Page 5 - Fifty-fifty Sep 2021

The Music Behind the Shadow Puppets
by Jo Hilder, Anton Killin, Megan Collins and Budi S. Putra

Gamelan Padhang Moncar will accompany puppet master Ki Joko Susilo in his wayang kulit
(shadow puppet) performance of the Ciptaning Story on 28 September 2021 at the Beehive
Theatrette, in Wellington. Gamelan Padhang Moncar is part of Gamelan Wellington, a music
collective that performs Indonesian music in New Zealand.

Gamelan in Wellington, New Zealand
Gamelan is Indonesia’s famous percussion-based ensemble, primarily featuring metallophones, gongs, and
hand-drums, often with singing and some other instruments (wooden xylophone, vertical fiddle, bamboo flute,
plucked zither). In Wellington we are lucky to have three different types of gamelan ensemble—Central Javanese
gamelan, gong kebyar and beleganjur instruments from Bali, and an antique gamelan from Cirebon, northern
West Java. For the Ciptaning Story, Gamelan Padhang Moncar will use the Central Javanese instruments.

Gamelan has a long history in New Zealand and in Wellington. The first gamelan in the country arrived in 1974
when ethnomusicologist Allan Thomas imported an antique gamelan from Cirebon, assisted by Jack Body. When
Allan moved to Wellington in 1975, he brought this gamelan with him, which soon became part of Victoria
University’s musicology programme where Allan was employed as ethnomusicologist.

Allan Thomas teaching gamelan at the Indonesian Embassy in Fitzherbert Tce Viv Thompson, Paul Barrett, and Mark Dashper playing the
Photo: Evening Post, 23 June 1975 cirebon gamelan at the South Pacific Arts Festival (1976).
Photo: Rotorua Press

In the late 1970s, the Indonesian Embassy in Wellington received a complete Central Javanese gamelan and agreed
that the university’s music department should have the pelog (7-note scale) section of the gamelan on permanent loan.
Later, the university acquired matching slendro (5-note scale) instruments, resulting in the complete Central Javanese
gamelan set that Gamelan Padhang Moncar uses today.

Since 1983 the Indonesian Embassy has provided three successive Javanese gamelan teachers, all highly trained
graduates: Midiyanto, Joko Sutrisno, and now Budi S. Putra.

In 1992, during Joko Sutrisno’s tenure, the Javanese name of Padhang Moncar was given to the group. “Padhang”
means brightness or daylight; “moncar” means growing or developing vigorously. Padhang Moncar can thus refer to the
sunrise (the growing light), and the fact that gamelan in New Zealand is the first in the world to see the new day.
Padhang Moncar can also be interpreted as harmony and growth and thus the name can reflect the aspirations of the
group.

Padhang Moncar Gamelan Group

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