胡敏德 Made Mantel Hood
Tainan National University of the Arts, Prof. Dr.

題目：Between Honor and Obligation: Musical Maintenance of Balinese Court and Community Relations
 

In the early decades of the 20th century, many Balinese royal court treasuries gradually became depleted without the steady flow of taxes from peasants. The nobility’s support for the performing arts waned and valuable bronze gongs and metallophones from orchestras such as the stately gamelan gong gede were largely sold off. For example, the gong gede of Tabanan prince Anak Agung Ngurah was donated to a Pangkung community ward only to be melted down to forge a gong kebyar. However, not all royal court gamelan suffered this fate. Almost a century after the fall of many royal houses, Puri Pemecutan in the bustling city of Denpasar has maintained its gamelan gong gede throughout the dramatic social, political and economic phases of the pre-colonial, colonial, national and autonomous regional development of Bali.
     In this paper, I examine reciprocity and allegiance in the intra-kingdom relationship between the royal house of Pemecutan and the musical community of Geladag in the city of Denpasar.  This enduring relationship between the two is an example of a modern-day pact with pre-colonial roots not easily severed by the often culturally destructive forces of globalization and modernization.  The paper traces the history of Puri Pemecutan’s gamelan gong gede both through historical documents and local legends, myths and anecdotal accounts. I observe that unlike any other gong gede on the island, the Pemecutan ensemble is still in its palace framework whose functionality as a luxury ensemble at the disposal of a single royal family has largely remained intact.