If I had to guess, I would say that the fascination inspired by our short encounter with the world of Gamelan had more to do with the juxtaposition of the Indonesian music and its Americans-in-jeans musicians than with the development of a true taste for the tinkering tunes.
Sure, the music has an ethnic charm, the kind that motivates the Bali government to sponsor costumed performers in hotels, and, while this contrived ‘experience’ may attract tourists, us Mac’lers got a look at something a lot better.
The Queens College Gamelan Orchestra made no secret of its background—there were a few giggles in the crowd when some of the musicians spun their sticks drummer style. When we met them prior to the performance, they were just regular guys in college willing to kick off their converse and sit on the floor with us to make some noise. Happens to be their noise is of a superior strain, a new idea in the desert of over-proliferation. Bali music in New York, played by New Yorkers is as refreshing as pop music played by Californians is nauseating.
Another instance of the first phenomenon that comes to mind is that of Idan Raichel.
To this day, Israelis hold the world record as the only country to actively bring Africans to their country—as free men. In 1984-91, when the Ethiopian Jewish population was threatened by political upheaval and famine, Israel organized covert operations Joshua, Moses and Solomon, airlifting thousands to safety and developing programs to help the newcomers integrate. Idan Raichel volunteered at one such program, where he became acquainted with the rhythmic Ethiopian music that he later developed into the Idan Raichel Project. His music features songs that blend Amharic, Hebrew, and Arabic. It is this combination of cultures that makes his work so powerful. Most recently he performed with India Arie, earlier this semester at the Beacon Theater on Broadway.
(kol isha heads up—if its below your standards I don’t want it to be my gehenom 😉 just skip to the next video)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtwfZZX5E4I
Translated Hebrew lyrics: (and if anyone understands Amharic please post!)
Come, give me your hand and let’s go
Don’t ask me to where
Don’t ask me about happiness
Maybe it will come too
And when it comes
It will fall down on us like rain
Come, let’s embrace and let’s go
Don’t ask me when
Don’t ask me about home
Don’t ask me for time
Time doesn’t wait, doesn’t stop, doesn’t stay.
Another, more current, more local, and perhaps even more bizarre example of cultural integration would be the Yeshiva University acapella group’s attempt at reggae holiday music. Like the case of the Queens Gamelan, one can only wonder, how on earth did this happen?
With the use of technology, more specifically, the Internet, people have been able to expose themselves to many art forms, which previously a person would never have thought to imagine of. Before listening to the gamelan music, if I would have only heard about this music I would have thought that the same music could have been produced by my five year old brother with a couple of pots and pans from my kitchen. Now that we have the capability to hear the authentic music, albeit being somewhat forced to be produced by the Indonesian government, we are able to open ourselves to a genre of art that we never heard before. I don’t think we should look at the music as much as being nauseating because we had some college kids play it, but rather we should learn to appreciate this cultural diffusion. A form of music was able to travel across the sea and is nw being appreciated by New York college students.
I think its interesting that our class is called the Arts of New York City, when most of the art we saw actually originated from anywhere but New York. The opera, the Cone sisters, even the dancers from Fall for Dance, they all weren’t from New York. I think the main part of the class was to appreciate the fact that we live in the center of the biggest melting pot of cultures. This gives us the opportunity to appreciate not only what originates in New York, but also foreign art. I think the example you gave, of Idan Raichel, is a perfect example of cultural diffusion. With the ability, only given to us recently, to appreciate a plethora of foreign cultures with ease, new forms of art are being created because of the influence of many different cultures. The new music being created by Idan Raichel is being created because of the blend of culture and art from Ethiopia and Israel, thus creating a hybrid music with a blend of the Ethiopian rhythms and already established Israeli music styles.