The music of Indonesia demonstrates its cultural diversity, the local musical creativity, as well as subsequent foreign musical influences that shaped contemporary music scenes of Indonesia. Nearly thousands of Indonesian islands having its own cultural and artistic history and character.^[1] This results in hundreds of different forms of music, which often accompanies by dance and theatre.

Balinese dance-drama that employs a gamelan suara (gamelan of voices) as its sole musical accompaniment; music features complex interlocking rhythms derived from the kiloton telu atma Human soul (in Hinduism, Balinese Agama Tirta). Gamelan is a style of traditional music originated in the island of Java in Indonesia and representing part of a larger Southeast Asian 'gong-chime culture'.

The musics of Java, Sumatra, Bali, Flores and other islands have been documented and recorded,and research by Indonesian and international scholars is ongoing. The music in Indonesia predates historical records, various Native Indonesian tribes often incorporate chants and songs accompanied with musics instruments in their rituals. Today the contemporary music of Indonesia is popular in the region, including neighbouring countries; Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei.^[2]

Traditional regional musics and songs of Indonesia natively compromises of strong beat and harmony type musics with strong influence of California and Malay classical music. The influence is strongly visible in the traditional popular music genre of Dangdut.

• 1Musical instruments
• 2Genres
• 3Contemporary music

Musical instruments[edit]

The musical identity of Indonesia as we know it today began as the Bronze Age culture migrated to the Indonesian archipelago in the 2nd-3rd century BC.^[3] Traditional musics of Indonesian tribes often uses percussion instruments, especially gendang (drums) and gongs. Some of them developed elaborate and distinctive musical instruments, such as sasando string instrument of Rote island, angklung of Sundanese people, and the complex and sophisticated gamelan orchestra of Java and Bali.

Gamelan[edit]

The most popular and famous form of Indonesian music is probably gamelan, an ensemble of tuned percussion instruments that include metallophones, drums, gongs and spike fiddles along with bambooflutes. Similar ensembles are prevalent throughout Indonesia and Malaysia, however gamelan is originated from Java, Bali, and Lombok.

In the Central Java, gamelan is intricate and meticulously laid out. The central melody is played on a metallophone in the centre of the orchestra, while the front elaboration and ornamentation on the melody, and, at the back, the gongs slowly punctuate the music. There are two tuning systems. Each gamelan is tuned to itself, and the intervals between notes on the scale vary between ensembles. The metallophones cover four octaves, and include types like the slenthem, demung, saron panerus and balungan. The soul of the gamelan is believed to reside in the large gong, or gong ageng. Other gongs are tuned to each note of the scale and include ketuk, kenong and kempul. The front section of the orchestra is diverse, and includes rebab, suling, siter, bonang and gambang. Male choruses (gerong) and female (pesindhen) solo vocalists are common.

With the arrival of the Dutch colonisers, a number system called kepatihan was developed to record the music. Music and dance at the time were divided into several styles based on the main courts in the area—Surakarta, Yogyakarta, Pakualaman and Mangkunegaran.

Gamelan from eastern Java is less well-known than central or western parts of the island. Perhaps most distinctive of the area is the extremely large gamyak drum. In West Java, formerly Sunda, has several types of gamelan. Gamelan Degung, gamelan salendro and tembang sunda are three primary types. The Osing Javanese minority in eastern Java are known for social music for weddings and other celebrations called gandrung, as well as angklung, played by young amateur boys, which is very similar to Balinese gamelan.

Kecapi suling[edit]

Kecapi suling is a type of instrumental music that is highly improvisational and popular in parts of West Java that employs two instruments, kecapi (zither) and suling (bamboo flute). It is related to tembang sunda.

Angklung[edit]

Angklung is a bamboo musical instrument native to Sundanese people of West Java. It is made out of bamboo tubes attached to a bamboo frame. The tubes are carved so that they have a distinctive resonant pitch when being vibrated. Each angklung only plays one note.

Kulintang[edit]

Kolintang or kulintang is a bronze and wooden percussion instrument native to eastern Indonesia and also The Philippines. In Indonesia it is particularly associated with Minahasa people of North Sulawesi, however it also popular in Maluku and Timor.

