Renowned Javanese musician and composer Djoko Walujo Wimboprasetyo returns to teach Javanese Gamelan course funded by the Indonesian Studies Program.

By Otto Stuparitz (PhD, Ethnomusicology)

The UCLA Department of Ethnomusicology in the Herb Alpert School of Music will offer a Spring 2018 course on the music of the Central Javanese gamelan, funded by the Indonesian Studies Program under the UCLA Center for Southeast Asian Studies. The Indonesian Studies Program is supported by a generous gift from Julia Gouw. The course will be taught be renowned Javanese musician and composer Djoko Walujo Wimboprasetyo. This percussion-dominated musical ensemble includes tuned bronze gongs, bronze metallophones, and drums, along with flutes, zither, vocals, and spiked fiddle.

Pak Djoko is one of the most highly regarded senior performers of Javanese classical music and studied at the Indonesian Arts Institute and law at the University of Gajah Mada in Yogyakarta, Java. He studied gamelan music from an early age with many well-known teachers, including Raden Lurah Dhamowijoyo, Raden Ngabehi Prawira Pangrawit, Bapak Sunardi Wisnubrata, Bapak Promono, Bapak Hadi Sumarta, and K.R.T. Wasitodiningrat.

UCLA Javanese Gamelan is first ensemble of its kind in an American university. The gamelan, named Khjai Mendung (The Venerable Dark Cloud), was purchased in 1958 by one of the founders of the UCLA Ethnomusicology program, Mantle Hood. Instructors for the Music of Java Ensemble have included: Mantle Hood (1960-74); Hardja Susilo (1967-71); KRT Wasitodipuro (1977-79); Nanik Wenten (77-79); Sue Carole De Vale (1983-93); I Nyoman Wenten (1998-01); Djoko Walujo (1993-95 and 2004-05).

Outside of the ensemble, a collection containing many of Mantle Hood’s recording and notations during his fieldwork in Java have been recently donated to the UCLA Ethnomusicology Archive. An event celebrating the return of Khjai Mendung and the accession of this collection is being scheduled for the end of spring quarter 2018.

Lecturer Profile: https://www.ethnomusic.ucla.edu/walujo-djoko
Music of Java: https://www.ethnomusic.ucla.edu/music-of-java-ensemble

UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music
Department of Ethnomusicology
SPRING 2018
ETHNMUS 91H and 161H “Music of Java”
Thursdays, 11am – 2pm, 1659 Schoenberg Music Building
Instructor: Djoko Walujo

Students will need to come to the first session to receive a PTE number to enroll.