As a new enterprise for this academic year, artist-in-residence, I Dewa Suparta, along with Grebel music professor Maisie Sum, started the Grebel Community Gamelan. Comprising 11 community members in its inaugural year, the vision for this growing ensemble is to participate in multiple forms of outreach activities including workshops, church visits, conferences, and concerts off-campus.
The more established UWaterloo Balinese Gamelan (made up of students and community members) has already made its presence known in Waterloo Region, introducing many children, youth, adults, and seniors to a new sonic and cultural experience. Through this type of musical engagement, listeners become more open to learning about unfamiliar music traditions and cultures in the world, sparking positive feelings for other cultures.
Last summer for the Mennonite World Conference, held in Pennsylvania, Dewa arranged a gamelan setting of O Prince of Peace to accompany the singing of the hymn. He has since arranged My Soul is Filled with Joy. Both pieces have been adding a unique aspect to traditional chapel and church services as the ensembles make visits around Waterloo Region.
Aligning with Grebel’s core values of community building, generosity, creativity, global engagement, and active peacebuilding, Music Department Chair Laura Gray believes that the Community Gamelan “brings more community profile to the music program and the College as a place where you can do really cool things.” Focusing on Grebel’s strategic plan, “the Gamelan has strong potential for community building through interesting and collaborative goals that engage our growing constituencies and elevate our distinctive programs.”
What makes learning this music unique is that Balinese gamelan is constructed, taught, and learned in a way that fosters community building. It requires interaction and communal interdependence for success—so much so that the ensemble is often thought of as a single living organism. Dewa explained that “Balinese gamelan music is characterized by multiple instrumental layers and interlocking parts, and often has sudden shifts and changes in tempo and dynamics––all of which adheres to a gong framework—so it requires all players to pay attention and listen to each other. When the ensemble is able to create a unified sound and feeling, players feel deep joy and satisfaction and hope that the feeling transfers to the audience.”
Grebel is one of the only places in Canada where people have the opportunity to play Balinese gamelan on a set of semaradana instruments, learning from an expert musician and composer native to Bali, Indonesia. The ensemble’s leader, Dewa, hails from a renowned musical family in Pengosekan Village, Ubud and he is founding member of the innovative Gamelan Çudamani.
With interested members already coming in from as far away as Toronto, the Grebel Community Gamelan will start up again in the fall 2016 term, welcoming new and aspiring players. Sign up online at uwaterloo.ca/music/community-gamelan.
