BALI JOGED BUMBUNG, by the joged ensemble of the village of Yeh Mekecir conducted by I Wayan Santra.
Tracklist:
1. Ungkab Sabda
2. Tabuh Tegak
3. Tabuh Igel
Recordings (April, 1974), Ocora, Radio France, 558501
The joged bumbung orchestra is composed of fourteen instruments, of which seven are bamboo xylophones with a pentatonic scale. These are made of bamboo tubes suspended on multicolored wood frames. The musicians, seated in front of the instruments, strike the tubes with wooden mallets.
Three groups of xylophones form the melodic base of the ensemble:
a) The barangan are composed of fithteen tubes of bamboo with a range of three octaves and play the principal melodic line.
b) The kancil are composed of fourteen tubes and play an extremely complex ornamentation of the melodic line. This ornamentation is closely to the playing of the barangan.
c) Finally, the jegog is an enormous xylophone with twelve tubes of wide diameter witch produces the deep notes.
To this group of xylophones is added a six-holed bamboo flute, the suling. The other instruments are limited to musical punctuations:
gong, kajar, ceng-ceng, kemong, kendang.
text and photographs by Jacques Brunet.