Gendhing Sekaten. (2010) 2020Gendhing Pahargyan. (2012) 2020Gendhing Kurmat Dalem. 2020Gendhing Gati. (2015) 2020Gendhing Gati Volume 2. 2020Gendhing Soran Volume 1. 2021

Abstract

The Karaton Ngayogyakarta Hadiningrat, better known to the world at large as the K(e)raton Yogyakarta or Kraton Jogja, has recently established a presence on the Internet to help broadcast an updated presentation of their brand of Javanese kingship to contemporary Javanese, Indonesian, and international audiences. In 2016, the palace launched its official website (www.kratonjogja.id), on which they post (and archive): announcements about palace current events; biographical information about the Sultan, royal family members, and palace servants (abdidalem) with interesting specializations or compelling life stories; historical pieces on events and personalities that are central to the identity of this institution; and much more. Additionally, the palace livestreams (and archives) a number of events on YouTube involving presentations mounted by its performing arts section, K. H. P. Kridhamardawa (hereafter KM). These range from the performance of quasi-sacred court dances to concerts of palace music and dance presented in celebration of the Sultan's birthdate (every thirty-five days, according to Javanese calendrics) to the premiere performance of the newly established palace symphony orchestra. Since 2020, KM has released six themed albums online containing studio-quality recordings of seventy-seven gendhing (pieces) from the palace gamelan repertoire performed by palace musicians (abdidalem niyaga) on palace gamelan sets (kagungan dalem gongso). I will focus on the presentation of these albums on YouTube because accessibility is free on this platform; subscribers to Spotify, Apple Music, and iTunes must pay to stream or download digital files of the same recordings.All of these albums exist only in the nonrivalrous form of digital files. Though they are not and have never been commercially released compact discs, all of the material found on the first two albums listed above have been released as part of two noncommercial albums (both no longer available) produced cooperatively by KM and the Dinas Kebudayaan DIY (Cultural Office of the Yogyakarta Special Region) in 2010 and 2012.1 In 2020, KM began reissuing most of this material online grouped under the album titles Gendhing Sekaten and Gendhing Pahargyan.Gendhing Sekaten (Sekaten Gamelan Pieces) includes recordings of the core repertoire of gendhing performed during the yearly Sekaten celebration. Sekaten commemorates the birth of the Prophet Mohammed, and the centerpiece of this weeklong festival at the Great Mosque of Yogyakarta is the sounding of the palace's two archaic sekati gamelans. Sixteen particular gendhing have come to be considered central to the identities of this occasion and the two gamelan sekati, and all sixteen of these pieces are heard, along with their nonmetric modal introductions (racikan) on this album. The recordings were made on the two heirloom gamelan sekati: nine of the gendhing realized on K. K Gunturmadu; seven on K. K. Nagawilaga. The recordings were made under controlled conditions (at the Bangsal Kasatriyan pavilion in the palace, not at the Great Mosque during Sekaten) and what one is presented with is basically flawless realizations of this esoteric and archaic music void of the sonic distractions and musical problems one inevitably encounters in the setting of Sekaten itself. Program notes are minimal and directed toward an Indonesian audience. For English speakers in search of more information about Sekaten, see appropriate sections of the website “The Gamelans of the Kraton Yogyakarta” (Vetter n.d.).Gendhing Pahargyan (Celebration Gamelan Pieces) consists of recordings of thirteen pieces from the modern gamelan repertoire that have associations with specific palace ceremonies. Performed here on unidentified modern or modernized palace gamelans, the selection of pieces includes both laras sléndro and laras pélog (the two traditional tuning systems) pieces, set in a variety of formal structures (lancaran, bibaran, ladrang, and gendhing alit) with some performed in the soran (loud) style and others in the lirehan (soft) style. The majority of the selections are used at particular points in royal wedding ceremonies; the remaining ones mark transition points that occur in a number of palace ceremonies. Notes (in Indonesian) for these selections can be found on the palace's website and on their respective YouTube pages. The recordings were made under controlled conditions, not in situ as part of palace ceremonies, in around 2012.Gendhing Kurmat Dalem (an EP rather than an LP) consists of performances of the four pieces that are used to kurmat dalem (honor the Sultan) and are considered “signature” pieces that are sounded to mark the Sultan's arrival at and departure from palace ceremonies. The arrival pieces are ladrang “Prabu Mataram” (“King of Mataram”) and ladrang “Raja Manggala” (“King Commander”), both of which are played fast and loud (soran, purely instrumental style) as well as slow and soft (lirehan style, which includes softer-sounding instruments and singing). When performed lirehan, the male and female singers perform as a chorus (koor) and the text of their unison melody is focused upon the Sultan and his responsibilities. Ladrang “Tedhak Saking” (“Move From”) and ladrang “Sri Kondur” (“King Returns Home”) are the two departure signature pieces and, when used in this capacity, are played only in the robust and purely instrumental soran style.2 Explanatory notes in