Future professional gamelan players in our midst?

Our first day with Ibu Kitsie and Pak Wakidi was so amazing, and there was more in store for us.  They had arranged for our Goshen group to play the song that we had just learned in an actual wayang (shadow puppet) performance on Thursday night.  The wayang was held at the home of Ki Purbo, a dhalang (the person who controls the puppets), so we headed over there that evening.  We sat with high anticipation through the first part of the show, enjoying both the high skill of the dhalang in telling the story and the artistic beauty of the puppets themselves.

Wayang shows are in Bahasa Javanese, so our growing understanding of the Indonesian language was no use here.  Bu Kitsie kindly interpreted for us, on a projector screen to the right.  We were honored by the dhalang as he chose to debut a brand new puppet to honor our visit!

You can see the new wayang puppet above– after learning how much time it takes to create a new shadow puppet, we were indeed honored!

Wayangs typically last for 3 or 4 hours, and about an hour into the performance, Ibu Kitsie warned us on the screen that it was nearly time for students to play the piece that they knew.  Everyone headed to their spot and switched places with the professional gamelan players.   We had started our gamelan instruction only earlier that same day, and here students were, ready to play.  So courageous!

The dhalang publicly praised the students’ performance.  You can see Ibu Kitsie’s translation of his words for us here:

Intermissions are common in wayang performances, complete with entertainment from the dhalang.  In this case, he called the Goshen students back up to the front, where he spoke with them.  Francisco and Brenton spoke for the group (in Indonesian!), and then they sang a song Pak Salmon had taught them last fall (about a horse and cart– make sure you ask them to sing it for you when they return in April).

The whole evening was really very special.

On Friday, we returned for the 2nd day of the workshop, where we learned two new instruments of the ensemble (the bonang and the kendang), learned another song, and honed some skills.  We also had the privilege of watching a trained Javanese dancer dance to the songs that we were playing.

Lunch included some amazing “Indonesian crepes” made with coconut milk.  Friends, they were good:

By 4:00, it was time to roll on back to Yogyakarta.  Yes, the train was just as crowded on the way home, but we did get a stunning view of Mt. Merapi (on the left) and Mt. Merbabu from the train.  They are often shrouded in clouds, so this felt like a special ending to the 2-day workshop we had just enjoyed.