Title of thesis: LELAMBATAN INBANJARWANI, KARAMBITAN,

ABSTRACT
Title of thesis:
LELAMBATAN IN BANJAR WANI, KARAMBITAN,
BALI
Rachel R. Muehrer, Master of Arts, 2006
Thesis directed by:
Professor Jonathan Dueck
Department of Music
Division of Musicology and Ethnomusicology
The ceremonial music genre lelambatan originated from the gamelan gong gede
orchestras in the courts of Bali. The once luxurious gamelan gong gede, funded by the
rajas, has long departed since Dutch colonization, democratization, and Indonesian
independence. Today the music is still played for ritual occasions, but in a new context.
Gamelan gong kebyar instruments, melted down and rebuilt from those of the gong gede
and handed down to the villages from the courts, are utilized in lelambatan because of
their versatility and popularity of the new kebyar musical style. The result is remarkable:
music from the court system that represents the lavishness of the rajas is played with
reverence by the common class on gamelans literally recast to accommodate an
egalitarian environment. A case study in Karambitan, Bali, examines the lelambatan
music that has survived despite, or perhaps with the assistance of, history and cultural
policy.

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LELAMBATAN IN BANJAR WANI, KARAMBITAN, BALI
by
Rachel R. Muehrer
Thesis submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the
University of Maryland, College Park in partial fulfillment
of the requirements for the degree of
Master of Arts
2006
Advisory Committee:
Professor Jonathan Dueck, Chair
Professor Robert Provine
Professor Carolina Robertson

