Sinta Wullur founded Multifoon Foundation in 1993 to stimulate the interaction between non-Western music and contemporary music. She commissioned a 12-tone chromatically tuned gamelan. The slenthem, demung, saron, and peking are set on two frames, with the keys arranged similarly to a piano keyboard. The bonang is a single octave, with the pots arranged similarly to a piano keyboard. In 2000, a second order was made for 12 kempul, a two-octave bonang panerus, a one-octave bonang panembung, two extended sarons (two-and-one-half octaves), a complete set of kenong, gender barung, and gender panerus. Wind instruments and violins were added to the ensemble, which performed commissioned compositions. To counter the tendency of new bronze to rise in pitch, Suhirdjan submerged the bronze keys and all knobbed gong chimes and gongs in water for 4-5 months before tuning them.
The gamelan was played in the Concertgebouw by the Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam in the Gamelan Symphony by the composer Peter Schat. The complete chromatic gamelan set combined with choir, strings, winds, and percussion instruments was also used in the performance of Sinta Wullur’s Ramayana opera “Sita’s Liberation” at the International Gamelan Festival Amsterdam 2007.
Sinta Wullur
sintawullur@dds.nl
www.sintawullur.nl