Sasando[edit]

Sasando is a plucked string instrument native of Rote island of East Nusa Tenggara. The parts of sasando are a bamboo cylinder surrounded by several wedges where the strings are stretched, surrounded by a bag-like fan of dried lontar or palmyra leaves (Borassus flabellifer), functioned as the resonator of the instrument.

Tapanuli ogong[edit]

Musical performance from Tapanuli area of North Sumatra. Tapanuli ogong is a form of dance music played with a type of lute, trumpet and flute.

Genres[edit]

The diverse world of Indonesian music genres was the result of the musical creativity of its people, and also the subsequent cultural encounters with foreign musical influences into the archipelago. Next to distinctive native form of musics, several genres can traces its origin to foreign influences; such as gambus and qasidah from Middle Eastern Islamic music, keroncong from Portuguese influences, and dangdut with notable Hindi music influence.

Folk music[edit]

Indonesian regional folk pop musics reflects the diversity of Indonesian culture and Indonesian ethnicity, mostly use local languages and a mix of western and regional style music and instruments. Indonesian folk music is quite diverse, and today embraces pop, rock, house, hip hop and other genres, as well as distinct Indonesian forms. There are several kinds of 'ethnic' pop music, generally grouped together as Pop Daerah (regional pop). These include Pop sunda, Pop Minang, Pop Batak, Pop Melayu, Pop Ambon, Pop Minahasa and others. Other than featuring the legacy of Lagu Daerah (regional traditional songs) of each regional cultures, the musician might also create some new compositions in their own native language.

Tembang Cianjuran Sunda[edit]

Characteristics Of Indonesian Gamelan Music

Tembang sunda, also called 'seni mamaos cianjuran', or just cianjuran, is a form of sung poetry which arose in the colonial-era of Cianjur. It was first known as an aristocratic art; one cianjuran composer was R.A.A. Kusumahningrat (Dalem Pancaniti), ruler of Cianjur (1834–1862). The instruments of Cianjuran are kacapi indung, kacapi rincik and suling or bamboo flute, and rebab for salendro compositions. The lyrics are typically sung in free verse, but a more modern version, panambih, is metrical. It is usually the drums.

Jaipongan[edit]

Jaipongan is a very complex rhythmic dance music from the Sundanese people of western Java. The rhythm is liable to change seemingly randomly, making dancing difficult for most listeners. Its instruments are entirely Sundanese, completely without imported instruments. It was invented by artists like Gugum Gumbira after Sukarno prohibited rock and roll and other western genres in the 1960s.

Gambus[edit]

Gambus literally means oud, referring to a type of lute or 12-string pear-shaped guitar, is the Middle-Eastern-derived Islamic vocal and instrumental music. These traditions began to be incorporated throughout many areas of Indonesia by the 16th century.

Qasidah modern[edit]

Qasidah is an ancient Arabic word for religious poetry accompanied by chanting and percussion. Qasidah modern adapts this for pop audiences. It is used to denote a type of orchestra and the music it plays, believed to be introduced by Muslim settlers from Yemen. Qasidah modern were derived from Islamic pop, adding local dialects and lyrics that address Indonesian contemporary issues. Though popular among Arabs in Indonesia, it has gained little popularity elsewhere.

The contemporary form of Islamic Middle eastern influenced musics in Indonesia is exemplified by the band Debu, that featuring sufism approach on music to spread their message.

Kroncong[edit]

Kroncong (alternative spelling: Keroncong) has been evolving since the arrival of the Portuguese, who brought with them European instruments. By the early 1900s, it was considered a low-class urban music. This changed in the 1930s, when the rising Indonesian film industry began incorporating kroncong. And then even more so in the mid- to late 1940s, it became associated with the struggle for independence.

