An Introduction to the Music of the Balinese Gamelan

Lecture

An Introduction to the Music of the Balinese Gamelan

Date: Thu, Sep 14, 2017 01:00PM - Thu, Sep 14, 2017 02:00PM
Price: Free with Museum admission

Look and listen as ethnomusicologists Dr. Annette Sanger and Dr. James Kippen introduce the percussion orchestras known as “gamelan,” which accompany Indonesia’s famed shadow puppet plays, and perform some well-known pieces.

Annette Sanger is an ethnomusicologist specializing in the performing arts of Bali, Indonesia. Two years' fieldwork in Balinese villages and several other shorter visits culminated in her PhD. Dr. Sanger was an Associate Professor of Ethnomusicology and taught Balinese gamelan at Queen's University Belfast. In Toronto, she directs the Balinese Gamelan Ensemble at the University of Toronto, and teaches a wide range of courses including World Music, Music for the Theatre, Performing Arts of Asia, Music in Islamic Cultures, and Music & Healing. She also performs as a member of Gamelan Gong Sabrang, a Javanese gamelan collective based at the Indonesian Consulate in Toronto, and Seka Rat Nadi, a Balinese music quartet. Dr. Sanger is Past President of the Women's Musical Club of Toronto (WMCT), a 120-year-old organization that presents concerts of chamber music and provides scholarships to young Canadian musicians.

James Kippen has taught ethnomusicology at the University of Toronto since 1990. He developed an interest in Hindustani music and Javanese gamelan at the University of York (UK), and pursued a doctorate in Social Anthropology and Ethnomusicology at Queen’s University Belfast. He is the author of The Tabla of Lucknow (1988). He has also translated and analyzed several Indigenous works from the 18th to early 20th centuries, as well as projects that led to several articles and the book Gurudev’s Drumming Legacy: Music, Theory and Nationalism in the Mrdang aur Tabla Vadanpaddhati of Gurudev Patwardhan (2006). He has contributed key articles to the Garland Encyclopedia of World Music as well as a chapter in the popular textbook on ethnographic method, Shadows in the Field (2008). He is the co-editor of Music, Dance, and the Art of Seduction (2013). He plays both tabla and pakhavaj drums, and is an enthusiastic Balinese gendèr player with the ensemble Seka Rat Nadi.



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