Wayang Kamasan, 'Ibu' Seni Lukis Bali

Seni lukis Bali klasik yang lebih dikenal seni lukis wayang Kamasan sejak abad ke-17 hingga sekarang masih bertahan hidup. Itu berarti ada sesuatu yang memberi 'hidup', sehingga komunitas pendukungnya mampu menjaga kelestariannya.

Seni lukis wayang Kamasan memang perlu dilestarikan sebagai sebuah karya seni yang sarat muatan filosofi -- tema-temanya diangkat dari epos Mahabharata dan Ramayana. Terkait dengan upaya melestarikan seni lukis Bali klasik wayang Kamasan, di Taman Budaya Denpasar biasanya dilaksanakan pameran lukisan wayang Kamasan di Gedung Kriya.

'Taman Budaya sebagai salah satu unit pelaksana teknis daerah di bawah Dinas Kebudayaan Bali, selalu berupaya menggairahkan iklim berkesenian, salah satunya melalui pameran seni lukis.

Para pelukis yang ikut adalah Nyoman Arnawa, Nyoman Arcana, Wayan Puspa, Nyoman Sariarta, Ni Nyoman Supini, Ni Wayan Sri Wedari, Putu Mahendra Sriady Aditya Putra, Gede Trisnayasa Waisnawa, Ni Komang Sri Darmayanti, Ni Nyoman Ayu Winandari, Made Kurniawan, Gede Puspa Wedayana, Putu Candra Wiguna, Ketut Suendra, Made Darmanta, Ni Made Sri Rahayu, Wayan Suartana, Nyoman Adi Prabawa, Wayan Pande Sumantra, Ni Made Sinarwati dan Ni Wayan Yeni Widyanti.

Tingkatkan Apresiasi
Tema yang diangkat kebanyakan seputar cerita Mahabharata dan Ramayana, tetapi ada yang mengangkat tema kehidupan sehari-hari, dan tarian barong-randa. 'Pameran ini juga bertujuan meningkatkan apresiasi terhadap seni, khususnya lukisan wayang Kamasan,' kata Nurjana Putra yang mantan Kasubag Hukum dan Humas Disdik Bali.

Seni lukis Bali klasik wajib dilestarikan. Sebab, menurut perupa yang dosen senirupa ISI Denpasar Ketut Murdana, seni lukis Bali klasik merupakan 'ibu' bagi perkembangan corak-corak seni lukis Bali selanjutnya. Menghormati dan memeliharanya merupakan upaya mendorong terwujudnya keluhuran budi. Melalui seni lukis Bali klasik, pelukis maupun apresiannya diharapkan mampu mengimplementasikan dan mengapresiasi sifat-sifat satyam (kebenaran tatwa), siwam (kesucian) dan sundaram (keindahan).

Lanjut Murdana, para leluhur Bali sejatinya telah menancapkan tonggak kreatif melalui seni rupa Bali klasik. Di situ ada pakem-pakem kesenirupaan dengan tahapan proses yang teratur dan keseriusan menggarap filosofi Hindu. Dalam proses kerja yang teratur itu menghasilkan keteraturan komposisi, garis (ngereka, nyawi, ngepuk), dan gradasi (ngampad).

Semua itu dilakoni dengan proses kerja yang ngunda bayu (pranayama) -- menahan emosi dan mengatur napas -- agar menghasilkan kualitas garis lembut, garis panjang tak putus-putus, detail dan merata. Proses kerja tradisi seperti ini dan muatan spiritual yang tertata dalam tema karya, diharapkan mampu membetuk kehalusan budi.

Gamelan Cenik Wayah, Children Gamelan Group in Ubud

This children gamelan was founded in 2000 by I Wayan Sudirana, under a big support from Cokorda Ngurah Suyadnya, the prince of the royal family of Ubud.
The member of this group was gathered from the "banjar", community village, of the village of Ubud. Because the basic idea in forming this group is to teach and build a strong cultural foundation among young generations, especially in Ubud area, through music and dance.

This group was in the victory on the Gong Kebyar Competition at the Bali Arts Festival 2005, where they were representing Gianyar regency. They were the first group who swept all of the gold medal for all of the pieces that was contested in Gong Kebyar Competition.