Perhaps the most famous song in the kroncong style is Bengawan Solo, written in 1940 by Gesang Martohartono, a Solonese musician. Written during the Japanese Imperial Army occupation of the island in World War II, the song (about the Bengawan Solo River, Java's longest and most important river) became widely popular among the Javanese, and then later nationally when recordings were broadcast over the local radio stations. The song also became quite popular with the Japanese soldiers, and when they returned to Japan at the end of the war re-recordings of it (by Japanese artists) became best-sellers. Over the years it has been re-released many times by notable artists, mainly within Asia but also beyond (like Anneke Grönloh), and in some places it is seen as typifying Indonesian music. Gesang himself remains the most renowned exponent of the style, which although it is seen now as a somewhat starchy and 'dated' form is still popular among large segments of the population, particularly the older generation.

After World War II and during Indonesian National Revolution (1945–1949) and afterwards, kroncong was associated with patriotism, since many of Indonesian poets and patriotic songs authors uses kroncong and somewhat jazz fusion as the genre of their works. The patriotic theme and romantic wartime romance was obvious in the works of Ismail Marzuki, such as Rayuan Pulau Kelapa, Indonesia Pusaka, Sepasang Mata Bola, Keroncong Serenata and Juwita Malam. These patriotic songs can be sung in hymn or even in orchestra, but most often was sung in kroncong style known as kroncong perjuangan (struggle kroncong). The kroncong divas; Waldjinah, Sundari Sukoco and Hetty Koes Endang, was instrumental in reviving the style in the 1980s.

Langgam Jawa or Tembang Jawa

There is a style of kroncong native to Surakarta (Solo) called langgam jawa, which fuses kroncong with the gamelan seven-note scale.

Gambang Kromong

Early in the 20th century, kroncong was used in a type of theatre called Komedi Stambul; adapted for this purpose, the music was called gambang kromong. Gambang kromong is quite prevalent in Betawi culture of Jakarta.

Dangdut[edit]

Dangdut is a popular traditional music genre of Indonesia which is partly derived of Indian, Arab, and Malay music. It consists of melodious and harmonical music with the main Tabla as the percussion beat especially in the classical dangdut versions. It was originally an Indonesian dance music that has spread throughout Southeast Asia, became the dominant pop style in the mid-1970s. Famous for its throbbing beat and the slightly moralistic lyrics that appeal to youth, dangdut stars dominate the modern pop scene. However dangdut—especially performed by female singers—also often featuring suggestive dance movements and naughty lyrics to appeal the larger audience. This development was strongly opposed by the conservative older generation dangdut artist.

Dangdut is based around the singers, and stars include Rhoma Irama and Elvy Sukaesih (the King and Queen of Dangdut), Mansyur S., A. Rafiq, Camelia Malik and Fahmy Shahab; along with Cici Paramida, Evie Tamala, Inul Daratista, Julia Perez and Dewi Perssik from younger generation.

Campursari[edit]

A musical fusion style of traditional Javanese music and dangdut that prevalent in Javanese cultural sphere, mainly Central Java, Yogyakarta and East Java. There is also Sundanese version of campursari prevalent in Bandung region of West Java. Perhaps its greatest current artist is Didi Kempot.

Contemporary music[edit]

The contemporary music of Indonesia is diverse and vibrant.^{[according to whom?]} Throughout its history, Indonesian musicians were open to foreign influences of various music genres of the world. American jazz was heavily marketed in Asia, and foxtrots, tangos, rumbas, blues and Hawaiian guitar styles were all imitated by Indonesian musicians.^[4] As the result, various genres were developed within Indonesian music frame: Indonesian pop, rock, jazz, and hip hop.

Indonesian music also plays a vital role in the Indonesian creative pop culture,^{[according to whom?]} especially as the soundtracks or theme songs of Indonesian cinema and sinetrons (Indonesian TV drama). Indonesian film Badai Pasti Berlalu (1977) were also produced successful soundtrack hit with same title in the same year, the soundtrack was remade in 1999 with Chrisye as the main singer and rendered by Erwin Gutawa in orchestra style. In 2007 the film was remade again with a new soundtrack that still features same songs performed by younger generation artist. Another popular Indonesian coming of age teen movie Ada Apa Dengan Cinta (2002) also produced successful soundtrack hits with most songs written and performed by Melly Goeslaw.

