I Made Arnawa - I Made Arnawa - Gamelan Debussy (2018) [Hi-Res]

The Creative Process
Sciarrino initiated Gamelan Debussy by producing preliminary arrangements of 12 pieces using the pitches of I Made Arnawa’s selonding and pendro gamelan, as well as Sekaa Gong Teruna Mekar’s gong kebyar. These were rendered as audio files from MIDI arrangements. The virtual instruments were tuned to match ‘Center Weighted Tunings’ (CWT) of the respective gamelan used in each arrangement. CWT were established using a series of calculations that included averaging note-pairs, determining CWA for each note-pair across multiple octaves (CWA are not always consistent across octaves), and averaging deviations from the CWA while weighing central octaves more heavily. The chart Gong Kebyar Tuning reveals the complications involved in achieving a CWA of a gamelan that would be consistent across octaves. Starting in the lowest register, each octave gets progressively sharper as we move up the pitch gamut, such that the highest octave begins nearly a full half-step sharper than the lowest.
Due to complications posed by realizing 12-tone music on five and seven-tone instruments Sciarrino developed a number of strategies for handling pitches not accessible to the gamelan employed in each arrangement. This included using instruments from multiple ensembles to create a ‘super scale’, combining instruments from Pendro and gong kebyar specifically (TRACK 7 and TRACK 8), and/or revising the original score so that only notes in the CWT were used. In the case of the latter, Sciarrino dealt with each note individually, often testing several alternatives before settling on the one he believed was most ‘musical’ in the combined context: Debussy and Balinese gamelan.
After listening to the twelve preliminary arrangements produced by Sciarrino in Italy, Arnawa was asked to select nine and undertake a second arrangement process, recreating them onto gamelan instruments. The procedure that followed was the same for all of the arrangements except those that Sciarrino had arranged using a ’super scale’ drawn from a selection of instruments from more than one ensemble, which required a different approach. Arnawa’s rehearsals consisted of repeated listenings of preliminary arrangements with the musicians and instruments at hand. The group moved through each piece phrase by phrase, working together to find the correct notes, often laughing hysterically at mistakes and successes along the way. Arnawa tackled arrangements for pieces that made use of more than one ensemble using one of two strategies. The first involved re-configuring them for a single ensemble by notating scores at home and later teaching them to a full gong kebyar (TRACK 2, TRACK 3, and TRACK 9). The second involved a combination of scoring in advance and working through the material together as a group (TRACK 7 and TRACK 8).
The entire project moved forward in phases, granting the group necessary breaks for other obligations, and reducing the overall workload at any given time. Two to three pieces were prepared and then recorded before the Arnawa moved onto other arrangements. This alleviated the need for musicians to maintain all of the arrangements until they were ready to be recorded in a single session at a later date.

Tracklist:
01. I Made Arnawa - Pour Invoquer Pan, Dieu Du Vent D'eté (02:52)
02. I Made Arnawa - Pour Remercier La Pluie Au Matin (02:24)
03. I Made Arnawa - Voiles (03:25)
04. I Made Arnawa - Des Pas Sur La Neige (03:26)
05. I Made Arnawa - Général Lavine - Eccentric (02:04)
06. I Made Arnawa - Golliwogg's Cakewalk (02:39)
07. I Made Arnawa - Pour Que La Nuit Soit Propice (03:05)
08. I Made Arnawa - The Snow Is Dancing (03:09)
09. I Made Arnawa - Scherzando - À Mon Ami Igor Stravinsky (03:02)