Can you imagine the Javanese traditional musical instrument gamelan being played together with the Korean traditional instrument samulnori? It is indeed hard to imagine, two different forms of traditional musical instruments are brought together to the stage. Although both are percussions, however, it still seems odd to imagine.
But when foreign students and lecturers of UGM’s international programme played the percussions, a different sound could be heard. The Javanese gamelan consists of gong, gambang, kendang and many more while samulnori consists of small gong (kkwaenggwari), bigger gong (jing), sand clock drum (janggu), and big drum(buk).
The performance was the final one of a series of the Charity Music Concert 2009 entitled "Hand to Share", an event held by the international programme of the Faculty of Medicine, UGM, Friday evening (6/11). The collaborative repertoire entitled "Pecel-Kimchi" was a proof that traditional cultures from different countries when arranged well can indeed blend together harmoniously and become a cultural bridge for unity.
One of the initiators of the musical collaboration, Eddy Pursubaryanto, said that this can serve as an attempt towards cultural dialogue. “This collaboration is a form of cultural dialogue,†Eddy said.
That evening to raise funds to those affected by the West Sumatera earthquake, apart from the Korean and Javanese collaboration, also presented a professional dancer and coreographer, Sen Hea Ha, who danced a traditional piece Seungmu to the gamelan. Seungmu is a traditional Korean dance which was performed by Buddhist monks in its early stage. The dance has become South Korea’s non-material heritage. Many people consider Seungmu as the most graceful Korean dance. A closer look at the movement of this dance shows that the dance consists of intricate parts. The beauty of this dance is visible in the graceful movement of the dancer with a white long scarf, beating the drum (beobgo) and performing different expressions in each of its parts. The dancer’s white long sleeved outfit is called gasa and the white scarf is called gokkal. That evening Sen Hea Ha performed the difficult piece against the gamelan backsound, presenting a harmonious exhibition.
Before these collaborative works that attracted the attention of the audience, the audience was hypnotised by classical music of 12 performers on the piano, violins and the guitar. Most were performed by UGM international students.
The classical music perfomers played pieces by Ludwig van Beethoven, Andy McKee, Gabriel Afure and Johan Sebastian Bach. The performance by Brittany Jordan, the best violinist from the music history conservatorium, also mesmerised the audience. Brittany beautifully played solo on the violin of Bach’s Gigue in D Minor. Not surprisingly, the pretty lecturer of the Faculty of Cultural Sciences drew the most attention that evening.
Event coordinator, Kuni Haqiati, told journalists that as a social event, this annual event is a media for students to mingle and establish socio-cultural relationships. “This also aims at displaying diversity among students to create cross-cultural understanding,†she said. Â