Gamelan
The term "gamelan" refers to various indigenous music ensembles of Java and Bali, the core instruments of which are usually drums, variously tuned bronze gongs, different sets of bronze metallophones, cymbals, and flutes. The bas-reliefs of some of the ancient Hindu and Buddhist temples in Central and East Java, dating from the eighth to fourteenth centuries CE, depict many examples of instruments similar to some of those used in contemporary gamelan orchestras, such as drums, flutes, small knobbed gongs, cymbals, and xylophones. Most contemporary instruments, however, are not represented on these reliefs. They actually much more resemble those used in traditional court orchestras throughout mainland Southeast Asia. The largest of the Javanese court gamelan, usually accompanying the sophisticated court dances (e.g., bedaya, serimpi, wayang wong) and shadow plays (wayang kulit), consist of various sets of metallophones (demung, sarong, slentem, gender), differently sized horizontally or vertically suspended gongs (kenong, kempyang, ketuk, bonang, gong), and spoon-shaped, cymbal-like instruments (kemanak) made of bronze, as well as drums (kendang), flutes (suling), plucked (celempung) and bowed (rebab) string instruments, xylophones (gambang kayu), and singing (pesinden, dalang).
In Bali, a variety of gamelan ensembles have been in use for centuries, both in village life and at the various courts, accompanying rituals as well as dance dramas and shadow plays. They, too, are usually different sets of bronze metallophones (gangsa, kantilan, calung, jegogan, gender), vertically and horizontally suspended gongs of different sizes (gong, kempur, kemong, kempli, reyong, trompong), cymbals (ceng-ceng), drums (kendang), and flutes (suling). Some of the ensemblesalso include a bowed string instrument (rebab) and singing.
Musicians perform in a gamelan orchestra in Bali. (CHRISTINE OSBORNE/CORBIS)Among the most conspicuous instruments of both the Javanese and Balinese gamelan are the various metallophones. Their bronze plates, struck with mallets, are vertically suspended over either a wooden resonance trough or resonance tubes made of bamboo. Each gamelan is unique in tone color and pitch, fine tuned by master gong-smiths in accordance with the seven-tone pelog tonal system, consisting of unequal intervals, or the five-tone slendro tonal system, consisting of equal intervals. Javanese gamelan are, in fact, composed of both a pelog and a slendro set of instruments, whereas in Bali the slendro scale is reserved for the ensembles (gender wayang) that accompany the shadow plays. Both pelog and slendro are determined by their respective relative intervals, that is, independently of absolute pitch. Each tonal system allows for different scales, which are classified according to different modes (in Java called patet and in Bali tetekep).
Further Reading
Bakan, Michael B. (1999) Music of Death and New Creation: Experiences in the World of Balinese Gamelan Beleganjur. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Hood, Mantle. (1984) The Evolution of Javanese Gamelan. Vol. 2: The Legacy of the Roaring Sea. New York: Edition Heinrichshofen and C. F. Peters.
——. (1954) The Nuclear Theme as a Determinant of Patet in Javanese Music. Groningen, Netherlands, and Jakarta, Indonesia: J. B. Wolters.
Kunst, Jaap. (1973) Music in Java: Its History, Its Theory, and Its Technique. The Hague, Netherlands: Martinus Nijhoff.
Suryabrata, Bernard. (1987) The Island of Music: An Essay in Social Musicology. Jakarta, Indonesia: Balai Pustaka.
Tenzer, Michael. (1991) Balinese Music. Berkeley: Periplus.
Toth, Andrew. (1980) Recordings of the Traditional Music of Bali and Lombok. Society of Ethnomusicology (Special Series no. 4).
Wisnusubroto, Sunardi. (1997) Sri Lestari: An Introduction to Gamelan. Yogyakarta, Indonesia: Gajah Mada University Press.
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