Of Debussy and Gamelan music

I really really love Debussy as a composer...
His songs are really unique, dreamy and magical..
Last semester my friends told me "Cher!! did you know that one of Debussy songS have Gamelan influence?" (*we were talking about this because my friend's topic was Gamelan for her presentation while mine was Chinese music)

I was shocked and super excited because I love songs which have the oriental Asian feel with Pentatonic scales etc ...

* For those of you who don't know what a 'Gamelan' is...

No worries :) I initially thought that Gamelan is an instrument....and mind you I am a music major so you know how fail I am omgosh..

                                                         My 'perceived' Gamelan

so laugh all you can lols XD I told my friend who is also a music major this and she said ''I used to think that way too until I saw the whole thing!!" (so you guys can be relieved now lols)

So yeah...to simplify it, Gamelan is NOT AN INSTRUMENT!! It is something like an orchestra of percussion instruments !!! Also, those instruments are tuned to be together and it cannot be separated (sounds creepy...like a recipe for horror movie..but my friend told me that there's one horror movie based on a separated gamelan! But I forgot the title lols..)

                                                     THIS IS GAMELAN !!!!!!!!

I didn't quite appreciate gamelan music because I hear this in Malay traditional ceremonies and I got quite bored of it until I found out that there are two types of gamelan :
Balinese Gamelan and Javanese Gamelan. Well, if you don't know what a gamelan is, do you know 'wayang kulit'? The background music IS PLAYED by GAMELAN!!

Basically Javanese Gamelan is more Islamic and Balinese Gamelan have roots in Hinduism. I personally think that Balinese gamelan sounds better and interesting especially when it is combined with the Kebyar dance !!


                                The Kebyar dance accompanied by Gamelan...so artistic

But to be really honest, I never really like the pure gamelan sound...but Debussy's PAGODES (woah...super influenced by the gamelan) makes me appreciate it more...and I keep putting it on repeat (piano version and the percussion essemble)


                  Percy Grainger's arrangement of PAGODES for western percussion essemble

I really admire these two men because this arrangement is pure genius!! It really captures the balinese gamelan feel!! and the bass line is really amazing and you can hear the punctuation after every cycle (lols...gamelan music term haha) and the climax was really awesome!! I really love this song (regardless how some of my friends said how odd my taste is because they don't like this lols!!!). Anyways, the video helps a lot too!!! It shows the Hindu temples in Indonesia and depicted their culture well!!! It feels super exotic and I feel like visiting Bali after hearing this and watching the video....

After that, I heard some piano version of the song...and meh..many do not really capture the feel...until I found Sviatoslav Ritcher's version...


                                             Ironically beautiful..

Irony...because I NEVER LIKE Ritcher's interpretation of any pieces that he've played... He played Ravel's Jeux De Eau too fast, too rushy for Rachaminoff's Prelude in G Minor, etc (it's just my personal opinion and preference because I now many likes him as a pianist) but amazingly his interpretation and the feel for Debussy's Pagodes is perfect!! It totally catches the feel and the left hand part..amazing...

and I am finally so happy because for this song, HE FINALLY TOOK HIS TIME TO PLAY AND NOT RUSH THROUGH ETC!!! FINALLY OH THANK GOD!!

In conclusion, regardless I have weird taste or not, I really love PAGODES!! I have clicked the 'repeat' button millions of times from before World music finals until now (which is around three weeks already) haha..