Indonesian can be found on the palace's website along with cipher notation for the pieces’ balungan (core melody) and for “Prabu Mataram” and “Raja Manggala,” the koor part.3Yet a fourth album of previously recorded gendhing was issued on YouTube by KM in 2020. Titled Gendhing Gati (Serious Gamelan Pieces), this album consists of seventeen gendhing, sixteen of which were apparently recorded in 2015 and one newly recorded piece. Gendhing gati constitute a group of gamelan pieces integrating gamelan and Western instruments that is closely associated with the Kraton Yogyakarta. They can be understood as growing out of centuries of interaction between European powers and Yogyakarta royalty.4 There were until recently about fifty gendhing gati found in various palace gendhing manuscripts, all of them meant for performance on laras pélog gamelans in the soran (loud) style. Each piece is cast in the thirty-two-beat ladrang form but uses a specific variant of the standard drumming pattern for this form called kendhangan ladrang sabrangan (“sabrangan” means “foreign”), which is further accentuated with powerful strokes on the bedhug (a large, stick-beaten barrel drum) and overlaid with European snare drums playing a march-like cadence (gendhing gati are sometimes referred to as mares, the Javanese word for “march”). Traditionally, the balungan (core melody) of a gendhing gati is doubled by a small band of Western instruments, mostly brass but also woodwinds and even bowed strings. The primary use of gendhing gati is to accompany the entrance (kapang-kapang maju) and exit (kapang-kapang mundur) of female dancers for the highly refined bedhaya and srimpi court dances that utilize gamelans in the laras pélog. In the past they may also have been sounded on the archaic gamelan sekati during Sekaten. Descriptions (in Indonesian) of the individual selections can be found on their respective YouTube pages and on the Kraton Jogja website, which also includes cipher notation of the pieces’ balungan.5With the exception of one track (gendhing “Gati Mardika”), what is heard on this album is the traditional performance style for gendhing gati. Each of these pieces is preceded on this recording by either the traditional lagon (mood song, either in its long [wantah] or short [jugag] version) or kandha (narration) that would precede its playing in a performance of the court dance with which it is associated.6 In 2015, when these recordings were made, KM was at an early stage of revitalizing its musik (Western music) resources, which might explain the small size of the “band” heard on these recordings (perhaps two trumpets and two trombones) and intonation and ensemble-cohesion issues.7 Information about which palace gamelans are heard on this recording is not provided, but at least two modern laras pélog sets were used in addition to the very old and low-pitched gamelan K. K. Guntursari (used for the recording of gendhing “Gati Arjuna Mangsah”). I personally have issues with some of the audio engineering choices made in the production of this album, especially with regard to the miking and equalization of the kendhang (gamelan drums), the backgrounding of the winds in the final mix, and the splicing in of many of the lagon from other recordings. That said, the overall sound is very clear and for anyone interested in learning instrumental parts aurally they should have no trouble isolating their subject on these recordings.Unlike all the other gendhing gati on this release, gendhing “Gati Mardika” (“mardika” means “independence”) is of recent composition. The post on the Kraton Jogja website dedicated to this one piece (www.kratonjogja.id/tak-benda/komposisi-musik/39/gendhing-gati-mardika) reveals that in 2020 the Sultan himself desired the creation of a new gendhing gati to celebrate the approaching seventy-fifth anniversary of the declaration of Indonesian independence. The head of KM assigned the composition of this work to the palace musician M. W. Susilomadyo, who obviously finished it in time for it to be recorded and included on the Gendhing Gati album, which premiered on YouTube and other platforms on August 17, 2020 (Indonesian Independence Day). Unlike the other sixteen gendhing gati on this album, innovations in instrumentation and polyphonic writing are introduced. Crash cymbals are used to accentuate stokes of the phrase-marking gong ageng (large gong), and the size of the wind band was increased to perhaps eight to ten players, including the addition of a tuba. While the wind band doubles the balungan of the gendhing throughout the performance, about half the time two trumpet parts break away from the rest of the band to provide flourishes and brief obligato passages. Even this rudimentary level of independence necessitates the use of notation, and the notation provided for this piece is presented both in cipher notation (for the gamelan players) and in Western notation (for the band). A three-stave score is used with the balungan part notated in the middle staff, the independent trumpet parts in the upper staff, and the snare drum and crash cymbal parts in the bottom staff. The quality of the recording itself and of the wind playing is noticeably superior on this selection in comparison to the other sixteen pieces on the album. The leaders of the KM performing arts section must have been favorably impressed with this effort, for they carried this approach to gendhing gati arrangement and performance to their next release, and then went a step further.While fourteen of the selections on the Gendhing Gati Volume 2 are part of the traditional gendhing