Bittersweet Sounds of Passage

Balinese Gamelan Angklung Cremation Music
Author: Ellen Koskoff
Cloth – $110
978-0-252-04662-9
Paper – $28
978-0-252-08873-5
eBook – $19.95
978-0-252-04793-0
Publication Date
Paperback: 07/08/2025
Cloth: 07/08/2025
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About the Book

An important presence through centuries of musical and social change, gamelan angklung is a small, four-tone bronze-keyed ensemble that remains ubiquitous at cremations in Bali. Ellen Koskoff offers a compelling portrait of these little-studied orchestras and their members: rice farmers, eatery owners, and other locals who do not see themselves as musicians or what they play as music.

Koskoff examines the history, cultural significance, and musical structures of contemporary gamelan angklung cremation music through the lens of three intertwined stories: existing scholarship on this music, written mostly by Western composers and scholars; the views of those performing and experiencing the music who regard it as dharma--ritual obligation, a basic concept in Balinese Hinduism; and the music itself, with a musical analysis focusing on changes in rasa--feeling, flavor and musical flow.

A journey inside a tradition, Bittersweet Sounds of Passage reveals the overlooked music of an important ritual in Balinese village life.

* Publication of this book is supported by a grant from the Bruno Nettl Endowment for Ethnomusicology.

About the Author

Ellen Koskoff is Professor Emerita of Ethnomusicology at the Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester. Her many books include the award-winning Music in Lubavitcher Life and A Feminist Ethnomusicology: Writings on Music and Gender.

Reviews


Blurbs

“A marvelous and distinctive contribution to the growing canon of scholarship on Balinese gamelan music that is sure to be enjoyed by international gamelan musicians, students of ethnomusicology, and the many connoisseurs of Balinese culture far beyond academia.”--Michael Tenzer, author of Gamelan Gong Kebyar: The Art of Twentieth Century Balinese Music

Supplemental Material

Gending

1. "Santun" (Politeness), pemungkah, pemungkah, pengiba
  WAV

2. "Tambun" (Belonging Together), pemungkah, pengiba
  WAV

3. "Katak Ngongkek" (Croaking Frog), pemungkah, pengawak, pengiba
  WAV

4. "Tungtung Tangis" (Forever Weeping), pemungkah, pengawak, pengawak/pengiba hybrid
  WAV

5. "Capung Gantung" (Hovering Dragonfly), pemungkah, pengawak, pengiba
  WAV

6. "Sekar Jepun" (Japanese Flower), pemungkah, pengawak, pengiba
  WAV

7. "Bapang" (a metric pattern), pemungkah (same as 4 pemungkah), pemungkah, pengiba (same as 6 pengiba)
  WAV

8. "Lutung Loncat" (Jumping Monkey), pengawak, pengawak, pengawak, pengiba (same as 2 pengiba)
  WAV

9. "Prebangsa," pemungkah (same as 6 pemungkah), pengawak (same as 6 pengawak), pengawak
  WAV

10. "Capung Manjus" (Bathing Dragonfly), pengawak/pemungkah hybrid, pengawak (same as 4 pengawak), pengawak/pengiba hybrid
  WAV

11. "Sekar Gadung" (Gadung Flower), pemungkah (same as 6 pemungkah), pengawak (same as 6 pengawak), pengiba (same as 2 pengiba)
  WAV

12. "Cerukcuk Punyah" (Drunken Bird), pengawak/pemungkah hybrid (same as 10 pengawak/pemungkah hybrid), pemungkah, pengiba
  WAV

13. "Alis-Alis Ijo" (Green Eyebrow), pemungkah, pemungkah, pemungkah/pengawak hybrid, pengawak
  WAV

14. "Jangkrik Ngibing" (Dancing Cricket), pemungkah/pengawak hybrid, pengawak (same as 10 pengawak/pengiba hybrid)
  WAV

15. "Jaran Nginjek" (Runaway Horse), pengiba
  WAV



Recordings

Recording 1.1. Kulkul calling the men of Taman Sari to the balé banjar
  WAV

Recording 2.1. "Capung Gantung"
  WAV

Recording 2.2. "Tabuh Telu," Introduction, played by the Eastman School's gamelan gong kebyar, Sanjiwani
  WAV

Recording 2.3. "Tabuh Telu," Introduction, played by the Eastman School's gamelan angklung, Lila Muni
  WAV

Recording 2.4. "Tabuh Telu," Introduction from "Balinese Ceremonial Music for Two Pianos" (1937), by Colin McPhee
  WAV

Recording 2.5. "Kelinci Nongklang" (1982), by I Nyoman Suadin
  WAV

Recording 7.1. Standard Pokok: First four phrases of "Sekar Jepun," pemungkah
  WAV

Recording 7.2. Support Pokok: First four phrases of "Tungtung Tangis," pengawak
  WAV

Recording 7.3. Ostinato Pokok: Two cycles of "Tungtung Tangis," pengiba
  WAV

Recording 7.4. Pemungkah initial phrase-group from "Santun"
  WAV

Recording 7.5. Pengiba from "Santun"
  WAV

Recording 7.6. Pengiba from "Capung Gantung"
  WAV

Recording 7.7. Pemungkah initial phrase-group from "Tambun"
  WAV

Recording 7.8. Pengawak initial phrase-group from "Lutung Loncat," A
  WAV

Recording 7.9. Pengawak initial phrase-group from "Lutung Loncat," C
  WAV

Recording 7.10. Pengawak internal cycle from "Capung Manjus"
  WAV

Recording 7.11. Long syncopated link from "Sekar Jepun," pengawak
  WAV

Recording 7.12. Pengawak from "Tungtung Tangis"
  WAV

Recording 8.1. Pemungkah from "Katak Ngongkek"
  WAV

Recording 8.2. Pemungkah from "Alis-Alis Ijo"
  WAV

Recording 8.3. Pemungkah from "Tambun"
  WAV

Recording 8.4. Pemungkah from "Tungtung Tangis"
  WAV

Recording 8.5. Pengawak from "Prebangsa"
  WAV

Recording 8.6. Pengawak from "Sekar Jepun"
  WAV

Recording 8.7. Pengiba from "Lutung Loncat"
  WAV

Recording 8.8. Pengiba from "Tungtung Tangis"
  WAV

Recording 8.9. Pemungkah/Pengawak hybrid from "Alis-Alis Ijo"
  WAV

Recording 8.10. Pengawak/Pengiba hybrid from "Capung Manjus"
  WAV

Recording 9.1. Pemungkah from "Capung Gantung"
  WAV