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1.
gendér ensemble 10:01
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2.
gendér, kemanak, Tibetan meditation cymbals (tingsha), Tibetan singing bowls & bells (drilbu), wok lid gong, pyrex bowls, bells, pots & pans, other kitchen percussion 34:20
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3.
gong, kempul 07:24
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4.
full gamelan ensemble 07:35
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5.
gendér ensemble 11:29
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about

Gangsa
Volume 2

New Forms in Experimental Music (series)
Vol 6: New Music for Javanese Gamelan Instruments

The music on this album is adventurous experimental music using gamelan instruments as pure sound-sources, not wedded to the traditional music theory or techniques of playing.

The track titles are listings of the instruments used in each piece. Together, the five tracks here make up an extended single long work, exploring a world of sounds evoked by both traditional and extended playing techniques on the instruments of the Central Javanese gamelan.

I began playing Javanese gamelan music in 1979, in college. It became one of my main study programs while in music school. In 1985, I was awarded a Fulbright study abroad grant, and traveled to Central Java, Indonesia, to study gamelan for a year.

Since I am primarily a composer and experimental musician, it was inevitable that I would approach gamelan in a compositional and experimental manner. I studied new gamelan music with Lou Harrison. I wrote several pieces in a more or less traditional style. New gamelan music was my topic of research and study for my Fulbright year in Java, and became the topic of my Master's thesis as well as several papers given at Society of Ethnomusicology conferences. I co-founded a Gamelan Composers Group, and co-produced recording sessions and concerts of new music for Javanese gamelan.

In 1989 I was a graduate student Teaching Assistant for the University of Wisconsin–Madison Javanese Gamelan Ensemble. The name of the bronze gamelan at UW–Madison is Kyai Telaga Rukmi, Venerable Lake of Milk.

My musical collaborator Stuart Hinds, with whom I co-created Gangsa in Ann Arbor (see NFIEM Series recording Vol. 3: Gangsa Vol. 1), joined me in Madison for another new music composing and recording session. This album of new gamelan music, Gangsa, Vol. 2, is the result of those sessions. We set up the gamelan instruments, along with miscellaneous other percussion instruments, for two days of recording.

The music is semi-composed structured improvisation. It is an extension, or evolution, of our previous new music for gamelan. Although some of our original concepts were revisited, this is entirely new work. The sessions prominently featured an ensemble of gendér instruments combined from multiple tuning systems.

credits

released January 6, 2024

Written, Produced & Performed by AD/SH
AD/SH is Arthur Durkee and Stuart Hinds
Executive Producer: Dr R. Anderson Sutton

© 1989, 2024 Arthur Durkee Arts. All Rights Reserved.

Recorded at Humanities Building, UW-Madison, October 6 & 7, 1989
courtesy of UW Javanese Gamelan Ensemble, Kyai Telaga Rukmi (Venerable Lake of Milk)
Engineered by AD. Recorded on Marantz portable cassette recorder with Audio-Technica stereo microphone.

Edited, Mixed, and Mastered by AD at Dragonsweyr 2024

When mastering the audio from the original cassette recording, every effort was made to minimize tape noise and other analog tape artifacts without affecting the recorded music. Due to the wide dynamic nature of the music and musical instruments involved, some level adjustments were made to create a more even listening experience. Due to the nature of the original medium, however, some artifacts may remain.

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Arthur Durkee Ann Arbor, Michigan

Arthur Durkee is a composer & songwriter who records & performs on Chapman Stick, bass, analog modular synths, bamboo & wood flutes, keys, frame drums, and voice. He has won awards for composed, notated music as well as for his recordings, & is a published poet, & designer & illustrator. ... more

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