Nowadays, they are keeping their regular weekly performances in the Ubud Water Palace open stage, right behind cafe Lotus. This regular performance is just keeping them together as a group, because even though they also have a regular rehearsal, once a week, the idea of having a regular performance is to keep their "taksu" or spirit, individually or as a group.

In 2006, a Canadian composer, Colin MacDonald was composing a new piece for this group. The piece is called "Canang Sari" (offerings). It was performed with gamelan Cudamani, Sekar jaya, Gita Asmara and Michael Tenzer at the Bali Arts Festival.

In 2007, there was two talented American musicians and composers of Balinese music worked with this group as well. Both, Peter Michael Steele and Paddy Sandino, are a gamelan lover and studied with Michael Tenzer at UBC. They was composing new pieces of music for gamelan that was inspired by the unique marriage of both, Western and Balinese culture. Those world premiere pieces was performed in Ubud area, and at The Bali Arts Festival, together with other new compositions that was composed by other composers, and was also involving some members of Balinese gamelan group in abroad, i.e. Gita Asmara Canada, Sekar jaya America, and Lila Cita London, Sekar Jepun Japan, and one dancer from France.

One month later, Ethnomusicologist and Assistant Professor at Richmond University, Andy McGraw was arranging a cartoon piece, which is called "power house", into gamelan. He was teaching it to Gamelan Cenik Wayah in August 2007.

Soon, we will release CDs of both project!!!!
Paddy and Pete's CD project content:
1. Kreasi Pepanggulan Check This Out, by Paddy
Sandino
2. Tabuh Kreasi Cihna Wadwa
by. I Wayan Sudirana and Ida bagus Made
Widnyana
3. Tabuh Kreasi Brace Your Self Wayan
by, Pete Steele
4. Tari Kreasi Nyamar
by. I Wayan Sudirana
5. Kreasi 4 5
New music that is combining two different gamelan that has different tuning system
by. I Wayan Sudirana

Thank you very much for your attention.

JAGARAGA , BULELENG; cradle of gamelan gong kebyar

The history of the gamelan gong music of Indonesia certainly is an old one, however the metal sounds and dynamic style of gamelan gong 'kebyar' which is so typical for Bali, is relatively new - younger than one hundred years. The hectic sound and dynamic rythm of this type of gamelan music emerged for the first time in the year 1915, where it was 'invented' by the gamelan gong group of the village of Jagaraga, near Singaraja, in North Bali.

Kebyar means 'quick, sudden, loud', expressions that are all characteristic for the typical, dynamic style of this type of gamelan gong music. Since its invention in North Bali in 1915, gamelan gong kebyar became more and more popular and nowadays it is the most heard gamelan gong style in Bali.

Contests - The competitive element plays an important role among the gamelan gong groups of Bali. Regularly contests are organized where groups of several villages compete against each other. During these contests special attention is paid to synchronization of musical rhythms and body movements of the performers. One of these contests occurs during the "Pesta Kesenian Bali" of the district of Buleleng, a three day festival which is always held in the second half of the month July, in the city of Singaraja. If you happen to be around be sure not to miss out on this unique event.
Dwi Mekar - The gamelan gong kebyar and topeng group 'Dwi Mekar' of Singaraja belongs to one of the most popular and successful groups of Bali. With regular regional, national and international performances (among others at the Royal Palace of Denmark in 2004) Dwi Mekar has grown immensely popular both inside as well as outside Bali.

Gong Factories - As North Bali is the cradle of Gamelan Gong Kebyar it will not be surprising that the most talented craftsmen on the field of instrument making also can be found in the same area. Especially the area of Jagaraga / Sawan is reknown for its gamelan gong instrument factories. Most of these factories are open for visitors who are interested to see the craftsmen at work, and learn some of the process of the making of the instruments. Also the factories serve as a sales outlet for gamelan gong groups as well as for individual buyers.

Endowment

This year is an amazing year for me. A lot of thing was happening at the same time. It was a miracle for me. I don't really know how to express my greatest thank to You, my God. Without Your glorious magnificent, all of these things will not be happening to me.In this blog, I want to share my happiness feeling to all of you with a great gratitude to my God, and all of my supported friends.

