert Hall lobby from 11.00 a.m to 11.00 p.m. (Elisabeth Murni)

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