In the gamelan instructions this morning, we continued learning instruments of our own interests in small breakout groups. I have decided yesterday that I am to learn the kendang — the drums — of the piece Genggongan so Tom and I can continue playing the drum parts for the gamelan when we go back to Swarthmore. Today’s kendang session was really, really challenging if not confusing; however, I was eventually able to get the sense of the rhythms right after many tryings and recalibrations of mind. The very long, complex and syncopated rhythm patterns, despite sounding a certain way on their own, take on completely different feels and “grooves” when integrated with the rest of the music. It is extremely important to know where the gong is, as that will determine how a rhythm is placed in the piece. For many times today I would think that I learned a particular rhythm, but once played with the whole piece the rhythm, although being played in the exact same order, sounds and is conceptualized entirely differently because of the discrepancies of me and my teacher about where it begins and ends in relation to the gong.
I think the kendang patterns, let alone the instrumental voice itself, truly have a soul and life of their own. Knowing what kantilan parts of our piece Genggongan, the kendang part reintroduced me to the piece from a different rhythmic and temporal imagination. What I used to know as the rhythm for a section is now articulated differently on the kendang, with different accents, pauses, and finishing points. The way kendang’s rhythmic patterns lock in with the rest of the piece is quite eccentric — and that is what I love about gamelan, where it is normalized for drum parts to be eccentric and quite complex!
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