Pemangku

  
Pemangku is Javanese for "seat"; or "lap."; Pemangku bumi ("one who holds the world in their lap") is the court ruler of Central Java; pemangku irama, or the "cradle of time," is five gong-like instruments - kenong, kethuk, kempyang, kempul, and gong - that form the rhythmic frame of the gamelan orchestra, over which the elaborating wood and metal xylophones, flutes and singers, inlay their florid counterpoint. Far from stable, the cradle of time rocks between tempi, sometimes gradually, sometimes in the second of a drumstroke. And as the cradle of time slows down, the elaborating instruments crowd in the empty spaces - making music with an odd sense of speeding up as it slows down.

A gamelan is a bag of cogs and wheels, lurching into motion half-willing. Gamelan singers shout and whoop, as if to keep that contraption of twenty-odd metallophones going, shifting between six gears, the rhythmic levels in Javanese gamelan. In Pemangku, I use the Central Javanese tune Puspawarna. Its structure, its cradle, is always there, sometimes only barely emerging from the kitchen sink of sound thrown in with it. A gamelan is no fixed set of instruments; I add sounds, among others, associated with my two year-stay in Yogya. I take inspiration from Javanese composers who frequented toy shops and auto mechanics' in Yogya to find soundmakers to create their own personal "gamelan." Puspawarna is the signature tune for the Mangkunegaran court in Central Java, from whence I tune my computer gamelan. The title means the "Color of Flowers," similar to the dancer's name, Puspawati, to whom the piece is dedicated.