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(单词翻译:双击或拖选)
On Sunday afternoons, the clang of traditional Indonesian percussion1 music known as gamelan wafts2 down the street, audible on the approach to the Indonesian Consulate3 on Manhattan's east side.
Gamelan is also the word for the kinds of instruments that produce it: various sizes of metal xylophones, large gongs, drums and wooden flutes4. The 20 musicians playing these instruments are members of Dharma Swara, a New York-based group that specializes in Balinese gamelan, the indigenous5 music of the Indonesian island just east of Java.
Eastern music with a western sensibility
They've been rehearsing intensely, preparing for the gamelan competition at the annual Bali Arts Festival. Dharma Swara, which means The Sound of the True Path, is the first non-Indonesian ensemble6 ever to be invited to participate in this decades-old competition.
The members of the group are almost all from North America, and getting to understand Bali culture through music has been a big revelation. Canadian Vivian Fung plays the Calung, a xylophone with five bronze keys. She says gamelan has changed the way she thinks about music.
"One of the biggest differences is the collective mentality7 of the gamelan, and of Balinese society," she explains, comparing it to western society, which she says "is all about the self. Everything [in Balinese society] is based on the group. Even the mentality of how you play. You're playing paired with someone else. So you really have to be together with your partner. And it's wonderful because gamelan is like a microcosm of how the Balinese live."
Different paths to Dharma Swara
Fung has been playing with Dharma Swara for two years, and was first introduced to gamelan music through a world arts fellowship six years ago.
Like others in the group, she was drawn8 to play because of her fascination9 with the music and the culture.
Photo Credit - Gail Wein
Balinese gamelan ensemble Dharma Swara in rehearsal10 at the Indonesian Consulate in New York City
Nicci Reisnour is a doctoral student in musicology at Cornell University, and she makes the five-hour commute11 to New York City every weekend for Dharma Swara rehearsals12. She first heard a student group play gamelan a few years ago, and "it blew my mind. I just thought it was most amazing sounding thing. It sounded like nothing I'd ever heard before, I guess."
Andy McGraw was studying jazz and classical percussion on the east coast in college and at home in Kansas City. He recalls hearing Balinese gamelan music for the first time in an introductory world music class, and absolutely hating it.
"It sounded radically13 out of tune14, and disorganized. And I couldn't make any sense of it. Then, when I first heard it live, it was in Bali, and it was in a contest between two of really the best groups on the island in a temple contest. I couldn't believe it was same music I heard on this cassette that I detested15 so much!"
McGraw is now a professor of ethnomusicology at the University of Richmond in Virginia, and executive director of Dharma Swara.
Performing for an audience that knows its music
Unlike western classical music competitions, where a panel of experts rates each performance, McGraw explains gamelan competitions in Bali rely mostly on audience reaction. "And the audience lets you know in real time exactly how they feel about your performance. And any slight mistake this audience goes crazy and will hoot16 and holler.
"It's really more like a soccer crowd"
The month-long Bali Arts Festival is an enormous affair, with multiple stages of music and dance, plus fashion shows, food stalls, and events for children, in addition to the traditional music and dance performances and competitions.
Photo Credit - Gail Wein
Dharma Swara includes dancers as well as musicians
Some of what Dharma Swara will perform is very traditional. Other selections are new compositions by members of the group – works that sound very different from anything the Balinese people will have heard before.
Vivian Fung thinks that audiences will be surprised – and pleased – by the fusion17 of East and West, and old and new. "What we're doing is infusing our personality into the gamelan. And some of the composers have these jazzy licks, and there's one composer that has very atmospheric18 avant garde sound. She's using the gamelan in an entirely19 different way. And it's very experimental."
Fung sees the competition as a sort of cultural exchange. "[They're thinking,] there are these foreign people that are coming in, playing our music. But I think that we have put our own stamp on something very traditional and we can add our own personalities20 to it. And that's the best that we can do.
"We're a group from New York so we have this New York mentality," she points out. "And I think they will love that, actually."
The test will come on July 8th, in the final days of the Festival, when New York's Dharma Swara faces off against the best local gamelan groups in Bali.
![收听单词发音](/images/play.gif)
1
percussion
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n.打击乐器;冲突,撞击;震动,音响 | |
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2
wafts
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n.空中飘来的气味,一阵气味( waft的名词复数 );摇转风扇v.吹送,飘送,(使)浮动( waft的第三人称单数 ) | |
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3
consulate
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n.领事馆 | |
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4
flutes
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长笛( flute的名词复数 ); 细长香槟杯(形似长笛) | |
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5
indigenous
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adj.土产的,土生土长的,本地的 | |
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ensemble
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n.合奏(唱)组;全套服装;整体,总效果 | |
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7
mentality
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n.心理,思想,脑力 | |
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8
drawn
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v.拖,拉,拔出;adj.憔悴的,紧张的 | |
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9
fascination
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n.令人着迷的事物,魅力,迷恋 | |
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10
rehearsal
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n.排练,排演;练习 | |
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11
commute
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vi.乘车上下班;vt.减(刑);折合;n.上下班交通 | |
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rehearsals
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n.练习( rehearsal的名词复数 );排练;复述;重复 | |
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13
radically
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ad.根本地,本质地 | |
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14
tune
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n.调子;和谐,协调;v.调音,调节,调整 | |
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15
detested
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v.憎恶,嫌恶,痛恨( detest的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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16
hoot
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n.鸟叫声,汽车的喇叭声; v.使汽车鸣喇叭 | |
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17
fusion
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n.溶化;熔解;熔化状态,熔和;熔接 | |
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18
atmospheric
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adj.大气的,空气的;大气层的;大气所引起的 | |
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19
entirely
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ad.全部地,完整地;完全地,彻底地 | |
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20
personalities
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n. 诽谤,(对某人容貌、性格等所进行的)人身攻击; 人身攻击;人格, 个性, 名人( personality的名词复数 ) | |
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