Two wayangs

Two contrasting wayang on two nights. On Thursday we were in Boyolali to see Pak Jungkung Darmaya do 'Banjaran Karno'. The occasion was some sort of civic anniversary, with the screen and band set up under a medium large pendhopo, surrounded by what seemed to be a street festival in progress. We were ushered in and welcomed by our host for the evening, very formally dressed in tight high necked coat with shiny buttons, sarong and keris. Might have been something in the nature of the local mayor? We were encouraged to sit right at the front of the stage, but after a moment or two some sort of delicate protocol was negotiated, and we were moved just a little to one side. Of course, the spot we had taken was for the really important people; I'm guessing here, but I reckon local bigwigs and politicians, some guy who gave a speech who looked like he might have been a minor tv personality.

Huge-looking screen to my eyes, with puppets arrayed to either side. A big bright green double gamelan, six pesindhen, many of the instruments amplified. More or less on the dot of eight, an hour before the wayang, they kicked in - really kicked in - with a gangsaran. Big, big, strong sound with the amplification, plus guys throwing big heavy demung mallets down from over head-height. For the next thirty minutes or so they played continuously, very engaging and powerful. The most amazing moment was when in the middle of another gangsaran the whole band suddenly jumped around ninety degrees and went bang straight from slendro into pelog without missing a note; quite a gag. Also, a big addition to the sound of the band was the bass drum and cymbal with a second drummer, who consistently throughout the night played all the big hits simultaneously with the dhalang's foot and the main drummer. Big.

This was showy, populist gamelan. When we got the limbukan, kind of as expected all the action in the play stopped completely for about an hour to make way for a three-man comedy troupe, who mugged gamely, borrowing instruments from the drummer to horse around with. Some of it was even funny without understanding any of the several languages in use. For the climax of that section they played a Sundanese style piece (one of the comics seemed to be Sundanese) with the drummer absolutely rocking out...

We didn't make it all through the evening, in fact we didn't even make it to the goro-goro. I felt slightly uncomfortable, slightly on display; they had a couple of TV cameras giving live relays to other parts of the space, and we were frequently on camera trying to look as if we knew what was going on.

Wayang number two, a bit of a contrast. Mangkunegaran palace, Pak Bambang Suworno doing 'Wahyu Makutarama'. This was in a sort of side wing of the palace, entering through an obscure side gate. The only people who seemed to be there were musicians, their wives or cronies; the dhalang apparently teaches at ISI, and many of the players were students of varying ages. It had been described to us as 'latihan', a rehearsal, but there was no starting and stopping or discussion, they seemed to just perform the wayang. I've been talking with Anthony here about comparisons with jazz, and again this was kind of the equivalent of a jazz crowd; all the people who were there were cognoscenti of some sort.

Including our wee group of foreigners; however in this case I felt much more at home, largely I think as we were in the company of a couple of very experienced and respected players in the form of Kitsie Emerson and Rachel Hand, and I think it was taken for granted that we were obviously gamelan nuts as well if we were even there. Much smaller scale, slendro instruments only, much smaller and more informal setup. In tone the thing seemed to be more classical, far less populist. This dhalang is noted for his extremely precise and detailed puppet work, and even to a novice like myself this came across. At one point I even broke what felt like some sort of taboo, and went to watch the thing from the shadow side. Really fantastic, the detail in the puppets themselves, plus the clarity and accuracy of some of the moves; from that side one was sometimes at a loss to figure out how the effect was created with just two hands.

Some sort of dance performance there tonight I gather, plus rumours of another wayang going on somewhere at the same time. Ladrang drumming to memorise, then going to look at instruments to buy on Monday. Long days, happy days!