gati repertoire, their Western instrument parts have been arranged in the style of “Gati Mardika” described above. The downloadable notation for each piece found on the Kraton Jogja post for this album (www.kratonjogja.id/tak-benda/komposisi-musik/44/gendhing-gati-volume-2) includes a score in Western notation that has eleven staves, one each for each wind instrument part (trumpet 1, horn, alto saxophone, trumpet 2, trombone, euphonium or b-flat tuba, and tuba), and one each for the balungan, the tambur (snare drum), and the kendhang with the final staff shared by parts for the bedhug and piatti (crash cymbals). The notation for several of the pieces also includes individual parts for each Western instrument. The wind-writing innovations are restricted to the trumpet 1 and horn parts, which are sometimes divisi; the remaining wind parts simply double the piece's balungan. The name of a Kridhamardawa abdidalem (retainer) who, I deduce, is functioning as the arranger appears at the beginning of each piece's score and parts, and evidently several individuals are currently serving in this capacity. Since the scores and parts are clearly produced on music notation software and follow all the notational conventions of Western music (including the correct clefs and key signatures for transposing instruments), the arrangers of these updated gendhing gati are probably abdidalem musikan (palace servants specializing in Western music)8 who have been trained in Western musical practices prior to their service in the palace.Two newly composed gendhing gati are presented on this release: gendhing “Gati Taruna” (“Young Adults”) by M. W. Susilomadyo and gendhing “Gati Bhinneka” (“Diversity”) by M. P. Ngeksibrongto. Both were created at the request of the Sultan specifically for the ninety-second anniversary of the Indonesian national observance Hari Sumpah Permuda (“Youth Oath Day”), which recognizes the contributions to Indonesian Independence made at a 1928 youth conference held during Dutch occupation. “Gati Taruna” is stylistically in the same vein as “Gati Mardika” and the rearrangements of the traditional gendhing gati heard on Volume 2. “Gati Bhinneka” wanders into new territory for this genre by breaking with conventional expectations for both the gamelan and the wind instrument parts. Notes and descriptive information (in Indonesian) about these works, along with full scores in Western notation, can be found on the Kraton Jogja website (www.kratonjogja.id/tak-benda/komposisi-musik/43/gendhing-gati-taruna-dan-gati-bhinneka).Gendhing Gati Volume 2 concludes with two “bonus tracks.” Two classic gendhing of the Kraton Yogyakarta gamelan repertoire are presented, ladrang “Roning Tawang” and ladrang “Bima Kurda.”9 Both gendhing belong to a small group of pieces called gendhing gangsaran, loud-style (soran) pieces used for dance accompaniment in wayang wong (human dance theatre), pethilan (wayang wong fragments), and lawung (warrior dances). Their performances begin and end with the monotone gendhing “Gangsaran,” use variant versions of the ladrang drumming pattern, and can be performed with Western wind and percussion instruments, as is heard on these bonus tracks. The tambur (snare drum) part for gendhing gangsaran and gendhing gati is the same; however, the bedhug accentuations differ as they follow the Javanese drum patterns (kendhangan). The wind instruments double the balungan. These two recordings were made on the eighteenth-century heirloom gamelan pélog K. K. Guntursari, the laras of which is noticeably lower than those of the modern gamelans used for the rest of the gendhing gati recordings. Liner notes for these two pieces are found only on YouTube and, once again, they are in Indonesian. The recordings of the sixteen gendhing gati on this album were made in late 2020 on the palace gamelan pélog K. K. Sirat Madu. Audio quality is excellent, as is the musicianship displayed by both the gamelan musicians and the Western instrumentalists. It is unclear when the bonus tracks were recorded.The contents of Gendhing Soran Volume 1, the most recent release by the palace, consists of one new gendhing10 and ten selections from the established Yogyakarta gamelan repertoire.11 All the pieces are performed in the soran (loud) style according to the conventional gamelan performance practice of the palace. There is also balanced presentation of repertoire in the two traditional laras (tuning systems): laras sléndro (five gendhing performed on the gamelan K. K. Madumurti) and laras pélog (six gendhing performed on the gamelan K. K. Madukusuma). The recordings themselves are crystal clear and students of Javanese gamelan performance, be they Javanese or not, should be able to focus on any individual part they wish to learn. The post on the palace website announcing this release (www.kratonjogja.id/kagungan-dalem/51/gendhing-soran-volume-1) presents (in Indonesian) an explanation of the subject of the release—gendhing soran—and, for each gendhing, cipher notation of its melodic core (balungan); particulars about the tuning system (laras), mode (pathet), and drumming pattern (kendhangan) in which it is realized; and a general discussion about its origin, evolution, the meaning of its title, any symbolic associations it carries, and any particular performance practice details it demonstrates.On the YouTube platform, the audio recordings on this release are accompanied by silent video footage that is not related to the repertoire being performed. Some of these videos are edited encapsulations of state ceremonies mounted by the palace each year to confirm the positive