Saturday, March 18, 2023
From 4pm till late, resuming at 8pm after a dinner break
Lincoln Hall B20, Cornell University
Free admission, no tickets required
Held in tandem with Indonesian Night 2023

Not to be missed: an opportunity to hear the full glory of traditional Javanese gamelan music, played at the highest level.

Klenengan are relatively informal musical gatherings. In previous decades, it was not unusual for them to last all night or all day. This one will go from 4pm until at least 10pm (with break for dinner around 7, and starting back up at 8). This expansive format is the ideal environment for experiencing Javanese gamelan music, which is commonly played in suites that last 30 minutes or longer.

Klenengan are relaxed affairs, especially in contrast with more formal concert presentations. Listeners are free to come and go and mingle as they please. Quiet chatting while enjoying tea and snacks is perfectly acceptable. The musicians too temper their intense focus on the music with calm, comfort, and occasional joking around.

Klenengan offer musicians opportunities to practice and learn, and very frequently bring together musicians of varying experience and ability. For this event, members of the Cornell Gamelan Ensemble will follow the lead of some of the foremost players of this music in the United States, including four Javanese masters:

• Bapak I. M. Harjito and Bapak Sumarsam, two of the most accomplished musicians of their generation, both on faculty at Wesleyan University
• the fabulous singer Ibu Peni Candra Rini, currently a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Richmond, who was previously in Ithaca with the Shadow Ballads production in 2016
• Bapak Darsono Hadiraharjo, who is the guest artistic director

Also coming are numerous long-time players with the many gamelan ensembles in the northeast, in a celebration of our common dedication to this grand musical tradition.

This klenengan is held in memory of Bapak Darsono’s parents, Ki Saguh Hadiraharjo and Nyi Panut, who passed away in 2019 and 2018. It will highlight the popular style of gamelan performance that flourished in Indonesia’s post-independence era, in which Ki Saguh and Nyi Panut were key figures. It is a style that is deeply rooted in tradition but alive to the spirit of the times. The statelier and more contemplative pieces still have a place—and can be heard from 4 to about 5:30pm, and from 8 to about 9:30pm—but these will give way to a more bustling atmosphere, with catchy vocal melodies and exuberant episodes of loud-style playing. The event will culminate with a suite of pieces composed by Ki Saguh himself.

For more about the lives and careers of Ki Saguh Hadiraharjo and Nyi Panut, see Christopher J. Miller’s interview with Bapak Darsono.

For a taste of the music, see these selections from Ibu Peni Candra Rini’s 2016 performance with the Cornell Gamelan Ensemble.

For participants especially, see the list of pieces chosen by Darsono Hadiraharjo.