Spectrum Hawaii; 011; Medoff/Gamelan; 012

The following program is a production of KHET in Honolulu, Hawaii public television. The following program was funded in part by the Hawaii State Foundation on culture and the arts. [music] Today Specter will pay a visit to Hawaii's most famous political cartoonist Corky Trinidad. Making mischief with the leading personalities that make the

news, Corky Trinidad will discuss his cartoons and his approach to world events. Ben Spector looks at a Portuguese dance company called Folklorico de Cameos Here members both young and old perform the traditional dances of Portugal in step with rhythmic Portuguese music while dressed in native costumes of festive design. But first Spectrum takes you to bamboo forest with a mysterious flute music of shakuhachi is heard. Traditionally carved from bamboo, the shakuhachi flute is now created in glass by an expert craftsman Bill Cooper. Here to play an ancient Japanese melody is Reilly Lee. The shakuhachi is an emblem flute of Japanese design. It has been a musical tradition in Japan for hundreds of years. I recently

formed a society devoted to the art of playing the shakuhachi. We call ourselves Chikuhodu?? which means the organization for the preservation of bamboo. But not long after the Chikuhodo society was formed I was faced with a problem. The bamboo shakuhachis are made by master artisans in Japan. They are costly, especially for a beginner. The prices for a bamboo shakuhachi began that 250 to 300 dollars. In one day a shakuhachi student of mine told me about Bill Cooper who is a glass blower. After Bill had seen an example of an end- blown flute, he felt challenge to try and make one out of glass. I became very interested. Bill gave it a test run after working out the

bugs. We finally had a flute of acceptable quality for a price that was most appealing. I was curious about the shakuhachi. I don't always want to take flute lessons and was happy to see a society form for just that purpose. I realize that the bamboo shakuhachi, a very fine instrument, was priced at a prohibitive level, at least for beginners like myself. And there are more novices then there are experienced shakuhachi players here in Hawaii. So I developed this idea about making glass flutes. I just used Pyrex glass tubes obtained from the Corning Corporation and began shaping them. The factory sends me glass tubing in a standard four foot length. I reduce that down to two feet. I begin a flute with its mouthpiece. Using a graphite tool, I'm able to ensure that the diameter of every flute is

identical. With a measuring fixture, I determine the exact location of the finger stops, as well as a final length of the total flute. I heat the tube at the major finger stop location. Using a glass rod I pull the molten glass up into a thin shaft which may be easily broken off. Once the thin shaft is removed, a small opening is created. By heating this small opening and inserting it tool, it can be rereemed to the exact diameter. Further refinements to the glass shakuhachi is to cut the mouthpiece at an angle similar to the one used on the bamboo shakuhachi. Then polishing is required. I like to fire polish the flute to eliminate superficial irregularities. When polishing with flame

an exacting degree of skill is necessary or else the flute would melt into a formless lump. Just the surface of the flute is slightly melted. Resulting finish gives to the flute a look of smooth polished glass. The jigs and fixtures are helpful, but without the necessary level of skill the creation of a glass shakuhachi cannot be controlled. [flute music playing] One of the reasons I was pleased with the choice of glass for a flute, is its high silica content. This makes for a very hard material which has adequate resonance. I notice that the interior bore of the bamboo shakuhachi was coated with lacquer. When hardened, lacquer is very similar to glass. I was attracted to the shakuhachi because of its tone quality

and the complexity of sounds that it is able to produce. I spent seven years in Japan learning to play the shakuhachi. [flute playing] The glass flute actually approaches the bamboo flute in tonal quality. There's no rival but at least it surpasses the plastic flute. Coming up on spectrum is the Portuguese club Folklorico de Cameos.

