Bali: Music from the Morning of the World (1967)
David Lewiston, producer
Style(s): Overview of Balinese styles: two styles of gamelan (20-30 musicians playing metallophones, gongs, double-headed drums, cymbals, and flutes), genggong (jaw harp ensemble; including a frog song), a lullaby, one kecak chant (called the monkey chant by some Westerners), and a Gender Wayang (accompaniment for the shadow play).
Note: First CD released under “Explorer” moniker. A friend in NYC loaned producer David Lewiston two condenser mics and a couple of hundred dollars, most of which was spent on the way to Bali in Singapore on one of the earliest battery-operated stereo recorders (to replace his ½- track mono recorder).
Bali: Golden Rain (1969)
David Lewiston, producer
Style(s): Gamelan Gong Kebjar arose in 1915, soon after the Dutch take-over. Kebjar (sic) means “to burst into flame” and it differs from the stately music of the Gamelan Gong—which it soon supplanted—by featuring bravura passages in free rhythm, in which all the musicians play in such perfect ensemble that the gamelan sounds like one huge instrument, interspersed withit differs from gamelan gong in its explosive, syncopation (the entire gamelan in rhythmic unison) interspersed with traditional ostinato episodes. Golden Rain, composed in the mid-1960s, is fast and dynamic (characteristic style of north Bali). Bumblebee, composed around 1951, is refined and delicate (characteristic of southern Bali). Ketjak: the Ramayana Monkey Chant reenacts the battle in the Ramayana epic in which monkey hordes aid the good prince against the evil king, with a chorus imitating the monkeys with the syllable tjak.
Note: The story goes that side two of the vinyl (track three) was played on late-night radio in NYC after the DJ would say, “Light that joint, here it comes.”
Java: The Jasmine Isle: Gamelan Music (1969)
Suryabrata & David Lewiston, producers
Style(s): Javanese Gamelan music, with versions of the same compositions played as an ensemble and solo. Compare the rich intricate texture of Javanese gamelan to the extrovert brilliance of Balinese gamelan gong kebjar (Music from the Morning of the World & Golden Rain).
Bali: Gamelan & Kecak (1989)
David Lewiston, producer
Style(s): Much of the music here covers the styles represented on Morning of the World & Golden Rain, with some updated variations.
Note: After two decades, producer David Lewiston returned to Bali to re-record repertoire similar to what he recorded in the late ’60s (Music from the Morning of the World & Golden Rain) with better recording knowledge and digital equipment.
Bali: Music for the Shadow Play (1970)
Robert E. Brown, producer
Style(s): Overview of the music that accompanies the traditional shadow play known as wayang.
Note: Different pieces of music are used to signify certain actions within the shadow play. For example, Pemungkah is played while the puppeteer or dalang is preparing the puppets; Sekati is used when one of the five hero brothers of the Mahabharta epic is traveling through countryside; Mèsem is played during sad scenes; and, Batèl is used during fight scenes or for puppets which fly. This is the classic style of gender wayang, prior to an influx of tourism to Bali.
Java: Court Gamelan (1971)
Robert E. Brown, producer
Style(s): This is gamelan music recorded in the Paku Alaman (a princely court) in Yogyakarta.
Note: Yogyakarta and Surakarta (or Solo) are 37 miles apart, but, because of political separation in the mid-18th century, developed rival styles of music/arts. Intermarriage between royal families led to some blending of musical styles by the time this recording was made. So the style here draws on both Yogyanese and Surakartan traditions. Robert Brown waited fifteen years before he felt comfortable asking to record this gamelan. This record was nominated for a Grammy. Carl Sagan asked Brown for recommendations of music to be launched into space by NASA in 1977. Puspåwårnå from this recording is on the gold-plated phonograph.
Bali: Gamelan Semar Pegulingan (1972)
Robert E. Brown, producer
Style(s): This is the first commercial recording of the gamelan of the love god since the 1928 recordings on 78-rpm discs. This was originally a palace gamelan played outside the royal sleeping-chambers.
Note: Balinese music aficionado Colin McPhee arranged for the gamelan on this CD to be brought to his village where he organized a teacher and gamelan club. After McPhee left Bali in 1939, the instruments of this gamelan fell into disuse, some instruments disappearing forever and others being destroyed by insects and humidity. The gamelan was revived by I Madé Lebah, who as a young man was Colin McPhee’s guide in an earlier era.
Java: Court Gamelan, Volume II (1977)
Robert E. Brown, producer
Style(s): This is gamelan music recorded in the Mangkunegaran Court in Surakarta.
Note: Each of four courts on Java developed a unique style of gamelan due to political separation and specifically the Dutch’s approach of divide and conquer. The gamelan recorded here has a unique history in that it is said to be the cause of the demise of a coup. Two princes are said to have led a 16-year struggle against the Dutch and the Mangkunegaran king. Their fierce fight failed when the two leading princes fought over who would own the Mangkunegaran gamelan on this recording. This recording epitomizes the Surakartan style of gamelan.
Java: Court Gamelan, Volume III (1979)
Robert E. Brown, producer
Style(s): This is gamelan music recorded in the Kraton Yogyakarta (princely court). This is the most traditional form of the Yogyanese style.
Note: The Yogyanese style is older than Surakartan gamelan and has a predilection for louder instruments, freer rhythms and melody, and more elaborate saron parts.
Tahiti: The Gauguin Years: Songs and Dances (1968)
Francis Mazière, producer
Style(s): Old Timey Polynesian including loves songs, hulas, war chants, histories, prayers, and protest songs. Instruments include ukulele, guitar, steel guitar, conch shell trumpets, nose flutes, drums made from shark’s belly and stingray.
Note: Some of these songs are used to record history and personal genealogy. One’s ancestors dictated social caste, and chants kept record of these complicated relations. Furthermore, errors in song were taboo, as it was thought that an incorrect note would invite death or disaster.
South Pacific: Island Music (1981)
David Fanshawe, producer
Style(s): A broad survey of traditional musics from the Cook Islands, Tonga, Fiji, the Solomon Islands, the Gilbert Islands, Western Samoa, and Tahiti.
Note: Some pieces are sung or played for functional purposes such as the Tapa Cloth Beating, Octopus Fishing, Muli Tu Pe (rowing chant), Shell Money Making, and Conche Shell Horn. Others describe the ocean or local flora. And still others sing about love or teach morals.
West Java: Tonggeret: Sundanese Popular Music (1987)
Idjah Hadidjah, vocals
Style(s): This recording exhibits a style called Jaipongan, which emerged in the late 1970s as the result of composer Gugum Gumbira Tirasondjaja’s effort to create a new form that emphasized indigenous arts (as opposed to foreign), and that could serve as a recreational form as well as a dance to be performed on stage.
Note: Jaipongan is unique in that it achieved popularity in the most modern and nationally minded of Indonesian cities while remaining thoroughly regional and traditional, showing little influence from the West. The hybrid style draws from Ketuk Tilu (in which a professional female dancer and singer dances with men from the audience), Kliningan (whose instrumentation and formal structure were adopted in Jaipongan), and Topeng Banjet (a theater form whose contribution was a style of drumming).
Additional Info
Landmark Nonesuch Explorer Series Heads to IndonesiaThe Morning ...
Tribal Music, a Copper Phonograph, and a Space Ship
The Past ...
Glossary
Notes on Style and Origin
Release Dates
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