Calung banyumasan: shaping bamboo, sounding identities

Calung Banyumasan: Shaping Bamboo, Sounding Identities is an ethnomusicological documentary film about the gamelan calung, bamboo xylophones ensembles typical of the Banyumas Regency (Central Java), on which the author is currently focusing his doctoral studies. The documentary – shot during a semester of field research, from March to August 2019 – should be considered as a collective creation, since it is the result of a close cooperation with local musicians, who actively participated in choosing its form and contents. Calung Banyumasan explores various socio-anthropological and musicological issues in connection with the calung. The daily lives of the three main protagonists (a teacher, a calung maker and an expert performer) and the stories they tell reflect the importance of this musical tradition as a central element of the local cultural identity. The film considers the indigenous artisanal knowhow, provides an account of the ever-increasing presence of these ensembles in educational institutions, and reveals some of the contexts in which calung performances are held. Although a few international scholars have dealt with this topic, to date no extensive and in-depth audiovisual documentation of the calung has been carried out by ethnomusicologists. The author therefore decided to present this musical practice in an original and widely accessible documentary film that could be of interest to a wide-ranging audience and lead to a deeper understanding of this subject.