JAVA

 

JAVA

gamelans from the sultan's palace in jogjakarta

musical traditions in Asia 

Archiv Produktion, 1973, 2723017

Archiv Produktion is part of the German label Deutsche Grammophon Gesellschaft mostly known for its prestigious early and classical music catalogue.
But art music from other parts of the world was also of interest for this label as shown by the collection called ''Musical Traditions in Asia''.
The man behind this double album was Jacques Brunet  the French musicologist one of the best specialist in south-east asian music  (see earlier posts). This is a guarantee of quality in both recording and presentation. The text (in English here) starts with a brief historical introduction; then he gives some details about the palace (kraton) of Jogjakarta and the music played there.
The rest of the text is the work of Dr Liberty Manik  starting with an introduction to the music recorded here (instruments, modes etc..) and the presentation of each track. Some of the gamelans still in use are very old dating back to the mid-18th century.The last track features a choir.
All pieces are played in their entirety and recordings were made in September 1972.

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