Today Indonesian music industry enjoys nationwide popularity. Thanks to common culture and intelligible languages between Indonesian and Malay, Indonesian music enjoyed regional popularity in neighbouring countries such as Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei. However the overwhelming popularity of Indonesian music in Malaysia had alarmed the Malaysian music industry. In 2008 Malaysian music industry demanded the restriction of Indonesian songs on Malaysian radio broadcasts.^[5]

Orchestra[edit]

Western classical music reached Indonesia in the era of Dutch East Indies as early as the 18th century, but it was enjoyed only by a handful of wealthy Dutch plantation owners and officers in elite social clubs and ballrooms such as Societeit Harmonie in Batavia and Societeit Concordia in Bandung. De Schouwburg van Batavia (today Gedung Kesenian Jakarta) was designed as a concert hall in the 19th century. Classical music has been restricted to the refined, wealthy and educated high class citizen, and never penetrated the rest of the population during the East Indies colonial era.^{[citation needed]} The type of western-derived music that transcended the social barrier at that time was Kroncong, known as lower-class music.

An amateur group called Bataviasche Philharmonic Orchestra was established in Dutch colonial times. It became the NIROM orchestra when the radio broadcasting station Nederlandsch-Indische Radio Omroep Maatschappij was born in 1912. Today it is known as Jakarta Symphony Orchestra that has existed in the country's musical world for almost a century through its changing formats to suit prevailing trends and needs. In 1950, a merger of the Cosmopolitan Orchestra under Joel Cleber and the Jakarta Studio Orchestra under Sutedjo and Iskandar appeared as the Djakarta Radio Orchestra under Henkie Strake for classical repertoires, and the Jakarta Studio Orchestra led by Syaiful Bachri specialised in Indonesian pieces. In 2010 Jakarta Symphony Orchestra staged a comeback after a fairly long absence.^[6]

In the 1960s to 1980s classical music in Indonesia aired mainly by the national radio broadcasting service Radio Republik Indonesia (RRI) and the national TV station Televisi Republik Indonesia (TVRI) through their programs. During these decade, the classical orchestra mainly developed in Universities as extracurricular activity for students which include choir. In the 1990s the group of professional symphony orchestra start to take form, notably The Twilite Orchestra led by Adie MS, was founded in June 1991, initially an ensemble with 20 musicians. The ensemble has developed since then into a full symphonic orchestra with 70 musicians, a 63-member Twilite Chorus, and a repertoire that ranges from Beethoven to The Beatles.^[7] The orchestra has played a role in promoting Indonesian music, especially in the preservation of national songs by Indonesian composers and traditional songs. Aided by the Victorian Philharmonic Orchestra with the Twilite Chorus, Addie MS re-recorded the Indonesian national anthem, Indonesia Raya, by WR Supratman in its original orchestral arrangement by Jos Cleber, as well as other Indonesian popular national songs in the album Simfoni Negeriku.

The Indonesian composer who is considered most prominent and well-known worldwide in the classical / contemporary music is Ananda Sukarlan (born 1968), with many orchestral works, chamber and instrumental. His most celebrated works are a series of virtuosic Rapsodia Nusantara for piano solo, with musical motifs based on Indonesian folktunes. He has written works for musicians such as from the Boston Symphony Orchestra, violinist Midori Goto etc., and his works are widely performed worldwide

Today, major cities like Jakarta, Bandung, Yogyakarta, Surabaya, Medan and Batam are no strangers to orchestral music, with their own symphony groups. Jakarta, for instance, has its Nusantara Symphony Orchestra, the Twilite Orchestra and the Jakarta Chamber Orchestra.

Pop[edit]

Indonesian pop music today, known simply as 'pop Indonesia' is heavily influenced by trends and recordings from America,^[8] Britain, Japan, and Korea. Although influences ranging from American pop, British pop, and also Asian J-pop and K-pop are obvious, the Indonesian pop phenomena is not completely derivative; it expresses the sentiments and styles of contemporary Indonesian life.

Koes Bersaudara later formed as Koes Plus is considered as one of the pioneer of Indonesian pop and rock 'n roll music in the 1960s and 1970s. The American and British music influences were obvious in the music of Koes Bersaudara, The Beatles were known to be the main influences of this band. Several Indonesian pop and ballad singers were survived through decades and become Indonesian music legends, such as Iwan Fals and Chrisye. One of the most influential Indonesian singers in pop music scene, especially during early 2000, is Agnes Monica, who had later known as Agnez Mo.

