My First Time Listening to the “Gamelan”

A morning alive and crisp, the air charged with one singular mood of prayer, of mindfulness, of offering, of a quite and austere celebration -the Saraswati day, in Bali, last December. It was two weeks since having landed here and my first exposure to the first of innumerable festivities.

Aculture that is transparent, touches and quickens one’s sentiments. Every facet of life here seems bound by a unity and solidarity of thought and spirit.
So too it was in the partaking of The music began. Ritual in presentation and demeanor. Soft chimes intermittently emphasized tones on beats of rhythm. A unified, strong spirit of harmony emanated, of a reaching out to forces unknown through simple chords struck in unison at most times, tangential at others, binding all slowly and simply through a sense of offering, of surrender. Individual sounds blended to create a sonorous effect that lulled the senses, suspended the mind, binding it and enveloping it to a trance like state. The state induced a certain calm, and a strange rush of energy from within. The varying speeds, the continuous clang of the gongs literally seemed to be a call from afar, a slow pull to a land and time and space perhaps forgotten and increasingly being forgotten. The extended symphony seemed to drive all else from within to without , all stray thoughts sauntered out leaving a vacuum behind from which one could discern and understand the hidden flow and spirit.
Watching the instrumentalists, it appeared the music simply flowed out and flowed through waves that touched each one so that it looked like there is an upper force guiding and marking time for each, beyond the lead conductor!
Each one seemed a mute, yet complete participants. Each one weaved in and out through the symphony, entering and leaving, leading and following, each commanding and submitting, hearing, listening and speaking through his instrument. A guided conversation seemed to be on. Each as in a commune heeding to The call, submitting and being one with it. The Gamelan may seem simple yet it has an underlying force and purpose that is certainly complex! It is music of and for the soul, second nature to common folk here who weave an unconscious magic like experts at an ancient calling!