Page Two
THE MICHIGAN DAILY
Thursday, February 3, 1972
Page Two THE MICHIGAN DAILY Thursday, Februory 3, 1972
Rababs and zithers .. .
The University's Javanesse Gamelan
Recent releases on remew
By DONALD SOSIN
The unique sounds of tradi-
tional Javanese instruments -
gongs, bronze xylophones, zith-
ers, flutes, rebabs-will fill Hill
Aud. Monday evening as the
University's Javanese gamelan
performs in a variety of styles.
Included in the program will be
popular Javanese songs, one of
which has been going strong for
the past 12 years, and also con-
temporary and traditional music.
This will be the eighth per-
formance at the University by
the gamelan, whose instruments
were purchased from Java by
Prof. William Malm in 1966.
For the past two years, the
group has been under the lead-
ership of the assistant director,
Richard Wallis, while the regu-
lar director, Judith Becker, was
in Java. She has returned bring-
ing many new instruments to
enlarge the ensemble.
Appearing with the group will
be Ki Wasitodipuro, famed Java-
nese composer and conductor,
who has written more than 900
compositions. He is director of
a Javanese court gamelan, and
is presently teaching at the Cali-
fornia Institute of the Arts. Al-
though court musicians are tra-
ditionally quite conservative, Ki
Wasitodipuro has stirred contro-
versy by orchestrating his music,
requesting specific instruments,
and initiating new methods of
playing - something quite un-
heard of in Javanese-music. He
is also considered the foremost
player of the rebab, a string in-
strument, and will be performing
on it at the concert.
Two different tuning systems
are used in Javanese music;
they conform to Western scales
in a superficial way, but are not
exactly in tune with our system.
Moreover, each gamelan,' while
playing in the same modes, is
tuned only to itself, so that in-
struments from one group could
not play with another. In ob-
taining the new instruments for
the University's group, it was
necessary to record the sound of
the old ones and send it to Java
for comparison.
Javanese music is regular in
beat, and has set forms, but can.
be difficult to understand with-
out some knowledge of the func-
tions of the instruments. The
large gongs sound infrequently,
and keep the players together.
n a piece 32 beats in length
(repeated many times) the gong
might sound every 32nd beat,
signalling the beginning of the
next repetition. Other gongs play
on strong and weak beats, de-
pending on the piece.
Drums help to keep the rhythm
steady, but it may accelerate or
slow down from time to time,
depending on the action if there
is dancing, or the words if sing-
ing is involved.
Melodies are played by small
xylophone-like instruments, and
above everything else, flutes,
stringed instruments and larger
percussion instruments p 1 a y,
elaborate improvisations on the
melody.
Traditional Javanese costumes
are worn by the 23 or so mem-
bers of the ensemble and also
the dancers, two of whom are
the Becker children who have
studied dance in Java.
Several of the pieces on the
program are of unusual interest.
One, Swara Suling, is a popular
tune that has been going strong
for 12 years, and is played con-
stantly on the radio.
Another, Sri Redjeki, is a ser-
ious work, sung to classical Java-
nese poetry. Although larjely
untranslatable,. s o m e of the
verses deal with moralistic ad-
vice to young people, such as
"Don't play around with men,
they are not as they appear,"
and "Don't play around with wo-
men, or you will be falsely
accused."
From time to time in this
piece, the s in g er interjects
phrases such as "Mind myad-
vice." Later in the song the
lynes compare different person-
ality traits to fruit, and liken
scholar: to a particularly smelly
Javanese fruit.
THURSDAY and FRIDAY
TG
Delta Sigma Delta
Fraternity
FRI., FEB. 4-8-11 p.m.
Live Bond & Refreshments
1502 Hill St.
I
The Place to Meet
INTERESTING People !
Bach Club'
Patti McCarty-viola
Ginger Reynolds-piano
BACH-Fifth Unaccom-
panied Cello Suite
Prelude and Fugue
BRAHM--Sonata No. 1
in F Minor
First Movement
HANDEL-Concerto in B
Minor
Thursday-Feb. 3
8 P.M.
South Quad, W. Lounge
No Musical Knowledge Needed
Absolutely Everyone Invited
Further Info:
763-6256 or 663-4875
*
4
Program Information 434-1782
3020 Washtenow
Nightly 7:00-9:00
Starring
PAT BOONE as
David
Wilkerson
I
I
Pmenmted CIAI
Never has a
motio" picture
been more timely!l
Directed by Produced by
DON MURRAY DICK ROSS
By HARRY HAMMIT
The past weeks have been a
time for the release of records
by a cross-section of performers.
The one thing that all these
records have in common is that
the music in all of them is above
average.
Kids Nowadays Ain't Got No
Shame (A & M SP 4321). Jim
Price has been heard as a side-
man with Delaney and Bonnie,
and on the Mad Dogs tour. He
has now settled in England, and
along with Bobby Keyes, pro-
vides the horn section for the
Stones. His first album is the
same kind of funky rhythms and
blues that Delaney and Bonnie
play, and that Cocker used with
Mad Dogs. All this is played
with the intensity of the Stonees
by such pros as Keyes, sax; Jim
Kelter, drums; Nicky Hopkins,
piano; and Klaus Voorman, bass.
