A Taste of Java
Composer: Brad Bridges
Major/Class: Music / Senior
Hometown: Kings Mountain, North Carolina
Genre: Quartet for Marimba (Tara
Villa), Piano (Patty McBrayer), Flute (Padget Rice), and Bass (Rob Neuman)
Deriving its structure from Javanese
Gamelan, “A Taste of Java” explores the richness of non-western compositional
procedure and structure through its cyclical nature and use of a balungan (core
melody). The balungan, played by the marimba, is based on a five tone slendro
scale (which later transforms into a seven tone pelog scale). While all
instruments find in the balungan their fundamental pitch collection, the bass
and the flute function as colotomic instruments marking important points in a
cycle.
The layering within a cyclic structure provides a hierarchical organization of
instruments in time. While the marimba plays the balungan, the bass dominates
the metrical structure. The music is articulated in an end-accented system
giving emphasis to final notes of gatra (four note units), gongan (phrases), as
well as single cycle sections and the overall piece. Gamelan music also uses the
principle of irama where the amount of beats in between each gatra can be
expanded or contracted. This expansion propels the music towards the climatic
event. In “A Taste of Java” an abrupt contraction of the irama occurs after
successive expansions in order to increase the cyclic nature of this piece by
returning to original irama and balungan. True to the spirit of all Gamelan
music, this return prepares the music to revisit the true beginning and be
repeated indefinitely.
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