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Competition as a New Context for the Performance of Balinese Gender Wayang

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 March 2019

Mashino Ako
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Extract

A musical competition is a social event as well as a musical one, raising great interest in the community. Its particularly exciting atmosphere, the enthusiasm of both participants and observers, and the social honour bestowed upon the winners encourage the musicians to polish and elaborate their competence and performance styles, and sometimes to create new performance tactics. Previous studies of musical competitions suggest that rivalry and competition in the performing arts—which are deeply rooted in their social settings and carry the creative impulse to transform performing styles—can be found around the world, although their cultural, social, and historical contexts, as well as the changes that result from the competitions, are widely divergent (see Gunderson and Barz 2000; Gunderson 2003). Competitions have also had a significant impact on the development of music in Indonesia, especially in conjunction with official cultural policy. In President Suharto's New Order (Orde Baru) Indonesia, various levels of government held competitions to preserve (melestarikan) and develop (perkembangkan) the traditional performing arts, in accordance with the national cultural policy (Sutton 1991, 1995; Lindsay 1995; Yampolsky 1995; Bakan 1999; Tenzer 2000; Williams 1999,2003; Harnish 2007). This focus on the arts has continued into the period of political reformation (reformasi) since 1998. Competition has been an effective vehicle of cultural ideology through its potential to transform performing style and to change aesthetic value. However, the results of the competition do not always conform to the intentions of the government. A competition involves people with a wide range of purposes and viewpoints, who interpret the event and react to it differently according to their positions, whether as participants, teachers, judges, organizers, or audience members. As R. Anderson Sutton reported regarding the Pekan Kebudayaan Sulawesi Selatan (South Sulawesi Cultural Week) in 1993, festivals or competitions “have contrasting, even conflicting meanings for the different people involved” (Sutton 1995:687). In reality, these various interpretations of the event intertwine to create a tense but influential context for the performing arts.

Abstract in indonesian

Abstract in Indonesian

Gender wayang adalah salah satu gamelan tradisional yang sangat dihormati dan dicintai di Bali, dan selama ini sering dimainkan dalam konteks upacara keagamaan atau sebagai iringan wayang kulit.

Namun demikian, sejak mulai diselenggarakannya sebuah lomba untuk gender wayang sebagai salah satu acara Pekan Seni Remaja (PSR) pada tahun 2005, untuk mempromosikan kegiatan kesenian untuk anak-anak sekolah di kota Denpasar, mulailah musik ini memiliki sebuah konteks baru. Dalam PSR, gender wayang dievaluasi sebagai musik itu sendiri terlepas dari konteks upacara keagamaan ataupun pertunjukan wayang kulit, dan unsur musik tersebut diperhatikan oleh penonton secara lebih detail. Perubahan sifat konteks ini telah menghasilkan beberapa perubahan dalam cara permainan serta pementasannya, dimana penampilan dan penjiwaan pemain lebih ditonjolkan.

Di belakang perubahan ini, dapat kita lihat berbagai faktor sosial dan motivasi yang saling berinteraksi dan saling menyesuaikan. Dengan kata lain, melalui perubahan konteks tersebut lomba gender wayang serta pertunjukan yang disajikan dalam lomba ini, telah tercipta gaya permainan baru serta wacana baru sebagai hasil konsekuensi keterlibatan berbagai pihak dalam lomba ini, dari anak-anak peserta, pembina, guru, juli, pelaksana, sampai pemerintah sebagai sponsor, yang mana masing-masing memiliki berbagai motivasi dan ide, mengevaluasi makna konteks serta estetika gender wayang secara leluasa, serta bereaksi terhadap perubahan konteks ini dengan cara yang beraneka ragam.

Type
Articles
Information
Yearbook for Traditional Music , Volume 41 , 2009 , pp. 111 - 137
Copyright
Copyright © 2009 by the International Council for Traditional Music

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