Indonesia - Bali: Homage to Wayan Lotring

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Compositions by Wayan Lotring, one of the greatest Balinese musicians of the first half of the 20th century, finally a part of the musical mythology in a country where the soul of an artist is nature's most coveted gift, and the most sacred that the gods can grant. Lotring was born in 1898; every night at the age of six he played with the members of his family and accompanied the performances of shadow theater. A few years later, he had a 'semar pegulingan' made which would become the most beautiful gamelan of Bali. Because the semar pegulingan is pure crystal, it's water that flows from the still limpid spring, it's the voice of the gods- gamelan once being reserved for princes, they were built with infinite care. Never before will one have heard a more beautiful, a more limpid, a more perfect one than his. In the 20s, his fame crossed borders and in 1936 he spent several weeks in Ceylon- in the meantime Asia had heard of him: the greatest Indian dancers made the trip to visit him, artists from Siam and even Japan met him, thus recognizing his reputation for being the greatest musician in the Far East of his time.