With a tradition dating back well beyond 500 years, gamelan music continues to be an iconic feature of the Indonesian performing arts. The gamelan orchestra is comprised of bronze percussion instruments, ranging from smaller keyed instruments hit with hammers to large gongs struck with soft mallets which produce a deep resonance. New Zealand composer Jack Body notes that "gamelan reflects the character of the cultures; Javanese gamelan is more refined, reflective, and conservative while Balinese gamelan is more extrovert, dynamic, and open to exploring new things." The three Balinese Pieces explore the exciting rhythms and beautiful sonorities of this music. Apart from Farr's works written specifically for gamelan, this set of three pieces best exemplifies the significant influence of Indonesian music on his writing.
Sepuluh Jari (1996) was the result of a commission Farr received from New Zealand pianist Michael Houstoun. Houstoun asked Farr to compose a toccata, which led the composer to write a virtuosic work that draws on two non-Western tuning systems for its harmonic material - the Indian saraswati scale and the Balinese pelog scale. Beginning in the rumbling lower register of the piano, a lurching, dissonant sprinkling of pitches is repeated before being joined by a comparatively clear melodic line that gradually draws both hands into a higher and more expansive range. Cascading scalar passages interject over low-register arpeggiations, which then arrive at joyous declamatory moments that make use of the exoticism of the work's harmonic influences. The composer transforms these features as they recur throughout the work, rendering them as challenging passages that often require swift finger work. Insistent, pulsed material is interspersed with elastic rushes of energy and brief snatches of stillness and reflection.
Tentang Cara Gamelan (1994), pron. "chara", translates to "on the technique of gamelan", was written by Farr for his friend and colleague Nicola Melville while they were both studying at the Eastman School of Music, New York, USA in 1990-92 and 1994. Farr had become intrigued by how French impressionist composers such as Claude Debussy responded to their exposure to the music of the Javanese Gamelan, which was famously showcased at the Paris Exposition in 1889. In an early programme note, Farr humorously alludes to the character of the music by imagining a dinner conversation between Debussy and composer/ethnomusicologist Colin McPhee in which they discuss the influence of gamelan on their music, before professional jealousy leads to an exchange of insults. Tentang Cara Gamelan does indeed bring together an impressionistic sound-world with a more clearly derivative gamelan style, at first as if viewing gamelan 'from the outside' with a flurry of notes that merely hint at Balinese harmony, then moving towards Balinese harmony and rhythms outright.
Jangan Lupa (2003) was written in memory of the victims of the terrorist bombings that took place in Bali on 12 October, 2002. The commission for the work came from Indonesian pianist Ananda Sukarlan, and was one of a number of Bali-inspired works commissioned by Sukarlan in response to the bombings. Being familiar with Bali due to several journeys there, Farr was deeply affected upon hearing of the bombings. The composer says of the Balinese people that they are "incredibly forgiving and get on with life – their music and dance reflects this and keeps going undeterred." The most emotionally direct of the Balinese Pieces, the pianist will find Jangan Lupa's journey through catharsis, hope and sorrow to be a worthy test of their expressive capabilities. The trauma at the heart of Jangan Lupa is evident in the thunderous opening chord in the piano's lower register and in the group of rhythmic upper register stabs that follow. A tender, drifting melodic statement emerges from the resonance of the opening material, and eventually receives a rhythmic foundation through a soft internal pedal note. As the work expands in register, this tenderness takes on a defiant strength before the eventual return of the work's turbulent opening material. We are reminded of the sombre circumstances surrounding the work's origin in its final moments, in the delicate gravitas of the repeated octave chord in the piano's lower register. The phrase "jangan lupa" translates to "don't forget".
