Nyoman Windha’s Catur Yuga. A New Concept of Contemporary Balinese Chamber Music?

Abstract

The so-called kebyar-style of the 20th and 21st centuries is regarded as the basic stylistic frame of recent Balinese musical development; its influences are discernible in almost all other Balinese genres. Beginning in the 1960s, I Wayan Beratha created a model called kreasi baru (literally “new creation”) that soon became the prevailing standard for the development of almost all contemporary music. Nevertheless, that model still had its roots in traditional Balinese music, as described systematically and encompassingly by Michael Tenzer (2000). Parallel to this ongoing practice, some younger composers have consciously attempted to go beyond the normative criteria of the kreasi baru. This can be seen in aspects of form (new process-orientated ideas, change of the gong function from end- to frontweightedness etc.), in the change of the functions of musical strata, but also in vertical sound organisation. Only a few composers have devoted themselves to a radical experimental approach, while most tend to favour a gradual extension of the Balinese musical language. Nyoman Windha’s composition Catur Yuga from 1997 is a significant example of such a stepwise crossing of the normative borders of the standardized kebyar-style. This approach is demonstrated by an analytical discussion of several short examples from Catur Yuga.