Category: Uncategorized

As we gathered at 9AM in the morning today, we broke out into small groups to learn different instruments, and I continued to work with Dewa on the kendang. Dewa is very vigorous and joyous when he plays the drums. He continued to teach me about the philosophies of a kendang drummer and how we…

On our (one and only!) free day in Bali, I knew that I wanted to go a bit far away from Ubud, and I wanted to see the beach! After a lot of research that went into deciding where to go, I eventually picked the province of Uluwatu. The dramatic seaside cliffs, the sea caves,…

by Chi Jiang (Tim Jiang) Waking up knowing it was the final day made me a little sad, but I was looking forward to tonight’s show, nervous and excited. I walked down the usual path. The primary school kids were playing soccer as usual. I turned left and walked past the two statues in front…

This afternoon, at Dewa’s invitation, we went to a funeral ceremony at the house of Dewa’s relative. It was crowded, a little cramped, bustling with activity — people going around preparing offerings or food or other things, sitting, chatting and smoking — and was generally festive-feeling (if you didn’t know what was going on —…

On this day, we worked on two new pieces centered on reyong and trompong, suspended kettle-gong instruments with a very different timbre and technique from the gangsas we’ve mainly been playing. The trompong is a more melodic instrument, whereas reyong playing features intricate interlocking parts (called “kilitan”) and is more rhythmic. The second piece we…

Hello! I hope all is well and jolly for Day 10 of our trip in Bali! Instead of having rehearsal today, we went on a tour to participate in a holy cleansing/purification at Menganing, an exploration of Lake and Temple Batur (the second largest temple on the island of Bali!), rice field viewing, and a…

Today was our tour of the island. We went to many places, and our guide, Pak Ketut Sareng, had many insights about culture and spirituality in Bali. A few things that he said particularly stand out to me. First, he talked about how sometimes non-Balinese visitors ask him if every Balinese person really believes in…

Today after class, I went with some others to the Monkey Forest. I had visited here before in August and left unsatisfied because I wanted to spend more time with the monkeys. However, after today, I think I’ve had enough time with monkeys for a while.  Afterwards, we went to Campuhan Ridge Walk. I didn’t…

In the morning, we went through all the full-group pieces: Gengongan, the piece for the Sekatian ensemble, and the percussion piece. We also worked on Legong for a short while. I was playing Jegogan when we practiced Legong in Swarthmore, so it took a little effort to catch up with other people on the gangsa part.…