Wayang shadow theatre In Bali Part 4

The fourth device that a dalang uses to cue his musicians is by singing a line or phrase. Similar to the technique often practised in Western musical theatre when the actor signals the musical director by saying a particular word or phrase, a dalang simply starts by singing a line after which the musicians would promptly follow. For example, when a dalang wishes to begin the Rebong love scene, he may sing, ‘Fragrant aroma permeates the air . . . (Miyik ngalub malimpugan . . .).’ Other musical scenes that require a sung phrase to begin them include the Tampak Silir unison vocal and instrumental, Angkat-angkatan travelling scene, Peparikan seductive scene and the Genjekan drunken scene.

In terms of musical drama or narration, a dalang’s cue for his musicians to collaborate with him is a sine qua non. Based on interactivity between a dalang’s vocal art and instrumental music which complement the narration, the Wayang performance employs three divergent types of musical drama:

1. Tandak (tetandakan, plural) is the vocal art that embellishes the melody and faithfully follows the pitch and tone of the instrumental music. This type of vocal art is always used for entrance scenes, sad scenes and love scenes. For example, tandak alas harum is used for the appearance of refined characters. Tandak candi rebah is for the arrival of demonic characters. Tandak mesem is for a sad scene of refined characters with small eyes; tandak rundah is for sad scenes of demonic characters with sharp fangs; and tandak bendu semara is for sad scenes of strong/hard characters with big oval or round eyes.
2. Tampak Silir is vocal/instrumental music where melody, pitch and tone match. In the first meeting scene, Tampak Silir is usually sung by the servant or precedes the dialogue, narrating the features of each character who is about to speak. The lyric is usually a brief, flamboyant description about a great king, a resilient hero, a holy sage, a gorgeouspalace or a prosperous country.
3. Bebaturan are ornamental vocal arts, which are melodically free from, and far more elaborate than, the instrumental music. Unlike the tandak, in which the instrumental music is dominant, the vocal element in Bebaturan always dominates the ostinato of the instrumental pieces. This vocal type is used in the travelling scenes and some fighting scenes. The lyrics describe the situation or the mood of a specific character.

It is worth noting these musical processes as it indicates the detail and complexity of the relationship between the dalang and the orchestra that is at the heart of a performance. It is also worth remembering that although all know the structure every performance, the dalang is constantly improvising, adding comments and adapting the material so the dynamic of one performance and another, even of the same basic story by the same dalang, will be markedly different. These examples also demonstrate the enormous precise and technical detail required by the dalang. The local audience will be well aware of how the dalang is manipulating the techniques and materials and it will affect their response as the performance unfolds.

Finally, there is a cue that prompts the musicians to play a musical piece that is purely artistic, structural and/or ritualistic, without any association with dramatic characters. An example of this is the musical overture, which always begins a Wayang performance. When a dalang dedicates an opening offering, santun pamungkah, to God and then serves the segehan offering to the lower spirit in order to obtain spiritual support, the action serves as a cue for the musicians – a signal for them to get ready to play the piece. It is also a signal for the audience that the show will now begin and the audience do indeed become more attentive in anticipation of what will follow.

The stories used in Wayang come from various sources, and the Wayang genre indicates the name of the source. Wayang Ramayana clearly indicates the narrative source as does Wayang Parwa (Mahabharata), etc. These two major sources are known in translation, in the Javanese poetry kakawin, and are in many ways an adaptation, rather than the original Sanskrit. Various other sources exist also, some in verse, some in prose and some in a combination of the two. The other source stories originally come from India,

Indonesia or are indigenous to Bali.

