On Godowsky's Java Suite, Gamelan [1/12]

Описание: I. Gamelan

Native music, played by the Javanese on their indigenous instruments, is called Gamelan. The Javanese ensemble is a kind of exotic orchestra, consisting mainly of diversely shaped and constructed percussive instruments, chimes, gongs, sounding boards, bowls, pans, drums (some barrel-like), tom-toms, native xylophones, sonorous alang-alang (zephyr-like, aeolian harp-like) and other unique music instruments. The only stringed instrument I could discern was the ancient, guitar-shaped, rebab, which is held by the leader in a position similar to that of the lute.

Both rulers of the two Sultanates of central Java: the Susuhuman of Solo and the Sultan of Djokja, and the two independent princes, Manka Negoro of Solo and Pakju Alam of Djokja, have the best, largest and most complete native orchestras (Gamelan). They own old instruments of inestimable value, the enchanting similarity of which is attributable to the mellowing process of time.

The sonority of the Gamelan is weird, spectral, fantastic and bewitching, the native music so elusive, vague, shimmering and singular, that on listening to this new world of sound I lost my sense of reality, imagining myself in a realm of enchantment. Nothing seen or experienced in Java conveyed so strongly the mysterious and strange character of the island and its inhabitants.

The Gamlan produces most ethereal pianissimos, particularly entrancing when heard from a distance. It is like a perfume of sound, like a musical breeze. Usually the music, beginning very softly and languidly, becomes faster and louder as the music progresses, rising, at last, to a barbaric climax.

In this , the first of the descriptive scenes, I have endeavoured to recreate a Gamelan sonority – a typical Javanese atmosphere. Except for the one chromatic variation (pages 8 – 10) which is intentionally Occidental, the movement is almost exclusively diatonic and decidedly Oriental (Far Eastern).
L. Godowsky

Gamelan in its original form:
   • Indonesian gamelan medley from Java, Sunda...