Today, the popular bands include Peterpan, Radja, Gigi, Padi, Dewa 19, Sheila on 7, D'Masiv and Nidji, all of which tour regularly in Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia and are featured on MTV Asia.

Some of Indonesian pop bands are rekindled with their Malay roots and revived a genre called 'Band Pop Melayu' (Pop Malay Band) and popular in the late 2000s. The pop Malay bands include ST 12.

Later, Indie's group band and another new music group grown especially from big cities like Killing Me Inside, and frau.

The most recent foreign influences on Indonesian pop musics are the style and genre of J-pop and K-pop. Several bands such as J-Rocks are imitating the style of Japan and Korea pop culture. And also spreading a new generation of Girl Band, side effect while boy bands founded in Indonesia, such a 7icons and Cherrybelle also Indonesia have Idol Group JKT48 which is first overseas idol group from Japan, AKB48.

Rock[edit]

Just like pop music, Indonesian rock scene also was heavily influenced by the development of rock music in America. The most influential Indonesian rock bands was probably Panbers that was popular in the 1970s and 1980s. In the late 1980s to mid-1990s several female rock singers popularly known as 'Lady Rockers' were famous in Indonesia, such as Nicky Astria and Anggun who started her career in as a pop-rock singer in Indonesia before moving to France and pursue her international career. Other notable rock bands include Slank and Jamrud.

Jazz fusion[edit]

Some of Indonesian musicians and bands were exploring the jazz music. Notable Indonesian jazz musicians include Maliq & D'Essentials. Various other groups fuse contemporary westernised jazz fusion music with the traditional ethnic music traditions of their hometown. In the case of Krakatau and SambaSunda, the bands from West Java, the traditional Sundanese kacapi suling and gamelan orchestra is performed alongside drum set, keyboard and guitars. The Jakarta International Java Jazz Festival is performed annually.

Notable contemporary musicians[edit]

• Harry Roesli (1950s–1970s)
• The Tielman Brothers, Eurasians originally from Indonesia who gained popularity in Europe. Their style is called Indorock, after the colonial term used for Eurasians: Indo-European, shortened to Indo.

See also[edit]

References[edit]

1. ^Indonesian Geography http://countrystudies.us/indonesia/28.htm
2. ^MyIndo KC Ismail: Muzik Indonesia lebih progresif dari muzik Malaysia (in Malay)
3. ^Asia SoundArchived 4 September 2011 at the Wayback Machine
4. ^National Geographic Indonesian Pop MusicArchived 4 January 2011 at the Wayback Machine
5. ^Malaysian music industry wants Indonesian songs restrictedArchived 24 December 2009 at the Wayback Machine
6. ^Jakarta Symphony Orchestra returns
7. ^OrchestraArchived 4 October 2011 at the Wayback Machine
8. ^National Geographic Indonesian Pop MusicArchived 4 January 2011 at the Wayback Machine

• Bass, Colin. 'No Risk -- No Fun!'. 2000. In Broughton, Simon and Ellingham, Mark with McConnachie, James and Duane, Orla (Ed.), World Music, Vol. 2: Latin & North America, Caribbean, India, Asia and Pacific, pp 131-142. Rough Guides Ltd, Penguin Books. ISBN978-1-85828-636-5
• Heaton, Jenny and Steptoe, Simon. 'A Storm of Bronze'. 2000. In Broughton, Simon and Ellingham, Mark with McConnachie, James and Duane, Orla (Ed.), World Music, Vol. 2: Latin & North America, Caribbean, India, Asia and Pacific, pp 117–130. Rough Guides Ltd, Penguin Books. ISBN978-1-85828-636-5

External links[edit]

• (in French)Audio clips: Traditional music of Indonesia.Musée d'ethnographie de Genève. Accessed 25 November 2010.
• BBC TV channel 3 Audio (60 minutes): Music of Bali. Accessed 25 November 2010.
• BBC Radio 3 Audio (60 minutes): Java, Jakarta to Solo. Accessed 25 November 2010.