Now Spectrum's Executive Producer, Nino J. Martin, visits with Corky Trinidad. The Honolulu Star Bulletin's political cartoonist. Corky you were born in the Philippines and what was it about the Philippines and what did you do there to make you become a journalist and a political cartoonist. Mike, my training was journalism, but my desire for cartooning started from childhood, I've always been doing cartooning even when I was taking Journalism as a vocation, I was doing cartooning on the side for a pastime, so I didn't set out to be a cartoonist. But were you working in the Philippines as a cartoonist? Yeah. After graduation I still did cartoons. Cartoons sent me through college. But what made you decide to become a political cartoonist. I've always loved political cartoons, even when I

was a little kid I remember instead of collecting, you know, drawings of Batman, Robin, and Superman, I was collecting I remember reprints of Newsweek and TIME magazine political [inaudible] yeah and putting them in scrapbooks. How much of the political scene in the Philippines affected you as a youngster to make you become a political cartoonist? Oh, very much. First of all, the Philippines at that time, true I can say for now. The Philippines is really a very political country. First Family's clans?? They all run the country. The oligarchy there, so that everything even social life and and political life are really fused in one. So that growing up in an atmosphere where people naturally

know the political implications of any act of anybody. I guess I acquired that first love for political incentive and what they call a [inaudible] somebody who was looking not as a politician. Well now couldn't you have continued your career as a political cartoonist in the Philippines? Did you have to come to America? Did you want to? What brought you over here? Well first, what brought me to Hawaii was Hawaii. I was here in 1968 and 65 and 67 all passing through and I've always wanted to live here so that at the same time by 66 my cartoon was syndicated in the mainland papers. And I was more really at ease with American politics more than... Did you disagree with the Philippine politics?

Oh a lot. I had real strong political cartoonist [inaudible] there. But Philippine politics at the time, the Philippine press was so free, everything was so freewheeling. I had two political cartoons at the time one on the front page on local Philippine issues then one in the editorial page of [inaudible] and that was the one that was syndicated Well how do you get your ideas, Corky? I get my ideas from from reading everything that's going on and at first when you start doing cartooning, it's a very journalistic position. It's like a news desk deciding what's the best story for the day. On my own I based on what's happening. that day, I decide what's the best news of the day for the cartoon [inaudible]. And then I think about it, analyze the particular news item, come up with a concept about it.

The best cartoon ideas come from a slant that you had decided upon. You have to take a stand. I think all the work is done in finding out what style you should take on a particular item. Do you find that the people disagree with you? Oh, a lot. A lot. How about agree? Oh a lot too. You know. I think you're only good 50% of the time. Like you take a specific case. If I do a cartoon today that seems to favor let's say the Democrats, Democrats position of a specific issue the Republicans all think you're all wet and ignorant and said should be kicked back to the Philippines and the next day if I do a cartoon on an issue that seems to agree with a Republican style, all the Democrats would say he's no good. The same Democrats who say that you're so great the day before, will say you're no good

today because, and should be kicked back to the Philippines so I don't really [inaudible] because most people have set stands. Democrats have a set stand Republicans have a set stand and they cannot really understand a [inaudible] word or a person that actually comes in with every issue with no stand yet until he reads it and analyzes what's what's that stand he has to take. So you try to keep it as balanced as possible then? Yeah. OK. Would you consider most of your cartoons negative? The greater percentage are they kind of a cynical look at a particular subject or a character? Well if that's the definition of negative, I would consider most of the cartoons negative. It's not I don't think it's the cartoonist... not our job to praise. All the politicians have flacks enough

for that. I mean that's a President Reagan who has millions of budget has a million in his budget in an office that sets out to praise him tothe media anyway so it's not, that's not my job. They have they have their own job for that. I think because we have only one space a day, our job is to look for the bad side. You know. That's [inaudible]. My job is to fight. I see a stuffed shirt I want to punch a hole in it, you know, that kind of thing. It's nice to be able to do a praise cartoon and a critical cartoon at the same time of the same day. Two instances. But if the space allows you only one, I take the negative side. Is a cartoonist like a poet in that he reaches below the everyday surface of things

