Music and Trance in Central Java

Bibliographic Data

ID2603370
AuthorsMargaret J Kartomi (0000-0002-1062-3565, corresponding author)
Year1973
Volume17
Issue2
Pages163
Publication date1973-05-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueEthnomusicology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0014-1836 • E-ISSN: 2156-7417
PublisherUniversity of Illinois Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.2307/849881
OpenAlexW2313208086
LanguageEN
Citations received11
References cited2

n the eyes of some Javanese as well as some well-informed outsiders, the cultural identity of the Javanese people is bound up almost entirely with the elegant, brilliant art of the four Central Javanese courts. Perhaps no other area in Indonesia, excepting Bali, can lay claim to such cultural eminence and prestige as the royal seats of Central Java and the regions which they influence culturally. But it is a mistake to assume that the great variety and maturity of artistic forms and styles in Central Java are the sole or even primary consequence of artistic activity in the keratons. These royal seats are situated among rural villages, from which they draw not only succour, nurture and other necessities of life but also a rich, continuous supply of artistic ideas, vigour and energy. The ancient tenets and forms of Javanese art and the animist religious impulses which give rise to actual art forms have most faithfully been preserved and nourished in the villages, with which the keratons have had a long-standing, symbiotic cultural relationship. C. Geertz, W. F. Wertheim, Th. Pigeaud and others have argued about the cultural interdependency of court and village in Java and how they have each influenced the other over the centuries, to the benefit of both. It is true that a beautifully wrought courtly gamelan orchestra would certainly exceed a village orchestra in the degree of refinement in artisanship and in the magnificence and glamour of its sound and appearance. But the combination of instruments in courtly gamelans is based on musical ideas of which some, at least, derive from communal music-making in the village (e.g. the drum pattern named kotekan, which derives from the practice of rhythmic rice-stamping in the villages). The music played on this courtly gamelan is likely to be based on melodies originating outside the keraton. And the musical functions of each instrumental group of which the orchestra is composed resemble the relative functions of instrumental groupings in a multitude of different, relatively unrefined ensembles found only in the villages. This paper will deal with five types of Central Javanese village music which I have witnessed in the rural areas of Banjumas and (in one instance) Semarang. Banjumas is less strongly influenced by keraton culture than most parts of Central Java, situated as it is some distance away from the courts and, moreover, somewhat removed from the main arena of historical turmoil (which has largely centered along Java's north coast and in the areas east of Djogjakarta). Some of the oldest forms of Javanese art are still practised in

Art · Cognitive science · Java · Programming language · Sociology · Trance · Anthropology · Asian Studies and History · Computer Science · Cultural and Artistic Studies · Psychology

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