Searching for the Unusual: New Methods of Composing for Gamelan

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ABSTRACT The development of new musical compositions for Balinese gamelan has resulted in a rapid growth in contemporary music genres. Their methodologies have led to extraordinary creativity and the forming of individual compositional styles that exhibit a variety of new and innovative approaches to composing for Balinese gamelan. These new ways include: combining traditional compositional techniques with foreign musical techniques and scales, conducting intrinsic and extrinsic experiments in choosing musical elements, and exploring possible collaborations between electronic music and gamelan. Many believe this has resulted from the tendency for composers to search for the new and unusual in the Balinese new music scene. By examining some of these new compositions and the thought process behind them, this article traces the historical development of new music in Bali, discusses its musical features, and presents the method of composition utilised by an older generation of composers in realising their music creations. It then considers younger composers and their approaches to utilising musical elements of their own and incorporating those of other cultures into their works. Next, it introduces various kind of techniques found in the development of individual methodologies exhibited at the Komponis Kini, a ‘new music for gamelan’ event. The paper proceeds with an analysis of segments of selected compositions by various composers who participated at the Komponis Kini event, including a discussion of how each composer understands and situates their work within projections for the future of Balinese new music.