Mapeh

• Wayang Kulit


  One of the most distinctive shadow plays among Asian dramas which has evolved and grew most fully in Java and Bali, Indonesia
• Wayang Kulit


  • Uses flat puppets that are cut and designed with intricate patterns
  • The shadow images can be shown when projected on screen with an oil lamp or electric light to bring life to the shadow images on the screen

  
• Distinguishing Characteristics of Wayang Kulit

  • Puppets - the sizes of the puppets should range from 6 inches to more than 3 feet which mounted on sticks from the buffalo horn
  • The characters - the major characters are based on or originated from the two epic stories of Hinduism: Mahabharata and Ramayana
  • The Dalang - the person in-charge of manipulating the figures, narrating the story, interpreting the characters, singing songs, producing sound effects, and giving cues for the gamelan

  
• Performers


  • Dalang - the puppeteer and conductor
  • Niyaga - the gamelan musicians
  • Pesinden - female singer with gamelan orchestra
• The needed equipment for the play

  • Wayang Kulit - leather puppets
  • Gunungan - symbolic scene element
  • Kelir - the cloth screen
  • Blencong - oil lamp used in Wayang Kulit
  • Gedebok - trunk of a banana as a place to arrange the puppets
  • Kotak kayu - wooden chest
  • Chempala - wooden knockers
  • Kepyak - metal rappers
  • Gamelan - musical instrument

  
• The performance elements


  • Sabaten - puppet movement
  • Janturan - puppeteer's narration
  • Chariyos - story or narrative
  • Ginem - dialogue
  • Suluk - mood song
  • Tembang - song
  • Dodogon - knocking
  • Kepyakan - rapping
  • Gending - melody
  • Gerong - male chorus
  • Sindengan - Pesiden's song

  
• Instruments that accompany the Indonesian Wayang Kulit

  • Saron - the basic melodic instrument, an idiophone instrument consisting of bronze keys and played with a wooden mallet
  • Rebab - a two-stringed bowed instrument
  • Suling - a blown flute
  • Gender Panerus - in gamelan, it has the highest pitch in gender family
  • Gender Panembung or Slentem - in the gender family, it plays the lowest pitch and the theme or anticipates the theme
• Gendèr


  A type of metallophone used in Balinese and Javanese gamelan music, consisting of 10 to 14 tuned metal bars suspended over a tuned resonator of bamboo or metal, which are tapped with a mallet made of wooden disks (Bali) or a padded wooden disk (Java)
• Functions of gamelan music in Wayang Kulit


  1. Serves as a basic melody that is played in a relatively slow tempo

  2. Provides embellishment needed for the play

  3. Different kinds of gongs are utilized to emphasize distinct melodies into sections
• Through Wayang Kulit, the dalang is able to present the story (history, legends, and myth) of the great Hindu Indian epics known as the Mahabharata and Ramayana
• The story tells about Prince Rama and his wife Sita who were thrown out from their empire through his stepmother. A monkey had saved and helped Sita from her abductors and they returned in their kingdom
• In Bali, the significant character is Hanuman (the monkey general) like Arjuna who is the warrior and hero who fights the Bhagavad-Gita with Krishna in the Mahabharata in Indonesia where the Hindu characters show struggle between good and evil
• The Wayang Kulit piece tells the story of a handsome prince named Rama and a beautiful princess called Sita who had met, fallen in love, and gotten married. The villain stepmother of Prince Rama wanted to end the happiness of the couple to let them live in the forest for 14 years with Prince Rama's brother named Laksmana. Then came a wicked demon king named Ravana with 10 heads and 20 arms who abducted Princess Sita
• Kabuki


  The Japanese theater

  
• Kabuki theater


  • Somewhat similar to Shakespeare's theater, but more entertaining due to colorful and amazing makeup, movements, skills, spectacular effects, and unique and unrevealing characters
  • Performers were all male in the 17th century due to the idea of prostitution and male spectators being attracted to female performers
• Kabuki costumes


  • Stress the role being portrayed by the actors and show the latest fashion or style of the present day
• Kabuki dance


  • The first performers dance with an exceptional blend of folk and religious dance
• Kabuki makeup


  • Another very important element in Kabuki performances
• Kabuki music


  • Used as sound effects like wooden clappers, serves as the signal for the start and end of the play

  
• Instruments and music that accompany Kabuki

  • Hyoshigi (wooden clapper)
  • Hayashi (musical ensemble with shamisen players)
  • Debayashi (onstage music performance with song/chant and dramatic recitation with shamisen)
  • Nagauta (performed on a tiered platform with shamisen, drums, flute, and singers)
  • Joruri (ensemble located at the left side of the stage)
  • Hyudorodoro (used to mark the appearance of the ghost play with flute and drum)
  • Geza (music used for special effects, with drums, gongs, bells, and cymbals)

  
• Role of music in Kabuki

  • Song and narration are essential, especially in dance plays and puppet-theater
  • Dance plays have dance music with singing the dance musical pieces
  • Chorus sings lyrics that describe or narrate a story or scene, and may sing lines for the dancers
  • Puppet plays are accompanied by music
  • Dance play and puppet play musical ensembles are positioned at the left side of the stage
  • In puppet plays, the narrator chants or sings in descriptive and narrative passages
  • Geza musicians draw on many repertoires with hundreds of known melodies and rhythmic patterns, suited for the season, location, and emotional portrayal of each scene
• "Theme music"


  • The song that is sung and played with shamisen instrument in Kabuki plays, describing or telling a story in a certain character or place
  • Can relate to seasonal themes or be mostly instrumental "aikata"
  • Excerpts from longer pieces, repeated to describe the length and mood of a scene
  • There are different pieces of shamisen repertoire in traditional Kabuki theaters

  
• Kabuki play


  • "Ise Ondo koi no Netaba", where the song "Ise Ondo" is played in different variations