World Arbiter 2014

Bali 1928, vol. II: Tembang Kuna • Songs from an Earlier Time

  • 1st release on CD of rare unaccompanied vocal recordings. Volume Two of the 1928 Balinese recordings features vocal genres bearing a lost art. All lyrics receive their first English translations in the liner notes (see download link below), coupled with an extensive analytic article by Edward Herbst (see link for ‘Additional Notes’ below) included as a PDF (accessed by computer) and hosted online by World Arbiter.
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Track List: Bali 1928, vol. II: Tembang Kuna • Songs from an Earlier Time • Tembang, Kidung & Kakawin

Singers: 1-4  Ida Bagus Oka Kerebuak (Geria Pidada, Klungkung) 5-6  Ida Bagus Oka Kerebuak & Ida Boda 7-10 Ida Boda (from Geria Budha, Kaliungu) 11-14 Ni Dayu Madé Rai (from Penarukan, Singaraja) 15-16 Ida Bagus Ngurah (from Geria Tampakgangsul) 17-18 Ni Lemon (from Jangér Abian Timbul) 19-22 Ida Bagus Wayan Buruan & Ida Madé Tianyar (from  Geria Pidada, Klungkung)

Duration: 67:04

  1. Pangkur (Lagoe Poeh Pangkoer) 2:58
  2. Sinom Salya (Lagoe Poeh Sinom) 3:03
  3. Semarandana (Lagoe Poepoeh Semaran Dahane) 3:08
  4. Dangdang Gula (Lagoe Poepoeh Dangdang Goele) 3:02
  5. Mas Kumambang (Lagoe Poeh Koemambang) 3:08
  6. Pangkur (Lagoe Poeh Pangkoer) 3:05
  7. Dangdang Gula I (Lagoe Dangdang Goele I) 2:49
  8. Dangdang Gula II (Lagoe Dangdang Goele II) 2:55
  9. Adri I (Lagoe Poepoeh Adri I) 2:46
  10. Adri II (Lagoe Poepoeh Adri II) 2:51
  11. Dangdang (Lagoe Dandang [sic]) 3:18
  12. Semarandana Tuan Déwi (Toean Dewi) 3:15
  13. Pucung Istri Ayu I (Lagoe Istri Ajoe I: Poetjoeng) 3:05
  14. Pucung Istri Ayu II (Lagoe Istri Ajoe II: Poetjoeng) 3:07
  15. Kidung Lulungid (Lagoe Kidung Wilet) 3:09
  16. Puh Demung Gulaganti (Lagoe Wie Dari Semara [sic]) 3:02
  17. Kidung Wargasari I (Lagoe Wargesari) 2:59
  18. Kidung Wargasari II (Lagoe Wargesari Toetoetan) 3:11
  19. Kakawin Bharatayuddha (Lagoe Kekawin Brata Joeda) 3:07
  20. Kakawin Ramayana (Lagoe Kekawin Rame Jane) 2:58
  21. Kakawin Boma (Lagoe Kekawin Boma) 3:09
  22. Kakawin Smaradahana (Lagoe Kekawin Semaran Dahane) 2:57

Photo archive of these singers and others in Bali from 1900 through the 1930s

Videos have been uploaded on our YouTube channel

Research, publication updates, and archival 1930s photographs and films will appear on www.arbiterrecords.org and in Indonesian on www.Bali1928.net