The album is produced by long-
time Stones producer Jimmy
Miller. A clean, satisfying first
album with promise of better
things to come.
Tiger Time, The Grambling
Colleg Marching Band (Mercury
SRM-1-618). This record really
floors me. What can I say about
a group that admits right from
the start that it's a marching
band? "I'll give it eighty-five.
It's got a good beat. You can
Joni Mitchell
Folk-freaks prepare: Joni Mit-
chell will appear in Detroit on
February 18 at the M a s o n i c
Temple Auditorium.
Tickets to the concert, spon-
sored by WRIF and Triangle
Productions, can be purchased
for $4, $5, and $6 in Detroit at
Hudson's, Grinell's or the Ma-
sonic Temple.
MUCK
by KURT CARPENTER
HELLO OUT THERE,
by WILLIAM SAROYAN
Friday, Saturday-Feb. 4, 5
RESIDENTIAL COLLEGE
AUDITORIUM
8 P.M.
march to it." I man, are there
criteria for judging marching
band records? Is there someone
out there, fond of performing
close-order drills in his living
room perhaps, who's been just
dying for a rally good march-
ing band record to com out? If
so, then I guess this is it.
The Declassified Jean Shep-
herd, Jean Shepherd (Mercury
SRM-1-615). Evn if you're al-
ready a Jean Shepherd fan, I'd
advise you to stay away from
this one. Not only is the humor
poor, but it's interrupted about
evry minute by some music from
Shepherd's psychedelic sideshow,
Th Sons of the Whisky Rebel-
lion, whose only redeming fea-
ture is the occasional inclusion
of Shepherd himself, who
"thumps upon his head in mus-
ical fashion," hopefully with a
hammer.
There's Gotta Be a Chang,
Albert Collins (Thumbleweed
Records /tws 103). And- now,
from the very same company
that brought you Arthur Gee,
we'have Albert Collins! He plays
fast, h plays slow; he plays loud,
he plays soft; he opens his
mouth, he closes his mouth: no
wonder they let him make a rec-
ord!
Bull Angus, Bull Angus( Mer-
cury SRM-1-619). Bull Angus
has made a trmendous contri-
bution to Rock. They've hit up-
on a suitable euphemism for
that brand of Rock that has
assumed such eminence in the
last fw years: Riff-Rock.
Riff-Rock was a bastard off-
spring of the gymnastic impro-
sations of .Hendrix and Cream..
Its major premise is that its
neither the singer nor the song
but the riff, that's important.
The song is merely a more-or-
less arbitrary framework that
holds together a number of riffs.
The requirements for the riffs.
themselves are that they should
be fast; they should have abso-
lutely no emotional impact in-
dividually; and, most important,
there should be no connection
between riffs.
What's happening?
We'd like to let you know,
what's happening on campus
every weekend, but we need
your help. Please send any in-
formation about local concerts,
plays, readings and other aes-
thetically exciting events to the
Michigan Daily c/o the Arts
Editor.
I
MATINEES
Wed.-Sat.-Sun.
1:00-3:00--5:00
Daily Classifieds
Bring Results
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ALEXANDER
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SAT.
"PLANET OF THE APES"
BURSLEY HALL
25c
POPCORN
CHARGE
DIAL 665-6290
"NEVER GIVE A INCH"
was the motto
of the Stampers of Oregon.
and live it they didi
MM REMI ''-mic assa wi
lEE REnIDK
,016
A UnversalNewmanForeman, Pctue
TECHNICOLOR -PANAYISIONp '
Program Information 8-6416
IT'S SO FANTASTIC
YOU FIND YOURSELF
FEELING SORRY
FOR EVEN
THE BAD GUYS!
BILY
JACK
I
*'
-
Interested in LSA STUDENT GOVERNMENT?
Meet the Members TODAY
at the
LSA Coffee Hour
Thursday-3:30-4:30
2549 LSA Bldg.
Students, profs, and deans meet one another
over good food and hot coffee!
FRIDAY & SATURDAY
Special Mystery Weekend
TWO GENRE CLASSICS:
ALFRED HITCHCOCK'S
STRANGERS ON A TRAIN, 1951
(7:00 P.M. ONLY)
A great suspense movie in which two men meet on a train and
form an unholy alliance involving murder. Death comes at the
strangest places (tennis matches, merry-go-rounds) and the
absolutely breathless climax incorporates everything Hitchcock
is famous for. As for the star, critics worldwide agree that this
is Farley Grange.r's finest film.
BILLY WILDER'S
WITNESS FOR THE PROSECUTION, 1958
(9:00 P.M. ONLY)
The director of Sunset Boulevard turns himself to Agatha Chris-
tie's classic and excellently recreates the cleverness and suspense
of the original. It stars Charles Laughton, Tyrone Power, and
Marlene Dietrich, and they are, uniformly brilliant.
A GREAT WAY TO SPEND THE EVENING
" vvv.
I
the ann arbor fi lm cooperative
ANIMATED BEATLES in GEORGE DUNNING'S
THE YELLOW SUBMARINE
Eleven songs!
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