Gamelan (/ˈɡæməlæn/^[1]) is the traditionalensemble music of Javanese, Sundanese, and Balinese in Indonesia, made up predominantly of percussive instruments. The most common instruments used are metallophones played by mallets and a set of hand-played drums called kendhang which register the beat. Also the kemanak, a banana shaped idiophone and gangsa, another metallaphone are amongst the commonly used gamelan instruments. Other instruments include xylophones, bamboo flutes, a bowed instrument called a rebab, and even vocalists named sindhen.^[2]

Although the popularity of gamelan has declined since the introduction of pop music, gamelan is still commonly played on formal occasions and in many traditional Indonesian ceremonies. For most Indonesians, gamelan is an integral part of Indonesian culture.^[3]

• 13Further reading

Terminology[edit]

The word gamelan comes from the low Javanese word gamel, which may refer to a type of mallet used to strike instruments or the act of striking with a mallet.^[2][4] The term karawitan refers to classical gamelan music and performance practice, and comes from the word rawit, meaning 'intricate' or 'finely worked'.^[4] The word derives from the Javanese word of Sanskrit origin, rawit, which refers to the sense of smoothness and elegance idealized in Javanese music. Another word from this root, pangrawit, means a person with such sense, and is used as an honorific when discussing esteemed gamelan musicians. The high Javanese word for gamelan is gangsa, formed either from the words tembaga and rejasa referring to the materials used in bronze gamelan construction (copper and tin), or tiga and sedasa referring to their proportions (three and ten).^[5]

History[edit]

Indonesian Gamelan Music Facts

The gamelan predates the Hindu-Buddhist culture that dominated Indonesia in its earliest records and thus represents an indigenous art form. In contrast to the heavy Indian influence in other art forms, the only obvious Indian influence in gamelan music is in the Javanese style of singing, and in the themes of the Wayang kulit (shadow puppet plays).^[6]

In Javanese mythology, the gamelan was created by Sang Hyang Guru in Saka era 167 (c. AD 230), the god who ruled as king of all Java from a palace on the Maendra mountain in Medang Kamulan (now Mount Lawu). He needed a signal to summon the gods and thus invented the gong. For more complex messages, he invented two other gongs, thus forming the original gamelan set.^[7]

The earliest image of a musical ensemble is found on the bas-relief of 8th century Buddhist monument of Borobudur, Central Java.^[8] The Borobudur's musicians play lute-like stringed instruments, kendang drums, suling flutes, small cymbals and bells. Some of these musical instruments are indeed included in a complete gamelan orchestra. Musical instruments such as the bamboo flute, bells, drums in various sizes, lute, and bowed and plucked string instruments were identified in this image. However it lacks metallophones and xylophones. Nevertheless, the image of this musical ensemble is suggested to be the ancient form of the gamelan.

The instruments developed into their current form during the Majapahit Empire.^[9] According to the inscriptions and manuscripts dated from the Majapahit period, the kingdom even had a government office in charge of supervising the performing arts, including the gamelan. The arts office oversaw the construction of musical instruments, as well as scheduling performances at the court.^[8]

In the palaces of Java the oldest known ensembles, Gamelan Munggang and Gamelan Kodok Ngorek, are apparently from the 12th century. These formed the basis of a 'loud style' of music. In contrast, a 'soft style' developed out of the kemanak tradition and is related to the traditions of singing Javanese poetry, in a manner often believed to be similar to the chorus that accompanies the modern bedhaya dance. In the 17th century, these loud and soft styles mixed, and to a large extent the variety of modern gamelan styles of Bali, Java, and Sunda resulted from different ways of mixing these elements. Thus, despite the seeming diversity of styles, many of the same theoretical concepts, instruments, and techniques are shared between the styles.^[10]

Instruments[edit]

A gamelan is a multi-timbre ensemble consisting of metallophones, xylophones, flutes, gongs, voices, as well as bowed and plucked strings. The hand-played drum called kendhang controls the tempo and rhythm of pieces as well as transitions from one section to another, while one instrument gives melodic cues to indicate treatment or sections of a piece. Some of the instruments that make up a gamelan in present-day Central Java are shown below:^[11][12]

• Instruments

• Bonang

• Gong

• Kendang

• Kenong/Kethuk

• Peking

• Saron

• Slenthem

Varieties[edit]

Varieties of gamelan are distinguished by their collection of instruments and use of voice, tunings, repertoire, style, and cultural context. In general, no two gamelan ensembles are the same, and those that arose in prestigious courts are often considered to have their own style and tuning. Certain styles may also be shared by nearby ensembles, leading to a regional style.

