Mark Nelson, a composer and professor of music, took part in the July, 2000 tour It's hard to imagine a more knowledgeable, sensitive, and flexibly-minded guide to the wonders of Indonesian culture than Bob Brown, who led this summer's Cultural Tour of Indonesia sponsored by the Center for World Music. Having spent many years as a student of Javanese and Balinese gamelan music; having launched numerous gamelan and world-music programs at American universities; and having been a part-time resident of Bali for the past 25 years, Bob knows the cultures of Java and Bali intimately, and he is good friends with many highly-respected local musicians and artists. We visited a number of these friends: Suteja Neka, founder and owner of an excellent art museum in Ubud, Bali; Pak Tjokro, a distinguished and revered Javanese gamelan player; Kartika Affandi, a leading Javanese painter (in whose home and gallery we spent a memorable afternoon); the wife of Pak Oemartopo, a renowned dalang (puppeteer), in whose home we witnessed a wayang kulit (shadow-puppet play); Nyoman Sadra, former mayor of the old Balinese village of Tenganan, a charming and astute observer of Indonesian culture and politics; Nyoman Gunawan, a leading exponent of the rare musical idiom, gamelan selonding; and Gunawan's brother, proprietor of a remarkable textile gallery in Tenganan. We were treated to an exclusive, breathtaking gamelan-and-dance performance in the Mangkunegaran palace in Solo, Java, the site of one of Bob's pioneering gamelan recordings for Nonesuch. We were further treated to demonstrations and performances of numerous Balinese gamelan genres, towards the study and dissemination of which Bob himself has played a significant role. We visited prominent Buddhist and Hindu temple complexes; a spirited and well-informed local guide regaled us with stories implicit in the rich iconography of these places. We also visited gamelan makers, batik manufacturers, ikat and grinsing weavers, and wood carvers; we witnessed elaborate preparations for the cremation ceremonies which are central components of Balinese culture. Throughout our extraordinary two-week journey, Bob was an illuminating and cheerful informant. He offered insightful observations on a host of subjects, ranging from the Balinese adaptation of the Ramayana and Mahabharata myths to the economics of gamelan manufacture, from the styles of Balinese painting to the odd history of court gamelans in Java, from the niceties of Balinese temple ceremonies to the distinguishing features of gamelan selonding, gamelan gambuh, gamelan gambang, and other Balinese musical idioms. One could not have hoped for a more sumptuous trip, for a tour that offered more substantive glimpses of many aspects of these Indonesian cultures. It was a privilege to have been part of such a stimulating adventure. Prof. Mark Nelson |
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Modified: April 15, 2001 |