or do you generally look at the every day things and talk about the subtleties? I don't know about being a poet. Political cartoon is a very concise rhetorical argument, I think, more. That's what it is. It's just a rhetorical argument visually. If you look at the principles of cartooning you'll find that it's really a visualization of all the principles of rhetoric. What they set out to do it in one instance in one or two seconds they want to convince you of a particular slant that they have in their own head so whether you fall back on accepting rhetoric while poetry, seems to signify a more flowery way of looking at it or a more of a static way of looking at things that

the looks for beauty. I think the two are just different in the approach. When you first take a look at someone, say you're in the situation, you're in a room or cocktail party, whatever, you look at someone. When you first see them, what do you see? First I see the two ways to look at it. Every people it's the physical part and then when I have an opinion of people then the physical part becomes tempered by my opinion. So when I look people first time I really look at all of the physical. Of the face in terms of caricature I think I've made that it's becoming a bad habit because people who think that I'm always staring at them or peering at them. But the first start of the caricature is to know that I mean really look at their physical part.

We all see each other all the time but in a matter of fact way. We don't really look. I don't think, if you get ten people, I don't think five will really see how your nose goes down that way How your eyes are peering more than just dull, you know, that kind of thing. Well, I do. Often in cartoons I notice that cartoonists tend to emphasize the defects in people for example if you have big jowls or bags under your eyes. What What is it? Why is it that you do that? It's really not emphasizing the bad parts. It's emphasizing the features that would have your general picture of the cartoon. Your main idea of the cartoon or the main face of the of the person. For example, President Carter, Everybody's seeing President Carter every day. You know once he acquires this public face to people

there are actually parts of Carter that the people don't realize they had retained more than other parts. So that actually when when we do a caricature of Carter, what the caricaturist does is not to say I think I would look for Carter's faults and magnify it, what he's saying is I wonder what in Carter's face has become etched in the memory of people and that's the only thing that I will emphasize because as soon as I put this people like Carter, that kind, so it's not emphasizing. If you, let's say you have a wart here and it's really not part of your face, it's really not... It doesn't help in the remembrance of people about your face, I won't draw it. Do you mind if I ask you to draw a cartoon for us? There's a situation a little while back where President Reagan gave his famous Star Wars speech

and our own Senator Dan Inouye did the Democratic rebuttal and I'm wondering if perhaps you could characterize the two of them in a cartoon. With Inouye talking to Reagan about the speech that Reagan just gave. Could you...? Okay. Could you draw that for us? Okay. On the Star Wars thing? On the Star Wars thing. Well, first you have to decide on who's going to be Darth Vader. [laughing] On this dark day [inaudible] [sounds of a drawing pencil on paper] Who would you consider Darth Vader here? Oh well, the guy who wants to do all the the Star Wars weapons, you know. So that will be the president? Yeah. Okay. So you would be taking off Darth Vader mask. Yeah And let him hold it, so that then people would still recognize the Darth Vader thing, like that.

Make him recognize as soon as he takes off this this futuristic weapon, it's Reagan inside. Something, I... So he turns around and look at it now? So here you have Senator Dan Inouye with a sword talking to Ronald Reagan as Darth Vader taking off his mask and you got futuristic weapons. Corkey, interpretation... I think I'm losing a lot of readers, this lousy drawing I'm doing... [laughing] Would you release something like this or would you do something a little different? Not yet, no. In other words, you would work it out? Yeah, I have a rule that's with something like this. usually I follow a personal rule of throwing away the first glance at the comes into my mind, because as soon as you do the first concept that goes through your mind, you have to assume that 113 other political cartoonist in the United States thought of the

same concept. I usually throw away the first idea. Have you ever had a situation where another's cartoonist did exactly what you did? Oh, yes many times. And what you do in a case like that? Nothing. You just let it go? Yeah because sometimes I conceive of the very same idea as somebody in New York So on the same day, sometimes the [inaudible] and the L.A. Times, I get my L.A Times late, two days late, and I see a cartoon that he did on day that I did my cartoon on the very same subject, all with the same slant and idea but with different execution of course. How about the future Corky? What would you see the future? You'll be taking some of your talents on to some other media? Right now I have a comic strip called Zeus and I don't know if I should reveal it, but right now it's being executed in animation form by one of the

