Music In Shadow Puppet Performance example essay topic

Shadow Puppet, Javanese Traditional Art of Shadow Play Shadow puppet theatre in Indonesian language means Wayang Kulit, is a unique combination of ritual, lesson, and entertainment to show communicated history, philosophy, ethnics, and culture. Wayang kulit has its origin in the ancient believe that the departed spirits return to Earth at night, and can be experienced on the light up screen and creating an interplay of shadow to the audience which play on through the night and still vibrant at dawn. The interplay relays to Hindu mythology and Javanese legend that deal with the external struggle between good and evil. The Javanese shadow puppet theatre combines the creative elements of puppets, music, History and story telling that make the Hindu and Javanese legends spring to life on the screen. Wayang kulit is a gregarious puppet theatre. "Wayang" in modern Indonesia language is basely translated into puppet, and "kulit" means skin or leather that is the material from which the figures are carved.

The puppets Leather are made of buffalo skin and manually carved. Although not visible in front of the screen, the puppets are painted with intricate, brightly colored decorations and cut with tiny details, like curls in the hair that is visible when the puppet is held right upon the screen as the usually are. There are about 250 characters in the shadow puppet. The characters include kings, princes, teachers, gods, giants, demons, and ordinary people. The characters that have narrow eyes are refined and elegant. For example is Sri Rama or Pr abu (king) Rama.

The characters with wider eyes are more down to the Earth, like giants, demon, and citizen. For example is a clown named Sema r. In wayang kulit, most of the characters speak in "Jawa kuno", ancient Java language and in the language of "Kaw i", language that carries inspirations. In performing the play, the shadow puppet play is accompanied by gamelan orchestra. Gamelan is a traditional music instrument from Java.

The repertoire consist of an overture, music for traveling, each of the character, and battle music. The music in shadow puppet performance is very much important therefore, the gamelan players must be able to respond to the spontaneous timing and direction of "dalang", the shadow puppet master to make the performance alive, communicative, and attractive. Most shadow play is based on two epic stories from India. The Mahabaratha and the Ramayana, elegantly depict eastern philosophies, which inspired many cultures. The Balinese and Javanese have combined the Hindu stories with Buddhist and Muslim ideas and their own folklore's. Usually the Mahabaratha and Ramayana mythology, which some of the episodes are purely Indonesian creations that based on the two epics stories, are divided into many different episodes.

The Mahabaratha and Ramayana stories are thousands of verses long and only a portion can be performed in one session. The other stories from Indonesian history and myth are occasionally performed. Some favorites include "Kala Rau" or the eclipse of the moon, "Calonarang" that means a call to witches, and "Pani" the Javanese story. The shadow play, a story telling that carries cultural information is enlighten by the puppet master. The shadow puppet master, in Indonesian language means "dalang", delivers the story in the play.

The dalang becomes the center of knowledge culture, and history. He manipulates the carved leather figures and the screen to bring the shadow and the story seem to life. In delivering the stories, the dalang manipulates all the figures, interprets characters and uses different voice for each characters, and produces sound effects punctuating speech and movement. The dalang will also sing, cue the musical accompaniment, and speak several languages. The dalang chooses the story that appropriate to the village or to the place sponsoring the performance. The choice is made to illustrate useful moral.

In every performance, the dalang will create a script remaining to the original story but adding subplots, new characters or comments on current conditions, there is usually a scene when clowns appear, making jokes, talking about current local events and probably criticizing an institution and he uses the original story to give solutions. Therefore, Dalang must be able to tell the stories as they should be told. If this kind of self-control and knowledge is accomplished, a dalang is considered a professional. Since the ancient time, Wayang kulit is brought into play to give lots of information to people. For instance, a historical story likes Ramayana which is very common stories in shadow play. Nevertheless, the story are varies from performance to performance, it depends on the puppeteer or dalang.

Dalang uses his creativeness and his intelligence to interpret the message of the story. He is the one who in charge in the play, he manages the story, gamelan orchestra, and the play and manipulates the puppets. The unity of the puppets, music, and story telling through the puppet master, make the performance alive..