BALINESE MUSIC: FROM SHEER EXOTICISM TO ESSENTIAL INSTRUMENT OF DRAMATIC AND ARTISTIC REFLECTION IN THE WORKS OF BENJAMIN BRITTEN

Abstract

The works of Benjamin Britten, one of the leading figures in 20^th century British composition, reflect a subtle yet sustained engagement with the musical traditions of the Far East. Although Benjamin Britten cannot be considered an ethnomusicologist in the strict sense, he nonetheless adopted a receptive and intellectually engaged attitude toward Asian cultural traditions, particularly those of Indonesia. The present study investigates the impact of Balinese musical structures on the compositional syntax of Benjamin Britten, examining the ways in which these structures move beyond the framework of Western exoticism to become elements of a genuine transcultural syntax. Through detailed analysis of the technical and expressive mechanisms employed by the composer, this research seeks to demonstrate how such influences are integrated at both structural and aesthetic levels. Particular attention is devoted to the ballet The Prince of the Pagodas, a composition in which the influence of Balinese music in general – and of the gamelan in particular – is among the most explicit and readily discernible. These musical influences contribute to the construction of a ritualized dramaturgy in which time is perceived cyclically, and emotional expression is mediated through a symbolic, almost liturgical distance. The semantic and hermeneutic dimensions of the work reveal distinctive features, demonstrating that in The Prince of the Pagodas Benjamin Britten transforms his experience of Balinese music into a Western orchestral idiom. He employs repetitiveness, stratified texture, and rhythmic vitality of the gamelan not as mere imitation, but as a means of innovating and reshaping his own compositional language. Thus, music, conceived as a complex symbolic idiom, may function as a meditation on the human condition, on intercultural interaction, and on the transformative potential of artistic creation.