relationship between the Sultan and powerful Javanese spiritual entities (various stages of the yearly Labuhan ceremony [preparation of offerings in the palace and presentation of the offerings at Gunung Merapi, Parangtritis, Dlepih Kahyangan, and Gunung Lawu] appear with several pieces, others present visual tours of parts of the palace complex, and yet others focus on ceremonies such as the ritual cleansing of state heirlooms and the distribution of offerings to royal and military cemeteries). These provide a glimpse into Javanese kingship at work and allow Javanese viewers to experience virtually what they normally do not see but assume their cultural leader carries out on their behalf.The release of this large batch of recordings by the Kraton Yogyakarta over a period of a little more than a year (April 15, 2020, to June 21, 2021) is part of a larger effort by the palace to establish a voice and the power of self-representation in the dunia maya (“virtual world”) of the Internet. Javanese kingship, with its origins many centuries ago and in a feudal order, has had to adapt many times throughout history to changing social, religious, economic, and hegemonic realities. In early twenty-first century Yogyakarta, the primary function of the Sultan and the Kraton is to guard and perpetuate the cultural inheritance and spiritual well-being of its Javanese subjects. But these subjects (and the royalty as well) also are citizens of the modern nation-state of Indonesia and increasingly interconnected with the world at large through consumerism, tourism, education, broadcast media, the Internet, and social media. The question is: How does traditional kingship establish its relevancy in such times and under such conditions? The short answer to this question is that the institution appears to have decided to embrace the ways of the modern world rather than shun them. In particular, it has found that reaching out to its various contemporary audiences—local Javanese, the general Indonesian public, foreigners—in the spirit of sharing its cultural assets and demystifying its practices is the best way forward.A crucial facilitator in what I see as the palace's current initiative to rebrand itself as a relevant institution in the contemporary world is Tepas Tandha Yekti (“Office of Documentation”; hereafter “TTY”), the newest office in the palace's administrative structure and the brainchild of Gusti Kanjeng Ratu Hayu (hereafter “Gusti Hayu”), the fourth daughter of the Sultan. This office, established with the blessing and financial support of the Sultan in 2012, is charged with: (1) improving the operational efficiency of other palace offices through the introduction of computers and (2) providing the world at large virtual access, via the Internet and social media, to the cultural riches of the Kraton Yogyakarta (Kraton Jogja 2016, Karimuddin and Ryza n.d.). It was TTY that, in December 2016, launched the official website for the Kraton Yogyakarta (www.kratonjogja.id), and it is on this site that these album releases under review were first announced and the program notes and musical notations accompanying these releases are located. The office also meticulously documents in digital photographs and video almost every palace ceremony and its preparations, and it is from this ever-expanding archive that the videos accompanying the Gendhing Soran release on YouTube were created. The Kraton Yogya website is particularly dependable at covering the activities and projects of KM, no doubt in part because the current head of this palace office is the husband of Gusti Hayu, Kanjeng Pangeran Haryo Notonegoro (hereafter “Kanjeng Noto”). Both Gusti Hayu and Kanjeng Noto are cosmopolitans, Gusti Hayu having been educated in Indonesia and England in chemistry and information technology and Kanjeng Noto in Indonesia and the United States in international development—he was employed for a time by the United Nations Development Agency as a risk management specialist and was posted by that organization to Samoa for a few years (Kraton Jogja 2020). While clearly being “people of the world” and technologically savvy, they are also deeply rooted in and respectful of Javanese culture. It is their ability to operate simultaneously in both these domains, along with dependable logistical and financial support from the Sultan, that is facilitating the ongoing rebranding of Javanese kingship in Yogyakarta today.The recent recording releases reviewed here are part of an initiative by this institution to articulate what it is and to redefine how it relates to its current social and cultural landscape. Javanese kingship in Yogyakarta has new tools at hand and new strategies in mind to help in this endeavor, and already the palace's performing arts traditions have been heavily enlisted. These six albums are probably targeted to younger Javanese, both those who are cosmopolitan oriented and unfamiliar with the history and purpose of the Kraton Yogyakarta and those who have studied Javanese performing arts and who might be interested in palace service. Even so, students of Javanese gamelan performance living anywhere in the world can enjoy listening to and learning from much of this recorded material, and scholars interested in esoteric repertoires (such as that for Sekaten) or cross-cultural fusions (the gendhing gati) will find material of interest in these releases. As long as the palace's rebranding initiative continues, I think we—Javanese, Indonesians, and foreigners—can expect a steady stream of performances on YouTube and other platforms emanating from the Kraton Yogyakarta.