Acknowledgments

The Bali 1928 project has benefited by a great many participants. The core research team for this volume of Lotring and the Sources of Gamelan Tradition has included I Ketut Kodi, Ni Ketut Suryatini, Ni Ketut Arini, I Madé Arnawa, I Nyoman Catra, I Wayan Dibia, I Nyoman Astita, and myself. Profound thanks are due to the many artists, informants, and consultants specific to this volume including I Madé Sarin, I Wayan Suwéca, I Madé Netra, Ni Nyoman Candri, I Wayan Kélo, I Wayan Mangku Suda and I Nyoman Marcono, Arya Godogan, I Wayan Teling, I Wayan Pursa, I Madé Artajaya, I Wayan Karyasa, I Wayan Suwija, I Wayan Egler, I Wayan Darta, I Gusti Serama Semadi, Dé Guh, I Wayan Konolan, I Wayan Locéng, I Wayan Nartha, I Wayan Tangguh, I Wayan Lura, I Ketut Suendra, I Nyoman Mindra, Dé Ama, I Ketut Wadja, I Wayan Kanda, I Ketut Gedé Asnawa, I Wayan Gunastra, I Wayan Dedi, Ni Gusti Raka Rasmi, I Wayan Lantir, I Wayan Sinti, N.L.N. Suasthi Widjaja Bandem, Anak Agung Ayu Bulan Trisna Djelantik, I Gusti Nengah Nurata, I Gusti Nyoman Wirata, Mangku Wayan Putra, and I Gusti Putu Bawa Samar Gantang. Our Senior Project Advisor for publications in Indonesia is I Madé Bandem.

Additional thanks to Hildred Geertz, Thomas M. Hunter, Evan Ziporyn, Tilman Seebass, Danker Schaareman, Hedi Hinzler, Beth Skinner and José Evangelista. For a complete list of acknowledgments see the PDF on this CD.

Access to the original 78 rpm records has been made available to us courtesy of the University of California, Los Angeles, Ethnomusicology Archive and the Colin McPhee Estate (thanks to John Vallier, Maureen Russell, Anthony Seeger, Marlowe Hood, Jacqueline DjeDje and Aaron Bittel), Indonesia’s Museum Nasional in Jakarta (Retno Sulisthianingsih, former Director) and Sana Budaya in Yogyakarta, Laurel Sercombe at University of Washington, New York Public Library, Martin Hatch at Cornell University, Nancy Dean and Ellen Koskoff, Totom Kodrat and Soedarmadji J.H. Damais in Jakarta (and the Louis Charles Damais collection), Wim van der Meer and Ernst Heins at the Jaap Kunst Archives, University of Amsterdam, Jaap Erkelens, Anak Agung Ngurah Gdé Agung, Puri Karangasem, Allan Evans, Michael Robertson, and Pat Conte.

Special thanks to Rocio Sagaon Vinaver, Djahel Vinaver and José G. Benitez Muro for permission to use Miguel Covarrubias’s film footage from Bali that has been so useful in triggering the memories of older–generation artists. The Rolf de Maré films are included by kind permission from Dansmuseet and The Rolf de Maré Foundation, Stockholm. Arthur Fleischmann photographs are reproduced by kind permission of the Arthur Fleischmann family. Walter Spies’s photographs are reproduced courtesy of the Walter Spies Foundation, Holland.

We especially appreciate the extraordinary generosity and trust of the UCLA Ethnomusicology Archive, which allowed us to borrow a great many of their 78 discs as well as Colin McPhee’s invaluable film footage and photographs. Special thanks to Philip Yampolsky who served as Project Officer at the Ford Foundation, Jakarta (supporting research in 2003, 2006 and 2007) and also as an informant on the history and whereabouts of the Odeon–Beka original 78 rpm discs without whom this collection would have been almost impossible to assemble. Endo Suanda helped envision and organize the Bali 1928 project at its inception. Thanks to the Asian Cultural Council for funding research in 2008–09. Additional support has been provided by Ray Noren as well as Yayasan Bali Purnati ‘The Bali Purnati Center for the Arts’. A 2014-15 Fulbright Senior Research Scholar Award is allowing Edward Herbst to conduct field research relating to the 1928 recordings.

The Research Foundation of CUNY received a grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to support the collaborative work involving Edward Herbst as project coordinator, ethnomusicologist and principal investigator, with Arbiter of Cultural Traditions in New York, directed by Allan Evans, and STIKOM-Bali, coordinated by Marlowe Makaradhwaja, in Indonesia. This Bali 1928 Project, “Restoration, Dissemination and Repatriation of the Earliest Music Recordings and Films in Bali,” will result in five volumes and an anthology to be published as CDs, DVDs and cassettes in the U.S. and Indonesia as well as providing archival audiovisual resources online.

Edward Herbst 2015

Liner Notes (PDF)

Additional Notes (PDF)