Flexibility in the Performance Practice of Central Javanese Music

Abstract

An enormous challenge facing listeners upon their first several exposures to Central music is understanding and accepting the flexibility one encounters in the performance practice of this tradition. Central music does not, for the most part, have compositions in the Western sense of the word. Instead, it possesses a repertoire of pieces each of which can be defined and recognized by a unique combination of melodic, structural, formal and tonal elements. For a given performance of a piece these elements are fixed, but from a tradition-wide perspective some of these elements can and do exist in a number of slightly different, but equally valid, versions. Due to such performance variables as instrumentation, the tuning of instruments, repetition of melodic material, tempo, and the realizations of certain instrumental and vocal lines, the overall aural impression of a given piece can vary greatly from one performance to the next. Thus, it is not sufficient to examine one performance of a piece and assume that you know that piece, for to know a piece one must be aware of its identifying elements, and how these elements interact with the variables of performance. This paper examines the complexities of how a Central piece is realized, by comparing three performances of a piece available on commercial recordings in the United States.1 When used in combination with the three recordings, the paper should give the reader a clearer understanding of the elements and processes involved in performing a Central piece. The piece to be studied is titled ketawang Puspawarna. Performances of Puspawarna are contained on each of the first two volumes of Nonesuch's Javanese Court Gamelan series (H-72044 and H-72074), and on a Lyrichord album (LLST 7310) entitled Street Music of Central Java. The first two performances are played on gamelans and exemplify the