Legong Gamelan

L’artista

In keeping with producer David Parsons’ unparalleled site recording style recapturing lost arts and creating new, this second volume of the Balinese series was recorded in the Pura Gunung Sari Temple at Peliatan, Bali. Peliatan, a small village south of Ubud, is famous for its Legong traditions. Gamelan refers to an ensemble of instruments in Java and Bali which is comprised primarily of bronze gongs and metallophones tuned so that intervals of a scale conform to certain tuning models. The tuning for the gamelan used by Tirta Sari is based on the gamelan Semar Pegulingan, an ensemble that, in its original form, utilized the seventone pelog tuning system common to Bali and Java. Later, the Tirta Sari ensemble was modified (by adding instruments and changing the configuration and range of the keys and kettle-gongs on the existing instruments), to make it more similar to the gamelan gong kebyar, the most popular type of gamelan in presentday Bali. By taking elements from both types of gamelan, Tirta Sari has been able to play a wider variety of musical styles and repertiore, as well as dances. The principal musicians of the Tirta Sari ensemble are Tjok Alit Hendrawan, Anak Agung Oka Dalam, Wayan Kopi, Ketut Madra, Tjok Bagus and Wayan Subrata.