176 I:2
n
rasa 30, 1991). Similarly, what seems to distinguish the many moods of gendhing Elå-Elå Kalibeber (see fig. 3.19) is above all the wide variety of rhythms in the balungan. Pitch relations can affect the rasa of the balungan as well. Suhartå feels that the balungan itself can express sadness (contrast this with Wignyosaputro’s statements in the previous chapter). One example he gave was closely modeled on a phrase from Martopangrawit’s 1966 composition ketawang Pamegatsih, sléndro manyurå. For Suhartå, the balungan phrase 5 5 6 5 3 2 1 2 was sad in and of itself. He compared it to other hypothetical, closely related phrases in which the balungan was not sad: 5 5 5 5 .
5 6 6 5 5
6 5 5 6 6
5 3 3 5 5
3 2 2 2 2
2 1 1 1 3
1 2 6 6 2
2 (sad) 6 (not sad) 5 " 5 " 1 "
The first phrase, according to him, gets its sadness partly from its restricted range and from its mixing of pathet sångå with pathet manyurå (Suhartå, April 8, 1992).8 All gendhings in the repertoire have associations. These associations may be of a musical nature, or they may be more contextual.9 When they are fixed by convention, musicians speak of these otherwise variable features as if they were part of the gendhing itself. An innovator can, of course, consciously go against convention by making, say, a happy piece sad—or, more usually, a sad piece happy (see the end of chapter 4). But this can be just as iconoclastic as drastically changing the balungan, and cuts to the very identity of the piece. By musical associations I mean certain details of garap (performance practice) that have become standard. With the lighter repertoire, outside the palaces, these are for the most part mere expectations; whereas with the more serious repertoire in the court tradition, the associated interpretations tend to take the form of injunctions. In either case, the line between the rasa of the gendhing itself and the rasa of the garap becomes quite blurred. Examples might include the decision of whether to go into iråmå rangkep or not, or whether to use lively ciblon drumming or the more staid kosèk alus.10 Part of associating a garap with a particular balungan has to do with similarities between pieces—intertextual associations (see note 8 in chapter 6, and the analysis of Titipati, later in this chapter). Further details are treated in the section on garap.
8. See the section, below, on laras and pathet, as well as the end of chapter 4. 9. This distinction between context and “the music itself,” associated with nineteenth-century European thought, is also part of the way some Javanese musicians write about music. See, for instance, Supanggah 1985. 10. Iråmå rangkep is a stretched-out tempo level with fast, playful treatment. Kosèk alus is characterized by the use of the kendhang gendhing in iråmå wiled (the usual tempo level for the livelier second section of a gendhing). See Appendix B, as well as further on in this chapter for explanations of iråmå.