The UC Santa Barbara Gamelan Ensemble presented a concert showcasing ancient gamelan styles of music from Cirebon, West Java at Karl Geiringer Hall on May 23.
The concert also featured visual storytelling through dancing and masks. Elijah Obando / Daily Nexus
Gamelan music is a traditional Indonesian musical ensemble consisting of percussion instruments, metallophones and drums. According to Director and lecturer Richard North, the concert featured a “large horse-style” ensemble and a “small chamber” ensemble. The concert also featured visual storytelling through dancing and masks.
Throughout the concert, North gave audience members context for the pieces being performed. He explained the stories, cultural meanings and dance traditions behind them. Several pieces were rooted in themes of romance and nature, including songs connected to court dancing and traditions.
The Gamelan Ensemble is a series of classes offered at UCSB, under the ethnomusicology program, that teaches students the Indonesian musical tradition. North explained the ensemble offers students a space to destress from pressures in their own lives.
“You’ve got that term paper. You’ve got that final coming up and gamelan does two things: it makes you deeply relaxed inside, which tends towards happiness and refreshes you,” North said. “But it [also] creates this sense of community, because you can see the warmth between all of these students.”
North explained that his connection to gamelan music began after he first encountered the music in college. He later traveled to Indonesia in 1976 to study it.
“I went to Indonesia in ‘76 to learn music, never knowing that I would completely fall in love with the people,” North said. “[Indonesia has] beautiful islands sure [and] pretty music sure, but the people are amazingly deep and kind and loving, and I now know the great grandchildren of the people I met in ‘76.”
Aria Rene, a second-year film and media studies major and audience member, said she enjoyed the performance.
“I think [the performance] is very wonderful, and I’m really glad that [the UCSB Gamelan Ensemble] is still keeping [the tradition] alive, especially around campus and showing it to everyone, and it being free,” Rene said.
