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Roti CD |
Video from Lombok, Indonesia
Warga Sintu Gunung
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| Warga Sintu Gunung |
This video montage shows the group Warga Sintu Gunung performing in Gunung Sari, West Lombok for a party on 17 August 1997.
Warga Sintu Gunung is a sixteen-member gong Sasak group, led by Bapak I Komang Kantun. Its members are ethnic Balinese, descendants of migrants who settled in West Lombok in the 18th and 19th centuries, and the group prides itself on its ability to perform music from both the Sasak and Balinese repertoires. Warga Sintu Gunung's basic instrumentation is similar to a Balinese gong kebyar group, with hanging gongs and horizontal gong kettles, metallophones of various sizes, a pair of double-headed drums, a set of mounted cymbals, and a ring-stop bamboo flute, but also features the pereret, an eight-holed wooden oboe with a double-reed made of palm-leaf, as well as other Sasak instruments from the tawa-tawa processional ensemble and gamelan oncer .
The video begins with excerpts from an arrangement of Barong Tengkok music played to accompany the procession of the barong, a mythical and benevolent dragon-like creature. The instrumentation features four reong tuned gong kettles, with the two higher-pitched reong mounted on an effigy of a male barong lanang , and the two lower-pitched on a female barong wadon, which are carried into the performance area by two dancer/musicians.
The next sequence shows excerpts of perisian, a type of stick-fighting with rattan staves and rectangular shields performed at traditional celebrations and gatherings. Formal performances of perisian are always accompanied by music: Kabar Alus accompanies the inspection of the contestants by the fight promoter. Pengumbang is played when all those involved with the contest indicate that they are satisfied for it to proceed, and Pengerong Batel accompanies the fighting itself.
The closing sequence shows excerpts from a ronggeng performance. A ronggeng is a female dancer and singer who invites an individual audience member to dance with her by touching him with her fan. He attempts to mirror her dance movements and, if possible, to make fleeting contact with the elusive ronggeng.
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