The performance was a one-time event and the final project for Marc Perlman’s class in Javanese gamelan music.
Ki Tristuti Rachmadi Suryosaputro learned the art of puppetry at his parents’ knee as a young child in his native Java. It was 1954 when, at the age of 15, he began performing in public. Now, for the first time, he is displaying his skill as a dhalang — a puppet master — on the stages of North America.
This, however, is no ordinary puppet show. Ki Tristuti is a master of wayang kulit, a popular traditional form of Javanese theater in which a single performer — the dhalang — manipulates hundreds of leather puppets, provides all dialogue and narration, sings, conducts the orchestra and supplies percussive effects. Filling the role of both entertainment and ceremony, a traditional performance of wayang kulit features high drama, slapstick comedy, moral teachings and fierce battles — and typically lasts nine hours.
As part of his tour, Ki Tristuti made a special stop earlier this month at Brown, where he joined Professor of Music Marc Perlman, Adjunct Professor I. M. Harjito and Brown’s Javanese gamelan ensemble, Sekar Setaman, to perform a modified — i.e. two-hour — version of the Sanskrit epic poem "The Birth of Gatutkaca." The abbreviated performance, wayang kulit purwa, featured feuding cousins and battles between mortals and gods.
It was "a special and rare occasion," according to teaching assistant Jason McGill.
The performance was a one-time event and the final project for Perlman’s class in Javanese gamelan music. On the Indonesian island, gamelan are musical ensembles built around gongs and percussion instruments made of tuned metal; some ancient gamelan were thought to be imbued with spiritual powers. The gamelan is the traditional basis of all Javanese performing arts, including wayang kulit. Brown’s gamelan, Sekar Setaman (translated as "a garden of flowers"), was built for the University three years ago by a Solonese gongsmith.
The evening before the Brown performance, Ki Tristuti rehearsed with Perlman, Harjito and Sekar Setaman, crowding into a small practice room in Orwig. Ki Tristuti took up position in the center of the room with his fellow Javanese guest artists, vocalist Sri Harjutri and drummer B. Subono, surrounded by stocking-footed students sitting cross-legged on the floor with their traditional Javanese instruments.
As the rehearsal progressed, Sri Harjuti’s sweet alto voice rose above the harmony and rhythm, accompanied by Ki Tristuti’s narration and song. Close by, Harjito played a small bowed string instrument known as a rebab. Suddenly, Subono struck a particularly loud gong, stopped and, speaking in his native Javanese, directed a comment to Perlman.
"He says not to be shocked — ah, surprised — by the drum," translated Perlman, drawing a laugh from the student musicians.
Ki Tristuti was raised in a family of puppet masters, but for more than 30 years his performances were banned by the Suharto regime. During that time he became a respected teacher of wayang, and his country’s most respected dhalang sought his knowledge and advice. He returned to the stage following the fall of the Suharto government; now he is making his first tour outside of Indonesia, the result of Perlman’s collaboration with the University of California at Berkeley, Wesleyan University and Arts Indonesia, a New York City-based nonprofit arts organization.
Harjito, a master musician of the Central Javanese gamelan tradition, has taught the art in Indonesia and, since 1976, internationally. Brown is one of the few colleges that offers its music students a chance to learn and play Javanese music, according to Perlman, an ethnomusicologist who specializes in the music of Indonesia and lived there for seven years, doing research and teaching.
"There are only a handful of universities in this country that offer instruction in Javanese music from Javanese teachers — California Institute of the Arts, Lewis and Clark College, and Wesleyan University are some," he said.
Perlman’s course, MU69-70, has no prerequisites and is open to anyone interested in learning to play gamelan music.