Sita
Premiére: Wangaratta Festival of Jazz and Blues 2000
Composers: Paul Grabowsky in association with I Wayan Gde Yudane
Libretto: I Ketut Yuliarsa and Nigel Jamieson
Program Notes
As Australian-Indonesian relations nose-dived over East Timor independence, a music theatre production involving artists from both countries was beginning to take shape under the direction of Nigel Jamieson. The Theft of Sita uses music, song, story-telling, puppetry and video in a modern story derived from Sanskrit epic the Ramayana, which tells of the abduction of Sita, wife of Lord Rama, and her rescue. It tells of the democratic revolution in Indonesia where greed represents forces of power situated in the corrupt elite of Indonesia, for example the money markets and the fall of the rupiah and how that impacted terribly on the average Indonesian citizen.
The composers are Paul Grabowsky, one of Australia's most accomplished jazz pianists, leader of the Australian Art Orchestra, and a prolific composer in a range of disciplines in association with I Wayan Gde Yudane, three-time winner of the Best Balinese Music in the New Composition category at the Bali Arts Festival.
The music is performed by five Balinese musicians and six members of the Australian Art Orchestra. The libretto is written by the Balinese poet, I Ketut Yuliarsa and The Theft of Sita's director, Nigel Jamieson.
Composer's notes
"Cross cultural collaborations are delicate situations. In an age where the term 'world music' has come to disguise a multitude of musical crimes and in which sampling technology has resulted in wide spread looting of cultural artefacts, reducing everything to the status of the 'found object', the onus on our creative team has been to approach the composition process as a partnership.
Yudane has analysed our breakdown of the works structure and drawing on his knowledge of Balinese traditional music as well as his own vast experience as a composer pushing the boundaries of that music, he has provided me with a firm foundation to work with.
I meanwhile have based my compositions partly on his and for some sections completely independently, resulting in a series of situations in which musical styles cohabitate in various degrees of apposition and opposition.
The pelog and slendro scales are used and particular attention has been paid to tuning the Western instruments in accordance with Yudane's custom built genders. In some cases the roles of various of the Balinese instruments are taken up by the Australians, for example the bass trombone occasionally marks the slow cycles of some pieces like a gong while the violin and soprano sax play interlocking kotekan parts. The guitar and electronics provide various sonic landscapes sometimes within the bad and sometimes opposed to it. The voice retains the purity of the Balinese scales but sings in an almost vibratoless way as befits the character of Sita.
Balinese rhythms are constantly changing with the drummer leading the group from the kendang – in our ensemble the two drummers share this role.
– Paul Grabowsky
Guest Musicians
- I Wayan Gde Yudane (kendang, bumbang, ceng-ceng, gentorag)
- I Made Subandi (gender, kendaang, bumbang, rebab)
- I Gusti Putu Sudarta (gender, bumbang, pongang, vocals)
- I Ketut Lanus (suling, kendang, bumbang)
- I Made Gde Mandra (gang, bumbang, kenang, kajar, kempul)
Press for Sita
- "Elegant, soothing, frantic, turbulent"
- Rhythms (Adrian Jackson), March 2003
- "Jazz and something else"
- Financial Review, March 29 2003
- A selection of responses
- The Theft of Sita