Firstly, at the end of April 2008, after Gita Asmara's last performance, we went back home, together inside of my friend's sport car. The car was so small, but fancy. I was sitting in the back with my son, Dede. He was sleeping, because we was going around the town all day long. The weather was so great, sunny and warm, the first warmest day at the end of the long winter. It was the first day like that in Vancouver area.
After we got closer to the UBC area, more specifically on Alma and 1oth Avenue, my friends realize that he was run out of gas, and he decided to pulled of and add some more gas for his car. I was busy talking with my wife, Putu, about our future plan and stuff, and suddenly my cellphone was ringing. It was my supervisor, Michael Tenzer. He was asking where I am. I told him that I was very close to his house. Then he said: congratulations!! I was surprise, because I was waiting for that news for a long time. I got UGF, the biggest scholarship at UBC. Thank you very much God....I said, I was really happy because UGF is my only expectation to support my financial and study, here in Vancouver.

As the day goes along, we finally passed through the long bored May and June in Vancouver. This was the first time for me and family to stay for the whole summer here. It was very beautiful though. In the previous year, we only seen Vancouver in the winter time, and because of that we ware very exited. However, I didn't have anything to do, I felt bored. Sometime I was trying to work a little bit on my Thesis. Trying to get some analysis done, digitized Michael's old recordings of Balinese Drummer, and trying to work a little bit on the outline of my Thesis.

The end of July 2008 was the greatest day in the whole summer. My gamelan summer class was finally passed the limitation. I was told that if I don't get more than 35-40 students registered, my class will not be running. But, I was so lucky, the number of student registered to my course was 36 students. And the head of School of Music gave the permission to me to run the class, and in the next day we was signing a contract.

Three days after that, I got a great surprise and considered as the best gift for me... my wife is pregnant! I was really happy to hear that. Thank you very much God... I will do my best to take care of my wife and your best glorious gift for me... All of those surprises was continuously decorated my life. I was trying to calm myself in order to not express my happiness crazily. I was in the middle of consciousness to encourage my self to work harder and harder in order to be prepared for all of these surprises.

Next week after, I got another news from my collaborator. Our grant application through cultural Olympiad succeed. We got a grant to compose a marathon piece. We will combine three different distinguish music cultures, i.e. Baleganjur, Bagpipe, and Taiko. I have to compose 45 long piece for this ensemble, and going to perform it at the same time with the Winter Olympic January 2010.
I believe that all of these luck was part of my wife's second pregnancy.

Thanks God....for all of your endowments.

Ngaben Ubud

Summer 2008 merupakan yang pertama kalinya aku bersama keluarga tinggal dan menikmati indahnya Vancouver. Ternyata, hari-hari ini berlalu dengan sangat cepat tanpa meninggalkan bekas sedikitpun. Dan untuk pertama kalinya aku dan keluarga merasakan bahwa kita tidak berada jauh dari rumah. Walaupun sebenarnya sangat jauh di negeri seberang.

Pada Bulan Juli, tepatnya tanggal 19, di tanah kelahiranku ada upacara ngaben masal. Pada ngaben kali ini, ada tiga dari keluargaku yang akan di kremasi (diupacarai). Salah satunya adalah pamanku sendiri. Sebenarnya aku ingin sekali pulang, tapi apa daya, jarak dan tugas yang memang tidak memungkinkan untukku dan keluarga untuk pulang dan mengikiuti upacara tersebut. Untukmu pamanku, aku beserta keluarga hanya bisa medoakan dari peranrauan; semoga engkau mendapatkan tempat yang baik disisiNya.

Sebelum upacara ngaben masal ini, ada pula upacara ngaben besar di keluarga puri Ubud tanggal 15 Juli. Upacara ini dikatakan upacara ngaben terbesar sejak tahun 1979. Ada tiga keluarga Puri yang di aben, yang salah satunya adalah Penglingsir Puri Ubud, Cokorde Gde Agung Suyasa. Bade, Lembu, dan Naga Banda, berdiri megah di depan puri Ubud. Dan sekali lagi, aku gak bisa hadir dan menyaksikan acara besar yang mungkin tidak akan ada lagi di dunia ini. Menurut Cok Wah, anak dari almarhum Cok Suyasa, acara ini anak melibatkan lebih dari 15 000 orang dan menghabiskan biaya Milyaran rupiah. Anak-anak didikku di CW (Cenik Wayah) akan ngayah disana. aku memang sangat merindukan suasana upacara seperti ini. tapi apa daya, aku harus tinggal di Vancouver. Aku hanya bisa medoakan dari sini; Mangdane Ida, Ratu Cokorda Agung polih genah sane becik ring Swargalokha.