EMORY JAVANESE GAMELAN PAKSI KENCANA
AN EVENING OF JAVANESE SHADOW PUPPETRY THEATER RAMAYANA EPIC
19 APRIL 2025 1:00PM & 4:00PM
MICHAEL C. CARLOS MUSEUM
571 South Kilgo Cir NE
WELCOME TO THE DEPARTMENT OF MUSIC
AT EMORY UNIVERSITY
WITH GRATITUDE
The Department of Music is profoundly grateful for the Friends of Music and their generous support of Music at Emory.
Emory Javanese Gamelan Paksi Kencana
ABOUT TONIGHT’S PERFORMANCE
The purpose of the Emory Javanese Gamelan Ensemble Paksi Kencana (Sacred Eagle) is to provide students and community members with the chance to learn about Javanese music and culture through performance. The learning experience is our primary consideration – not the giving of concerts – and as we are all beginners, we would like to emphasize that our performance is only a shadow of the real thing. The instruments arrived on the Emory campus in 1997.
We are grateful to Emory University’s Department of Music, Emory Arts, the Michael C. Carlos Museum, the Fox Center for Humanistic Inquiry and Initiative for Arts and Humanistic Inquiry of the Office of the Provost for supporting our performance this evening. This performance is part of the Asian Arts at Emory concert series.
PERFORMERS
Emory Javanese Gamelan Ensemble Paksi Kencana comprises students from Music 301 (The Emory Gamelan Ensemble), Music 370 (Music and Shadows), community gamelan members, and Emory faculty.
Mikayla Arnold
Lily Besaw
Elena Madeline Bien
Jenna Cariker
Nikeese Daniel
April-Sofia Fowler
Neil Fried
Retty Handayani
Anita Hoffman
Soju Hokari
Runyu Huang
Ishaan Jain
Saareen Junaid
Nurul Kodriati
Patricia Liehr
Yajie Ma
Korte Maki
Lance Marriott
Mia Motley
Sarah Myers
Clover Rosa Demerritt
Delia Savin
Zoe Stephens
Miles Straw
Rob Tauxe
Nat Trejo Noble
Griffin Trejo Noble
Mufdil Tuhri
Vivian Zhao
Maho Ishiguro , Department of Music
Scott Kugle , Department of Middle East and South Asian Studies
Peter Shirts, Emory Libraries: Music and Media
Directed by Darsono Hadiraharjo
Today’s concert is blessed with the presence of our guest musicians:
Phil Acimovic (Director of the Yale Gamelan Suprabanggo)
Genevieve Tauxe (Emory Gamelan Ensemble alumna)
Marc Perlman (Brown University)
Jesse Snyder (Director of Gamelan Pacifica)
ON JAVANESE SHADOW PUPPETRY THEATER
Shadow puppetry is an important traditional art form in many parts of Southeast Asia. Javanese shadow puppetry—Wayang kulit—is one of the main forms of this art which circulated widely and transformed into local forms in other parts of Southeast Asia. While there are other local and indigenous stories told through shadow puppetry and music, the two Sanskrit epics called Mahabarata and Ramayana are the major sources and inspiration in this art form.
Central Java is a hub of shadow puppetry in Indonesia, and this tradition has historically been cultivated in villages, cities, and in the courts of the regional nobility, especially in the cities of Surakarta and Yogyakarta. Wayang kulit performance is not only considered an intricate and creative performing art form, but also an important social event. It is an occasion to laugh together because, as part of the fabric of ancient tales, the dalang (puppeteer) delivers light-hearted social commentary on current events as well as comedic interludes. Because the epics of Mahabharata and Ramayana are too long to narrate in a single performance, the dalang chooses one lakon (episode) from these epics. Performances customarily last eight hours – from around 8:30 pm to sunrise – giving the puppet master enough time to creatively tell the story through singing, poetry, narration and movements of the puppets.
The Emory Javanese Gamelan Ensemble acquired a full set of Javanese traditional shadow puppets in December 2023, thanks to a generous grant from American Indonesian Culture and Education Foundation (AICEF).
ON JAVANESE GAMELAN
The term gamelan refers to musical ensembles from the islands of Java, Sumatra and Bali in the Republic of Indonesia, and by extension to the music that is played on them. Javanese gamelan primarily consists of bronze percussion instruments – gongs and gong-chimes of various size, suspended either vertically or horizontally, as well as different types of metallophones. The gamelan ensemble also includes suling (bamboo flutes), gambang (a wooden xylophone), rebab (a string instrument), and kendhang (drums).
Javanese gamelan normally includes two sets of instruments in each of the two tuning systems, laras pelog (7 notes per octave, used pentatonically) and laras slendro (5 notes per octave). Within each tuning system, there are three modes in which gamelan pieces are written. Tonight’s performance uses the slendro set.
