Kendang Arja

Kendang Arja: The Transmission, Diffusion and Transformation(s) of the Singapadu Style Leslie Tilley University of British Columbia In the early 20th century, the Balinese village of Singapadu became famous for its distinctive tradition of arja, a dance-drama accompanied by the small geguntangan ensemble. Central to this ensemble is a pair of drums that simultaneously improvise intricate interlocking patterns, and those from Singapadu quickly spread throughout Bali. Today, despite the general decline of arja’s popularity in recent decades, elements of Singapadu arja drumming are still preserved in the now-contrasting styles of master drummers from Singapadu, nearby Pengosekan and Peliatan villages, and the distant village of Apuan, Bangli. In this presentation, I will discuss the transmission and diffusion of the Singapadu style to these diverse areas, drawing heavily from parallel studies on language. Expanding on theories of diffusion, dialectology, style-shifting and second-language acquisition – advanced by linguists such as Labov (2007) and Wolfram (2004) – I will explain the various factors which subsequently led to differing levels of innovation and change in the arja drumming traditions of each village: the relative conservatism in Apuan versus the relative freedom of variation and creativity in Pengosekan and Peliatan. These theories will be supported by a comparative analysis of individual drum patterns from arja masters in each of the villages under examination. The improvised drumming in arja is made up of small cyclic patterns – generally ranging from two to eight beats in length – and thus lending themselves well to a close, microscopic comparative study. Drawing from variation analysis and musical pattern classification techniques employed by Tenzer (2000), Arom (1991) and others, I will discuss the individual transformations that Singapadu arja drumming took in each of these unique styles. Thus, I aim not only to demonstrate the value of using linguistic models for comparative analyses of musical style, but also to contribute to the existing dialogue on innovation and change in improvised music genres.

Leslie Tilley Kendang Arja

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Works cited: Arom, Simha. African Polyphony and Polyrhythm: Musical Structure and Methodology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991. Labov, William. “Transmission and Diffusion,” Language 83(2) 2007: 344-387. Tenzer, Michael. Gamelan Gong Kebyar: The Art of Twentieth-Century Balinese Music. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000. Wolfram, Walt. 2004. “The Sociolinguistic Construction of Remnant Dialects.” In Fought, C., ed., Sociolinguistic Variation: Critical Reflections, 84-106. Oxford: Oxford University Press.