Miguel Covarrubias (Island of Bali): “No feast is complete in Bali without music and elaborate dramatic and dance performances"

27 Novembre 2020 , Rédigé par Pierre-Olivier Combelles Publié dans #Art, #Asie, #Pacifique, #Exploration, #Histoire, #Musique, #Photographie, #Société, #Voyage

“It is plain that the refined and sensitive Balinese make the most of their daily routine, leading a harmonious and exciting, although simple existence, making an art of the elemental necessities of daily life – dress, food, and shelter.”

Miguel Covarribias

“No feast is complete in Bali without music and elaborate dramatic and dance performances,” he tells us. Every village and neighborhood has one or more gamelan ensembles, in which they take great pride. Unlike Colin McPhee’s fascinating but complex and detailed classic Music in Bali, Covarrubias’s descriptions are relatively non-technical: “In a general way, a Balinese composition is divided into four parts: a light solo to introduce the piece (geginaman); an introductory theme (pengunkab); a central motif (pengawak), the ‘body’ of the piece; and a rhapsodical finale in which the motives are developed (pengetjet).” He talks briefly about the many styles of gamelan, including the virtuosic kebyar, perhaps the most famous, as well as the pelelangan (which accompanies the legong, a dance specialized in by young girls), the portable angklung, and the gender wayang of the beloved shadow puppet theater called wayang kulit – “the medium of their classical poetry, for their ribald humour; and, most important of all … the greatest factor in the spiritual education of the masses.”