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Dedication
I would like to dedicate this work to my teacher and friend, I Nyoman Suadin – you have
touched the lives of more people than you will ever know.
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Acknowledgements
For the preparation of this work I am deeply indebted to I Nyoman Suadin, for his
friendship, tireless work teaching gamelan, answering endless questions, and inviting me
into his home. Thank you also to the Suadin family and the people of Banjar Wani,
Karambitan for allowing me to conduct my research. Without the guidance and
dedication of Professor Jonathan Dueck this work would have never materialized, thank
you so much. For your direction through the ethnomusicology program and direction on
my committee, thank you Professor Robert Provine and Carolina Robertson. Thanks to
the University of Maryland for the research opportunities and facilities to complete my
degree.
Thank you to my friends and colleagues, Xóchitl Ysabela Tafoya and Aja Burrell
Wood for your constant support, love and friendship, you are queens among women.
Thanks to Rebekah Moore, a great travel and research partner. Last I would like thank
my parents, Janice and Ronald Muehrer as well as my siblings, Rebecca Muehrer,
Michael Muehrer, and Scott Procknow for unconditional support and love throughout the
degree process and more importantly my life. I love you all.
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Table of Contents
Dedication.………………………………………………………………………………...ii
Acknowledgements………………………………………………………………………iii
Table of Contents…………………………………………………………………………iv
Chapter 1: Introduction……………………………………………………………………1
Chapter 2: A Researcher’s Position in the Community…………………………………...4
I Nyoman Suadin………………………………………………………………….6
The Researchers………………………………………………………………….11
Chapter 3: Ramé and the Community……………………………………………………17
Chapter 4: Lelambatan in Context……………………………………………………….24
The Context………………………………………………………………………24
Gamelan Gong Gede……………………………………………………..………28
The Politics of Gamelan………………………………………………………….30
Chapter 5: Lelambatan in Banjar Wani………………………………………………….35
The Instruments………………………………………………………………….36
Galang Kangin………………………………………………………….………..37
Chapter 6: Conclusions…………………………………………………………………..44
Bibliography………………………………...…………………………………………...47
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Chapter 1: Introduction
On July 1st, 2006, I witnessed a ceremony for a three-day old baby in Banjar1
Wani, Karambitan. The ceremony was a kepus pungsed (Poffenberger & Zurbuchen,
1980, 126), a ceremony for the break of the umbilical cord that warrants what Jane Belo
refers to as melepasaon, a purification ceremony that takes place in a family’s house.
Belo also suggests that the translation of melepasaon, “loosing of the ashes,” may relate
to the offering of cooked rice mixed with ashes (Belo 1970, 9). Let me offer some
observations concerning the events taking place outside of the house, centering around
the gamelan performance.2
Certain qualities of this performance struck me as unique, including the
participation of the community (as well as those of us performing fieldwork), the music
performed, and the instruments played. Initially, while in the field, I did not question the
instruments the banjar gamelan played on. They were those with which I was most
familiar: instruments of the gamelan gong kebyar. The pieces at this ceremony seemed
slower than the kebyar I had played in the United States
Later, after reviewing the tapes many times, I inquired as to the structure of the
music. My teacher (and guide through the experience of fieldwork, research, and
writing), I Nyoman Suadin, told me that this music is lelambatan, a genre quite different
from kebyar. I quickly set out to learn of this genre. I found that the music of lelambatan
dates back to the courts of ancient Bali and was originally played on another ensemble,
the gamelan gong gede.
1 The word banjar refers to a division within the village similar to a neighborhood.
2 Much scholarship has been written concerning Indonesian and Balinese music, dance, and art, dating to
some of the first ethnomusicological inquiries. This thesis builds on the work of some of these scholars
such as Colin McPhee, Micheal Tenzer, Lisa Gold, and those who have influenced their work.
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My initial response was confusion: how did this music, composed and played for
the courts on a ridiculously large ensemble, the gamelan gong gede, end up in Banjar
Wani, being performed on a gamelan gong kebyar, outside of a ceremony?
In the following work I use the kepus pungsed as a central point to examine this
performance tradition. By investigating this event from different angles, the community
relationships, the performance aesthetic, the history and the music, I hope to come to a
better understanding of lelambatan in Banjar Wani, Karambitan, Bali. An in depth
history of the original ensemble the genre lelambatan was played on, gamelan gong gede,
reveals the social and political events that have influenced lelambatan from pre-colonial
Bali to the present. Further, by comparing a selection of the repertoire performed at this
kepus pungsed with previous documentation of gamelan gong gede repertoire and a
recording of the music on a gamelan gong gede, one can understand ways in which the
music has changed through history. Some of the social and political influences on
lelambatan include Dutch colonization, Japanese occupation during WWII, and
independence. As a result communities have modified the music and the ensembles to
adapt to local performance contexts. Consequently, the instruments are different, but the
structure of the music has been maintained. Lelambatan has taken on a layer of meanings.
When played, the performers are at once rejecting feudalism, embracing community, and
facing modern independence with a glance towards the past.
The following is an outline of the chapter structure. Within the work, personal
fieldnotes are italicized and dated.
Chapter 2 is an outline of the community, the atmosphere in which I performed
research, the relationships I formed, and the opportunities these relationships afforded
me, including participation in the kepus pungsed on July 1st.
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Chapter 3 examines the community atmosphere of the ceremony, the participation
of all involved, and the aesthetic of ramé at this particular event.
Chapter 4 is a description of the history and social factors in which lelambatan
has developed.
Chapter 5 is a closer look at the lelambatan music played at the baby naming
ceremony, and a comparison of this music to the lelambatan documented by Colin
McPhee.
Chapter 6 is composed of the conclusions I have reached through my involvement
in fieldwork and my research on the topic.
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Chapter 2: A Researcher’s Position in the Community
Fieldnotes 6/27/05
After dinner, a few more of Suadin’s friends trickled in, through with their day.
All the guests established their smoking groove and had their tea or coffee in hand, and
everyone was comfortable. Suadin pulled out the bamboo joged instruments and
distributed them for us to play. He played the gerantang, one of his friends played the
drum, and Xóchitl played the “gong,” two large metal keys struck together. Rebekah
played the ketuck, a long concave piece of bamboo struck with a stick. I played the
cengceng and we started with the joged piece Nyoman had transposed for gamelan
kebyar and taught us in the Washington D.C. Gamelan Mitra Kusuma. We rotated
playing different instruments, trying to learn different parts and the way in which
everything interlocked.
As the music permeated the evening, a few more people trickled in to listen and
participate. The whole house became like a clubhouse or meeting place, everyone
smoking, participating, and helping us with our parts. Often someone would indicate my
cengceng part by alternating their hands over their folded knees, and mouthing the
syllables simultaneously “cha— cha-cha—cha!” When Xóchitl got lost in the gong part,
a random person would hold their hand up in the air and bring it down as if striking the
instrument at the correct time, yelling, “gong.” After about an hour, the Americans got
tired and we gradually left the instruments, quickly being replaced by more experienced
playesr. Nyoman Jenki and Made sat in front of the gerantang, and instantly they ripped
through the famous joged dance piece. They played the interlocking rhythms with
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amazing agility and buoyancy. The entire group played together as if they had been
playing for years (which they probably had).
The above fieldnote introduces the collaborative fieldwork I pursued in Banjar
Wani, Karambitan. I traveled to Bali with two other University of Maryland
ethnomusicology graduate students, Xóchitl Tafoya (Xóchi), and Rebekah Moore
(Bekah). Our host, I Nyoman Suadin, our gamelan teacher at the University of Maryland
and the Washington D.C. gamelan, had invited us to stay at his family house in the
village of Karambitan, in Banjar Wani, providing us with instant access to a Bali outside
of the tourist circles.
Although only Xóchi and I were planning to write our theses about this trip, all
three of us (Bekah, Xóchi, and I) conducted research. While we lived in the same place
and went to many of the same village functions, all of our experiences in Karambitan
were different. We spent many hours discussing what we had seen and experienced, and
there in the field, we learned together, exchanged ideas, and evaluated our encounters.
Nyoman was an omnipresent resource, available for information, transportation,
gamelan lessons, and connections to any and all musical or cultural events in the area.
These factors created a remarkable fieldwork experience, which no doubt had an
influence on the collection and synthesis of information.
The following chapter will discuss how the rapport with my fellow researchers,
Xóchi and Bekah, and our relationship with my teacher, Suadin, contributed to my
research. As researchers, Xóchi, Bekah, and I formed a group, yet we maintained unique
identities and socialized and observed in different ways. The combination of these factors
led to richly textured interactions, collaborative fieldwork, and perhaps a new position for
fieldworkers within the community.
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