Bali (Michael Colgrass)

Title: Bali
Listen to it here(naxos link)

Performers: Rutgers Wind Ensemble

Culture: Contemporary American/Balinese

Instrumentation: Wind Ensemble

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For this weeks blog entry, I listened to Michael Colgrass's  "Bali" for wind ensemble. The piece employs a westernized version of a five note pentatonic scale native to a corner of the island of Bali. I say “westernized”, because it is well known that equal temperament is not used in the country of bali, as there is no mathematical tuning. In fact, for many instruments native instruments, there is a male and a female pairing of two pitches which we would say are in the same class, but microtonally separated far enough to create beats.

Regardless, what Colgrass has done in this work is make pitch approximations that are suitable for western staff notation. Colgrass also spent 2 years in Bali observing the native music and learning about their way of life. Using this knowledge he has written a piece for the American wind ensemble setting, using a Balinese style of melodic writing with interlocking accompaniment parts combined with the western practice of exchanging placement of melody in the texture to create a piece which is suitable for public school usage. This piece also has a middle section which represents an explosion from a muslim extremist bombing in 2002. The offstage oboes are the majority of peace-loving muslims, who are grieving for the Balinese victims.