The date of Langen Suka’s mid-year klenengan will be Saturday 13 August 2016. As we’ve begun to explore repertoire for this performance – including Gendhing Candra, Ladrang Sri Hascarya and Ladrang Wesmester – and discussed a possible venue and occasion, it has been decided that we will play in the slendro scale only. At our rehearsal space at UNSW, we’ve pushed the pelog instruments to the back as we won’t be using them for a while, at least not until the second half of the year when we will be preparing the accompaniments to topeng dances.
So with our slendro sanga set already worked out, we’re excited to reveal our slendro nem repertoire: Gendhing Majemuk with suwuk gropak, followed by Ada-Ada Girisa and Srepegan Pinjalan with the insertion of several tembang macapat to palaran accompaniment. The idea for this wonderful suite of pieces comes from a superb Lokananta recording which can be heard in the clip below.
This is the first time Langen Suka will be performing palaran, a metrical style of accompanying tembang macapat but with variable phrase lengths, so there will definitely be plenty of practice of following the sung melody and drum cues in the coming months.