animation firms in the mainland. So we plan to have it out by February. First introduce this. I don't do anything I just did the first drawing. They are doing the pilot. They are doing the storyboard. I think the media moves tomorrow is to TV, even in cartooning. Hawaii has always been known for its richness in ethnic heritage expressed through dance. For over 100 years the Portuguese have contributed many traditions to the unique blend of cultures in Hawaii showing us a glimpse of those traditions through the music, instruments, dance, and costumes of Portugal is Josephine Carrera, Executive Director of Folklorico de Camoes. The first large group of immigrants came from Portugal in 1878. With them they brought their traditions. Their

music and their dance and their musical instruments. From each province there's a different type of music and different types of dance and a different costume. I would like to show you now a costume from the Minho Province in Northern Portugal. Cindy is wearing a typical Minho costume. The vest is very ornate and it's hand-embroidered. All women in Portugal where shawls and they wear it in a unique way. They put over their heads in case it is too warm or it's raining. The embroidery goes all the way down to the bottom of her skirt and to her textured stockings down to the mules on her feet. In addition to the costumes and the dance and the music, the Portuguese introduced their instruments to Hawaii. One of the most important contributions I think to Hawaii that's Portuguese made was the Cavaquinho. Mr. Nunez brought this on the Ravenscrag when he came in in 1879. It was later renamed as you all

know, the Ukelele. Another instrument that came with the Portuguese comes from the island of Madeira where most of the immigrants first came. This instrument is called the Braguinha. The little dancers around in the ring here have the typical costume of Madera. The little castanets, little blocks of wood here, make the sound of a castanets in the back. And the little tambourine sound comes from the bottle caps right back here. And it is played by drawing back down on this shaft like so. [musical sounds] In order for us to maintain our traditions here in Hawaii being that the immigrants did not come after 1913, we would have to perpetuate our culture by handing our dances and our music down

through the generations. In 1974 we formed a club called the Camoes Players. We have two groups of dancers. The adults do the dances from the Islands of Azores and they do traditional dances that were brought here one hundred years ago. We formed a group of young people in 1976 and they do dances from all over Portugal all throughout the eleven provinces and the islands as well. Now wouldn't you like to see a dance from one of these provinces in the traditional costume? The Folklorico de Camoes will do a dance from the Ribatejo area called the Fandango. [music playing]

[music playing] [music playing] When we are caught up in an art form, time may vanish and our pleasures

suspends us for a while. But it soon ends and we long to return to it. We'll look for your return in our next Spectrum. [music playing] [music playing]

Spectrum was funded in part by the Hawaii State Foundation on Culture and the Arts. The following program is a production of KHET in Honolulu, Hawaii

Public Television. The following program was funded in part by the Hawaii State Foundation on Culture and the Arts. [music playing] Today on the Spectrum, we'll see a musical ensemble that has no conductor, no sheet music, and plays upon a musical scale entirely different from our

own. It's called Gamelan, a group of local citizens, musicians, and students who perform the Indonesian music of Java where the mysterious sounds of harps, gongs, flutes, and percussion combine with dance, drama, a puppet show, and shadows to evoke the legends of Pacific Asia. But first Spectrum visits with an American creator who writes for the stage. Mark Madoff recently visited Honolulu to check in on the first local production of his Broadway hit Children of a Lesser God. On the stage of the Hawaii Performing Arts company, Nino J. Martin interviews a Tony Award winning playwright, Mr. Mark Middle. Why did you choose playwriting as opposed to say a narrative or a prose sense to form an expression for yourself?