The varieties are generally grouped geographically, with the principal division between the styles favored by the Balinese, Javanese, and Sundanese peoples. The Madurese also had their own style of gamelan, although it is no longer in use, and the last orchestra is kept at the Sumenep palace.^[13] One important style of Sundanese gamelan is Gamelan Degung, which uses a subset of gamelan instruments with a particular mode of pelog scale. Balinese gamelan is often associated with the virtuosity and rapid changes of tempo and dynamics of Gamelan gong kebyar, its best-known style. Other popular Balinese styles include Kecak, a theatrical dance and music form also known as the 'monkey chant.' Javanese gamelan, largely dominated by the courts of the 19th century central Javanese rulers, each with its own style, is known for a slower, more meditative quality than the gamelan music of Bali. Javanese gamelan can be made from iron or brass; instruments made of cast bronze are considered the best quality.

Outside the main core on Java and Bali, gamelan has spread through migration and cultural interest, new styles sometimes resulting as well. Malay Gamelan comes from the Javanese tradition through Riau-Lingga which later formed its own distinct identity, using fewer instruments tuned in a near-equidistant slendro, and often using a western B♭ or C as a tuning basis. Javanese emigrants to Suriname play gamelan in a style close to that found in Central Javanese villages. Gamelan is also related to the Filipinokulintang ensemble. The variety of gamelan can befound in over 25 countries outside Indonesia, presenting both traditional and experimental repertoire.

In oral Javanese culture distinctions are made between complete or incomplete, archaic and modern, and large standard and small village gamelan. The various archaic ensembles are distinguished by their unique combinations of instruments and possession of obsolete instruments such as the bell-tree (byong) in the 3-toned gamelan kodhok ngorek. Regionally variable village gamelan are often distinguished from standard gamelan (which have the rebab as the main melodic instrument) by their inclusion of a double-reed wind (selompret, slompret, or sompret) in addition to variable drum and gong components, with some also including the shaken bamboo angklung.^[14]

• Variants

• Sundanese Gamelan Degung being played in Museo Nacional de las Culturas Mexico, Indra Swara group

• Javanese gamelan being played in Keraton Yogyakarta

• Javanese gamelan being played in Surakarta, Central Java

• Balinese women gamelan Gong Kebyar

• Balinese gamelan being played in Kuta

Cultural context[edit]

In Indonesia, gamelan often accompanies dance, wayang puppet performances, or rituals and ceremonies. Typically players in the gamelan will be familiar with dance moves and poetry, while dancers are able to play in the ensemble.^[15] In wayang, the dalang (puppeteer) must have a thorough knowledge of gamelan, as he gives the cues for the music. Gamelan can be performed by itself – in 'klenengan' style, or for radio broadcasts – and concerts presentation are common in national arts conservatories founded in the middle of the 20th century.^[16]

Gamelan's role in rituals is so important that there is a Javanese saying, 'It is not official until the gong is hung'.^[17] Some performances are associated with royalty, such as visits by the sultan of Yogyakarta. Certain gamelans are associated with specific rituals, such as the Gamelan Sekaten, which is used in celebration of Mawlid an-Nabi (Muhammad's birthday). In Bali, almost all religious rituals include gamelan performance. Gamelan is also used in the ceremonies of the Catholic church in Indonesia.^[18] Certain pieces are designated for starting and ending performances or ceremonies. When an 'ending' piece (such as 'Udan Mas') is begun, the audience will know that the event is nearly finished and will begin to leave. Certain pieces are also believed to possess magic powers, and can be used to ward off evil spirits.^[17]