The ensemble comprises three groups of instruments, the framework instruments, balungan instruments and elaboration instruments. The balungan instruments (the family of saron and slenthem) play the core melody. The elaboration instruments ( gender, suling, gambang, rebab, and bonang) are played semiimprovisatory, elaborating the core melody. The framework instruments (gong, kempul, kenong, kethuk and kempyang) give the form of gamelan pieces. A set of drums (kendhang) controls the tempo of the whole ensemble.
Source: Traditional Music in Modern Java: Gamelan in a Changing Society
by Judith Becker, 1981, the University of Hawaii Press
SYNOPSIS
Summary of the Ramayana Epic
The Ramayana is a story that teaches the values of loyalty, courage, and resilience in times of hardship. This epic is Prince Rama’s struggle against evil to restore justice and peace.
Rama is the son of King Dasarata of Ayodhya. A just and noble prince, he married Sita, the daughter of King Janaka. They went into exile in the forest with Rama’s brother, Lakshmana. In the forest, Sita was kidnapped by Ravana, the demon king of Alengka and taken to the palace in that distant kingdom.
Rama and Lakshmana searched far and wide for Sita. The brothers were assisted by Hanuman, the Monkey hero and counsellor to Sugriwa, the Monkey king who leads a monkey army.
Together, the two brothers and two Monkey leaders searched for Sita and fought against Ravana’s demon army. After a long and fierce battle, Rama defeated Ravana and rescued Sita. When the war finally ended, Rama and Sita returned to Ayodhya to rule justly and wisely.
Part I (1pm show) : Hanuman on Fire
Scenes from the Ramayana are told in narrations, dialogues, songs and puppetry actions in this shadow puppetry theatre.
The scene is set as Ravana (Rahwana), the demon king of Alengka, has boldly kidnapped Sita (Shinta), the righteous wife of Prince Rama (Sri Rama). In his struggles to free his wife, Rama sends Hanuman (Anoman)—a powerful warrior in the form of a white monkey—to infiltrate Ravana’s magnificent Palace in Alengka to find Sita and investigate her condition. Anoman faces many obstacles during his long journey to Alengka. He meets Sempati, a Garuda or giant bird, who had once been tortured by Ravana. With Sempati’s help, Hanuman continues his journey.
The second obstacle occurs when the giant demon Ditya Ilatmeja swallows Hanuman and keeps him captive in his stomach. Fortunately, Hanuman possesses a powerful weapon called “Kuku Waja,” a curved dagger like a long fingernail. With this weapon, Hanuman tears open the stomach of the demon and escapes.
SYNOPSIS
After overcoming these challenges, Hanuman finally reaches the Kingdom of Alengka. He finds Sita deep inside the palace, imprisoned in the Ashoka garden. To prove that he is sent by Rama as a messenger, Hanuman presents to her a token, a ring given to him by Rama. In return, Sita entrusts her hairpin to Hanuman to deliver to Rama as proof that she remains faithful to her husband.
After meeting Sita, Hanuman devises a cunning strategy. He purposely allows himself to be captured by the Alengka forces under the leadership of Indrajit (Megananda), the demon Prince who is Ravana’s son. King Ravana is enraged to see a captured intruder and orders that Hanuman be burned alive. But Hanuman is no ordinary monkey! He is a mighty hero with magical powers. Although he is bound and set on fire, he easily frees himself. In a surprise move, Hanuman jumps around with his fur all aflame, setting many of the palace buildings on fire and severely damaging the Kingdom of Alengka. After wreaking havoc on Alengka, Hanuman returns to Rama. With the help of the monkey army, Rama is ready to make a final assault to free Sita and restore justice.
Part II (4pm show) : The Fall of Kumbakarna
Continued from Part I, The Fall of Kumbakarna begins with the Kingdom of Alengka under attack by Rama and his allies, the monkey arm. Kumbakarna, a mighty giant, is the leading character of this scene as he joins the battle to defend his homeland.
In the battle, many of the Alengka giant soldiers are killed, including Patih Prahastha and Kumbakarna’s two beloved children, Mbo Kinumbo and Aswani Kumba. Because of this, Ravana orders his forces, led by Indrajit, to wake up Kumbakarna. The messengers succeed in waking Kumbakarna by any means necessary. After waking up, Kumbakarna goes to Ravana to advise him to return Sita to Rama in order to end the war. However, this advice is rejected by Ravana, and the great war must continue.
Eventually, Kumbakarna goes to war against the monkey army. However, without harboring any ill will toward Rama, Kumbakarna goes to the battlefield to fulfill his duty as a defender of his country, not as a defender of the wrongdoings of his brother, Ravana.
During the battle, Kumbakarna kills many of the monkey soldiers and wounds a number of elite warriors, including Anggada, Sugriwa, Hanuman, and Anila. In the end, with his powerful arrow, called Indrastra (the weapon of the god Indra), Rama delivers Kumbakarna’s death, allowing him to attain nirvana.
RAVANA
HANOMAN
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