one of the main highlights in Uni (well, for me anyway) was their gamelan group. we were required to take 3 semesters of co-curricular activities as a requirement to graduate. going through the list, it seemed like the easiest one to take was gamelan - i liked music, and you didn't have to sweat or utilize a huge amount of brain power to pass. haha. ok so i didn't choose gamelan for the above reasons. they didn't have an orchestra group or cultural group at the time i enrolled so gamelan would have to do.
and boy, i never regretted joining the group. even after the three semesters ended i continued on to be a member of Sanggar Kirana, the Uni's own gamelan performing group. once the seniors graduated, my batch mainly dominated the group. my jolly friend Ju was appointed head of the crazy team (most of the group were her housemates anyway) and progressing on we had a couple of juniors joining in (we were short of guy members, lolz).
since i had good rhythm i remember being the one to play the gendang, however i didn't have enough power as the guys did (poor guys, i think they eventually got bored always having to get stuck behind the gendang. the other instruments were much more exciting than the gendang i expect). i was given the option to play the bonang, but i decided on the gambang for what reason i sudah lupe. haha.
my instrument of choice
i seriously don't remember where my collection of photos during University is (makes mental note to korek balik my stuff. alot of photos were in my Friendster account but i think it got deleted when it got converted into a game domain, sigh). we had lots of performances away from home, one time performing at Bukit Merah, an another trip to KL to perform at Hotel Istana. one memorable one was the trip to Kerteh, we took the night bus and arrived the next morning. after our performance there we got a quick tour of one of Petronas' plants, and got to eat sata and air kelapa before returning to campus. i remember how aggravating it was loading and unloading the bus with the instruments - most of the bonangs got mixed up, i remember ifa and ina trying their hardest figuring out which one was which.
bukit merah
performance at hotel istana
kerteh trip
we also played for the officiating of the Chancellor Hall in 2002, during the time of our internship training i think, i forgot. not to mention playing every year for Convocation up to 2003 (since most of us graduated in 2004). whee~. such memories. i even remember filling in teaching gamelan classes at night with Ju during the time Cikgu Zaidin left for Haji. hahahah i was the tukang kira tempo, nyampah betul. kene chop ape ntah by the juniors, lolz (i managed to make three good friends out of those so-called juniors btw. one of them was really cute hahah).
officiating UTP's UFO, 2003
Convofair 2003
ooh and the songs. i love the songs we played. tak kira lah. i play mainly by memory, i remember sape ntah commenting me about it, dia pelik why i didn't need the music sheet stand. gile kagum, she says. lol. if you love playing the notes will eventually get embedded in your brain, trust me.
performing pro bono at IOI Mariott, 2006
according to Wikipedia:
A gamelan is a musical ensemble from Indonesia, typically from the islands of Bali or Java, featuring a variety of instruments such as metallophones, xylophones, drums and gongs; bamboo flutes, bowed and plucked strings. Vocalists may also be included.
The term refers more to the set of instruments than to the players of those instruments. A gamelan is a set of instruments as a distinct entity, built and tuned to stay together – instruments from different gamelan are generally not interchangeable.
The word gamelan comes from the Javanese word gamels, meaning "to strike or hammer", and the suffix an, which makes the root a collective noun.
UTP gamelan instruments at the time consisted of (that i remember ya):
- bonang barung (ina, ifa)
- bonang penerus (fidah, lubna)
- gambang (me, teh)
- gendang (awie, shinchan, dino, kamal, hatta, farhan)
- sarung peking
- sarung barung
- sarung demung
(shikin, ayu, ida, yana, ujie, baity, jue, halidi, emmy, er, sape lagi ah? park yourselves in the correct instruments boleh tak?)
i didn't know UTP now has it's own
website promoting the arts of Gamelan. i see their uniforms are more elegant from the last time i was part of the team. we didn't have much choice then, it was either blue or yellow gigantic baju-melayu lookalikes with gold trim. hahaha. buruk benor.
and the students who've graduated have formed their own
group outside of Uni, calling themselves Ensemble in G (EiG) created by
Farhan Iqbal Mohd Yusof, a junior of mine. they've done a great job upholding the group. most of the original members sudah lesap, busy with their own lives it seems. anyway, EiG is currently open for reservation and inquiries for those who are interested to have gamelan music accompanying them for wedding events or other formal events.
oh, how i'd love to play with ma peeps again =)
this entry is still incomplete, will be updated once i get more info from my parterns in crime. toodles~!