Once the story has been chosen and the ideas formulated for how the dalang will approach its telling, the next task is to select specific puppets. Sometimes various puppets represent the same character according to the situation or mood. These variations are known as wanda and determine in many ways the style/tone of the storytelling. Sometimes the differences are simple, such as before and after ascending the throne for a prince: one with a kingly headdress and one with a simpler version. The most interesting example is with the character Gatutkaca, the son of the Pandawa hero, Bima; he has five wanda (the most of any character) that show specific aspects of his history. First, he is a baby puppet, Jabang Tatuka. Second, he appears encrusted with dirt, steel and iron for an episode where he is literally forged into a superhuman to challenge the monster Naga Pracono. Third, a puppet represents him in his customary form as a handsome prince. Fourth, he is a huge cloud-monster for the scene where he challenges Karna, the commander-in-chief of the Korawa army in a battle. Finally, he is featured as an abject creature when his armour is peeled away from his body. In recent years, the use of wanda in the performance has increased in the way that new puppets are constructed to represent different stages of a character, motivated by the search for more flexibility in puppet manipulation. New wanda are created to provide more complex movements, especially for comic characters and animals.

A dalang’s puppet collection (its size and range) does not completely limit which stories he can tell, as it is possible to substitute one character for another. The governing principle of this kind of substitution is that the borrowed puppet must suit the general type that is required by the play. A refined knight may represent another refined hero, a refined lady can represent another refined queen and an insignificant demon may represent another lesser-known ogre. A narrow-eyed soldier can represent any member of the army of the protagonists’ group used on the right side of the screen and a round-eyed soldier can represent any army’s member from the antagonists’ group at the left side. The names may be changed, as long as the puppet type is correct. This also allows the dalang to create new stories or heavily modify existing stories. As can be seen in the parallel discussion about Topeng, there is more ability to innovate than at first seems possible.

Another task for the dalang is constructing his puppets; although some dalang commission others to build their puppets, most create them themselves. Constructing and manipulating puppets are especially important

parts of a dalang’s ability to introduce creativity into his presentation today. Traditional puppets are often felt to limit development of a more expressive vocabulary of movements, tetikasan. In an outburst of creativity in recent years, dalang have created new puppets with expanded potential for movement. Additional joints are added in the neck, upper arms, waist, upper thighs and knees. Manipulatable hindquarters, wings, trunks and ears have been added to animal puppets. In addition to the traditional strings and sticks, added means of controls have been explored by using rubber bands, velcro, cables and even batteries. Characters that lend themselves to the greatest degree of experimentation are demonic and animal characters, as these characters are expected to move more extensively and with more agility than human beings. A fairly recently created genre, Wayang Tantri,

first performed in the early 1980s, is a good example of how this can be used to innovate. It is basically a fairy tale that features a smart girl, Tantri, who tells 1,001 stories within stories about clever animals she works with in order to prevent the king from seducing her. Completely new styles of puppets have been developed for these stories, often influenced by ideas from overseas. Unlike a traditional puppet, where a single stick fuses legs, upper body and head, in these puppets the tip of the main body stick is attached to the puppet’s temple and loosely bonded to the foot, freeing the body and head. This allows the dalang to manipulate the puppet in several ways; moving its foot up and down affects the body, hip and head; pulling a string attached to the head allows for head movements; pulling the string attached to the foot creates kicks; pulling the string attached to the jaw makes the puppet appear to speak. It may be done section by section or simultaneously depending on the desired effect. Many of the animals’ ears, wings, rumps, heads and body parts can move. Other new puppet creations have mushroomed in the last 20 years, helping to feed elements of modernity and energy, especially within new stories or genres. Some dalang have created puppets that have also expanded the traditional method of manipulation. These include a puppet riding a bicycle manipulated by batteries, string, cable and rods; a puppet that can be transformed from a human to a witch by pulling a string and another by turning the three-dimensional body; and corpse carriers with moving hands and feet. As in so much Balinese art, little resistance to change exists as long as it sits side by side with tradition and does not attempt to replace it. The experimentation is based mainly in new genres and the dalang perform the traditional work one night and the experimental another. This model of change and preservation is at the heart of the extraordinary dynamic behind Balinese performance. However, in the villages, the more traditional forms of presentation are almost always preferred. The only real exception to this is one young dalang who has recently become much sought after and includes a number of Westernised technical effects and innovative and humorous approaches to storytelling. One of his productions is looked at in detail later in this chapter.