The piece of music that I picked for this song share is a Balinese Gamelan performed by a group called Gamelan Cudamani. I found this piece on YouTube while searching through various examples of Balinese Gamelan. I specifically wanted to find a song from Bali because Bali is a place I am very fascinated by. From the pictures and videos I have seen, Bali seems to be one of the most beautiful places on earth and I hope to someday go there. I wanted to dive more into examples of Balinese Gamelan because I feel that it is important to understand the culture and history of the place I visit and since I hope to one day visit Bali, I thought this was a great opportunity to learn more about it. 

I thought this performance was a great representation of what I know traditional Balinese Gamelan to sound like. The fast tempo and scattered pauses in the music is quite characteristic of what we heard in class for this type of song. I did think as well that there was quite a unique use of call and response between the metallophones, making the piece almost feel like a playful battle between the two sides of the stage. The facial expressions on the musician’s faces made the performance even more enjoyable to watch. The performers were also so theatrical about their playing that it almost felt like they were dancing, which was also very enjoyable. 

The reason I picked this specific piece to share is that out of all the performances I looked at, this was the only one I could find that had women musicians. The ensemble that did this performance, Gamelan Cudamani, is from the Balinese village Pengosekan, and is know as one of the most active and respected performing ensembles in Bali. The video I found this performance in contains other performances that do not contain female musicians, so it appears that it is not too common for even this group to involve women. I felt pretty strongly about finding a performance that contained female musicians because I am determined to do so for most if not all of my song shares. As a women musician myself, I feel that is very important that we acknowledge strong female artists in all cultures not just our own, especially in cultures that tend to suppress women in social settings. If you look very closely in this video you will see that in the middle section of the stage there are two women playing metallophones and they look to be enjoying themselves just as much as the men. I am disappointed I had such a struggle finding a piece of music utilizing women artists other than dancers, but I am glad that I did in the end, especially in such an enjoyable piece. 

The Video: 

Watch: 00:00 – 02:50

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8iiequ3hGBU