So I started writing when I was very young. I can remember writing what I thought seriously when I was about nine years old and I was at that time changing adjectives in conjunctions in whatever stories I was reading at the time. And so I wrote prose for many years and my mother kept insisting all through my adolescence that I really should be writing plays because I had a knack she thought for dialogue. And naturally because I was adolescent and thought that I knew everything I adamantly refused to do such a thing. So it wasn't really until I was 26 and I got to New Mexico State University from graduate school at Stanford that I started writing plays and I started writing plays simply because I met some people who were involved in community theater very much like H-Pack and they said why don't you write a play for us. And I found myself one day working on a short story that was about at that point 10 pages into the piece and it was really nothing more than dialogue and I decided well the time has come to try to write a

play, so I did. And ultimately that turned into the second play that I had in New York, a play called The wager. And since and I've been writing plays, daily. Have you considered changing your form? Would you think about writing a novel? Well what's happened now is that inevitably every time I finish a play somewhere I'm so disgusted and I'm so tired of the journey that I think the last thing I want to do now is write another play so I will sit down and write a book and that lasts for about two weeks because I go back to play I just I don't I don't any longer have the urge to write prose and the difference really is that in playwriting I get the most, the best of two worlds. One is a very private isolated world where for a year or two I am all alone in a dark place all by myself with my demons and then when I've finished drafting it to a certain point I need other people. I need an extended family. And the thing that I like about the

theater, I think, finally is this notion of extended family. The people in the theater tend to bring the best of themselves to rehearsal every day and leave the worst of themselves outside as a Stanislavsky saying it's very popular in the theater which is, you don't come into the theater with muddy shoes. And people come in with with clean shoes and clean feet. I really like the warmth and the sense of family that goes into making a play. In an interview with Rod Serling one time I asked him how he writes I mean how he is disciplined in his writing and he said he gets a cigarette in the morning a cup of coffee and he puts a piece of paper in the typewriter and he sits in front of the typewriter until he writes something. Do you do this sort of thing I mean is it difficult for you to write. I don't I don't have a problem I at least not yet. I don't I gave up smoking about 10 years ago I do get a cup of coffee but I go to the

typewriter usually six days a week often seven days a week and I go early in the morning as soon as I've got the kids off to school. And I always leave myself the day before enough material so that I can get myself started because it is sometimes difficult to start but I think it was Hemingway who said that you never write yourself dry on a given day you always leave yourself a sentence or two so that you can get started. But I have not since I was in my early 20s faced what we call writer's block. Hope not to face that soon again. Public getting your ideas. The subject is not something that you want to write about a play or something...where do they come from? Oh God only knows. Any place I mean I'll hear a line of dialogue I'll have a character start to take up residence in my brain somewhere I will be affected by something in the news. It is a character one of her demons? Yeah I mean yeah inevitably some some side of myself or some aspect of someone that I relate to so strongly that I know I've got to try to resolve it.

inside. And the development of a play in my head is very much like the gestation period of a child. It takes x number of months sometimes years of just allowing it to live inside my head. And it sounds foolish even to me to say but at some point something goes off in my head and I know it's time to sit down and start dealing with this thing on the typewriter. But I literally will live with something in my head for several years and it will be working in my head constantly. I've always got four or five ideas literally gestating working in my head at any given time and I may be working on four or five different things in rotation on a typewriter. Edith Hamilton as a scholar of ancient Greek dramatic literature believe that suffering she says that suffering is the most individualized thing there is the time when one is truly alone and also a time and one has the most dignity. Do you as a playwright try to reveal the dignity and significance of life in your

place. I think that through throughout the ages that literature has never been something that focused on any kind of happy incident that it is always dealt in in the agony of other people. You think tragedy works better? Well I think life basically is tragic even when we make fun of it or even when we make light of it that we are in one way or another dealing with the things that that pain people and we're trying to resolve that I think for ourselves and then for other people through what we write. But could you give us a comparison Mark of how comedy versus drama in terms of the demand that it places on the audience and the audience like comedy or tragedy or drama better. I can speak for myself that what what I try to do when I write and I know that this is going on consciously is I given my druthers I would like in everything I write to allow an audience to laugh at the various ironies that life hurls at us and to then have the the

catharsis of being able to cry at the end. And that's if I had things the way way I want them. And I'm not sure that this is really happening terribly often in my work or anybody else's. I think it does happen in Children of a Lesser God and for that reason I still enjoy watching that play although I feel somewhat remote from it now. I still enjoy watching an audience watch it and I derive a great deal of satisfaction from hearing them laugh watching and feeling them begin to understand the pain that these people are going through in their efforts to communicate to relate to each other. And finally inevitably at the end of the play there are tears. In children of a Lesser God, Mark, aAnd I'm sure all of our audience knows this, but you won the Academy Awards of the theatrical industry and that's the Tony Award. How did you feel that night when you went up to pick up that

award. Oh it was it was utterly exhilarating. It's almost...What went through your mind? Oh I don't know. I don't even remember I went up on the stage they handed me the word I handed it right back because I needed my hand so that I could sign and then I forgot what it was I was going to say because several days before we came I finally decided well I better prepare something in case I win. So I got up at about, I was in bed one night I got out of bed and I started manufacturing abspeech because I wanted to sign it so I felt like I had to learn it ahead rather than trying to wing it so that I would do all the signs correctly. So I got up there I forgot what it was I was going to start saying and it seemed to me like two or three minutes before I remembered but it was actually only a matter of seconds on when I saw the tape later and I looked out my saw all these people and the producer of the show had told everyone that you only have I don't know how many seconds it was there was this this clock facing you on one of the balconies and it had red lights and they would light boom boom boom boom boom boom boom

boom. And you were supposed to be through and I know I was up there for much longer than that. Did you see the clock [inaudible]? Yeah I didn't care, I didn't care. People were out there. There was this sea of faces out there smiling at me, happy and I didn't care. I even said hello to my children. And then I left the stage and they ushered me out of the out of the theater down the block to a restaurant where the press was waiting and where John Rubenstein and Phyllis Frelich were waiting and we had quite a wonderful reunion. What does the Tony Award now that you've received it and what does it mean for you? Is it a future for you? Well it sort of sticks you with a moniker, it's almost like doctor or professor. Now that no matter what I do in any interviews I do any mention of my name anywhere it's always prefixed by Tony Award winning playwright and I noticed the writers who won the Tony or appeal of surprise always have this affixed to the front of their name, so...

that I suppose that could become a burden if the next eight or 10 plays that I write go into the toilet. Do you feel an obligation that you have to keep winning Tony Awards. No, not winning Tony Awards, I've always felt that I want the next thing I write to be better than the last thing. Do you think that's going to happen? I think, yeah, I think in the sense that I feel like I am continually learning that I have by no means learned enough so that I've peaked or anything like that. Mark Madoff author of Children of a Lesser God and winner of the Tony Award for Best playwright in 1980, thank you very much for joining us here on Spectrum. My pleasure. As we pass from the Western footlights to the Eastern stage Spectrum listens to the Indonesian songs of the Gamelan a University of Hawaii club directed by music professor Susilo. On behalf of the East-West Center. [music playing]

Can the music of another culture tell us something about the people and the values of that culture? A project team at the East-West Center hopes to discover the answer by providing an introduction to the music and related arts of Central Java in Indonesia. Our Gamelan at the University of Hawaii is an orchestral ensemble consisting of over twenty different instruments. For musicians, Gamelan music can be appreciated for its rich tonal quality and also for the subtle relationships between its many musical parts. For student such as these and the university ensemble, Gamelan music serves as an introduction to a better understanding of Javanese people. Because the basic principles of the music are quite clear a beginning student may become involved immediately in playing the many instruments of the Gamelan. For the more advanced student, the subtleties and intricacies of the music at a more detailed level can offer years of challenging study.

Java is one of more than 3000 islands that make up the Republic of Indonesia. Within Indonesia, there are several different music traditions. The Gamelan music of Central Java is based mainly on styles that developed in the Royal Courts of Yogyakarta and Sudhakarta. Many Gamelan ensembles are housed at universities and museums throughout the world making involvement with the music possible for the non-Javanese. A complete Gamelan consists of two sets of instruments made of bronze, brass, or iron and tuned to different scales. Since there is no

standard tuning, the exact tuning of these scales may vary from one Gamelan to another thus giving each Gamelan its own unique sound. The instruments of the two tuning systems are arranged in pairs and each pair is the responsibility of one musician. Although some of the repertoire can be played in either tuning system the ensemble rarely plays in both at the same time. The tuning systems are called sléndro and pélog. In sléndro the octave is divided almost equally into five tones. Tuning has seven tones but the intervals between tones vary. The instruments of the Gamelan may be divided into four groups

according to their function. One, the Balungan Balung literally means skeleton hence Balungan would be skeleton-like or that is the backbone of a given composition. Two, the punctuating group marking important structural points. Three, the elaborating group performing a faster moving melodic lines related to the bottom line. And, four, the tempo and dynamics conductor performed by the drum. This division of function is not rigid. At times they may overlap. These are the instruments that play the Balungan, the backbone or central melody of a composition.

The different types and sizes of instruments give the melody a rich sound. Any elaboration by individual players must be based on this melody. The longest phrases of the Balungan are marked by a stroke of the gong. These phrases may be as short as four beats or as long as 256. This piece has only sixteen beats per gong. Of all the instruments of the Gamelan, the big gong is the most highly revered.

The gong is made in the traditional ceremonial manner and is given a proper name which in turn refers to the entire ensemble. The University is of Hawaii is named Qiaovendrun, the venerable one in love. Probably one of the biggest challenges to a beginning Gamelan player is to learn to listen to many different parts at once. The big gong and the other punctuating instruments function together to provide and a melodic and rhythmic framework that marks important structural points in the music. Notation is not used by the musicians and there is no visual conductor. Without reference to the different parts of the ensemble, the music can become a formless flow of sound. The musicians must listen carefully to each other so they can keep track of their place during the many possible repetitions of a piece. Repetition is an important principle in many music cultures

including Indonesian music. In Gamelan music the Balungan or of the skeleton is the repeated as many times as the musicians consider necessary. This creates some kind of cyclical illusion. I say illusion because time goes on and you can't really return to the same point in time. And while the Balungan is repeated though, the elaborating instruments embellish it. Ideally of course with different repetition you have different embellishment. For those students who have learned the punctuating and Balungan instruments individual instruction in singing or on the elaborating instruments is the next challenge. It is common for a student to learn only 30 seconds of music in a one hour lesson.

The result of the many hours of lessons and rehearsal is not limited only to

musical knowledge. Music can be used not only for listening pleasure but also to a company of a variety of theatre forms. In the carved wooden dance masks the concepts of aloos?? and kasar?? -- the refined and the coarse come to life. The stories themselves telling epic tales of love and war communicate the Javanese perspective. The University of Hawaii's Gamelan Group has accompanied local Javanese dance students as well as professional dancers from Java. These are the movements of a refined prince. who has also accompanied Wayang Kulit -- a theatre form using flat leather puppets. Performance may be viewed from two directions. On the illuminated side of the

screen where the puppeteer sits or on the dark side where the silhouettes of the carved puppets can be seen. In this excerpt, a demon has attacked a prince and his servants. According to Javanese mythology, this battle between the demon and the prince is symbolic of the battle that occurs between the coarse and refined elements that reside in any human being.

By the end of the battle the refined character emerges victorious. One day when I was in the fifth grade, my teacher told me that it is time for us to refine our behavior. It is time for us to study Gamelan and dance. Now in retrospect that's kind of curious. That you study music not only to become a good musician, but to be a better human being. To be a better member of a society. That seems to be a big goal.

[music playing] [music playing] [music playing] [music playing] Legends have been recorded in song and dance throughout the ages. Each new performance offers yet another untold facet of the ancient mysteries. These tales and legends give a meaning to events and lend a shape to history. Join us again as we find the shapers of culture on our

next Spectrum. Spectrum was funded in part by the Hawaii State Foundation

on Culture and the Arts.