Gamelan is frequently played on the radio. For example, the Pura Pakualaman gamelan performs live on the radio every Minggu Pon (a day in the 35-day cycle of the Javanese calendar).^[17] In major towns, the Radio Republik Indonesia employs professional musicians and actors, and broadcast programs of a wide variety of gamelan music and drama.^[19]

In the court tradition of central Java, gamelan is often played in the pendopo, an open pavilion with a cavernous, double-pitched roof, no side walls, and a hard marble or tile floor. The instruments are placed on a platform to one side, which allows the sound to reverberate in the roof space and enhances the acoustics.^[20]

In Bali, the Gamelan instruments are all kept together in a balé, a large open space with a roof over the top of it and several open sides. Gambelan (the Balinese term) are owned by a banjar, nobility or temples and kept in their respective compounds.

In case of banjar ownership the instruments are all kept there together because people believe that all the instruments belong to the community as a whole and that no one person has ownership over an instrument. Not only is this where the instruments are stored, but this is also the practice space for the sekaha (Gamelan orchestra group). The open walls allow for the music to flow out into the community where the rest of the people may enjoy it. Balinese gamelan cannot be heard inside closed rooms, because it easily crosses the threshold of pain. This does not apply to small ensembles like a gamelan gendér.

The sekaha is led by a single instructor whose job it is in the community to lead this group and to come up with new pieces. When they are working on a new piece, the instructor will lead the group in practice and help the group form the new music as they are practicing. When the instructor creates a new song, he leaves enough open for interpretation that the group can improvise, so the group will write the music as they practice it.

There are many styles in Balinese gamelan. Kebyar is one of the most recent ones. Some Balinese gamelan groups constantly change their music by taking older pieces they know and mixing them together, as well as trying new variations of the music. Their music constantly changes because they believe that music should grow and change; the only exception to this is with their most sacred songs which they do not change. A single new piece of music can take several months before it is completed.

Men and women usually perform in separate groups, with the exception in Java of the pesindhen, the female singer who performs with male groups.^[19]

In the twenty-five countries outside Indonesia that have gamelan, music performed in a concert context or as part of ceremonies for expat communities^[21] may also accompany dance or wayang.

Tuning[edit]

The tuning and construction of a gamelan orchestra is a complex process.^[22] Javanese gamelan use two tuning systems: sléndro and pélog. There are other tuning systems such as degung (exclusive to Sunda, or West Java, similar with Japanese ryukyuan scale), and madenda (similar to a Japanese hirajoshi scale). In central Javanese gamelan, sléndro is a system with five notes to the octave, with large intervals, while pélog has seven notes to the octave, with uneven intervals, usually played in five note subsets of the seven-tone collection. A full gamelan will include a set of instruments in each tuning, and classically only one tuning is used at a time. The precise tuning used differs from ensemble to ensemble, and gives each ensemble its own particular flavour. A set of gamelan instruments will be tuned to the same set of notes, but the tuning will vary from one gamelan to the next, including variations in the size of intervals.

Colin McPhee , a Canadian composer who spent much time in Bali, remarked, 'Deviations in what is considered the same scale are so large that one might with reason state that there are as many scales as there are gamelans.'^[23] This view is contested, however, by some teachers of gamelan, and there have been efforts to combine multiple ensembles and tuning structures into one gamelan to ease transportation at festival time. One such ensemble is gamelan Manikasanti, which can play the repertoire of many different ensembles.

Balinese gamelan instruments are built in pairs that are tuned slightly apart to produce interference beats, ideally at a consistent speed for all pairs of notes in all registers. This concept is referred to as 'ombak,' translating to 'wave,' communicating the idea of cyclical undulation. One instrument, tuned slightly higher, is thought of as the 'inhale,' and the other, slightly lower, is called the 'exhale.' [Also called the 'blower' and the 'sucker,' or pengimbang and pengisep in Bali.] When the inhale and the exhale are combined, beating is produced, meant to represent the beating of the heart, or the symbol of being alive. It is thought that this contributes to the 'shimmering' sound of Balinese gamelan ensembles. In the religious ceremonies that contain gamelan, these interference beats are meant to give the listener a feeling of a god's presence or a stepping stone to a meditative state. The scale roughly approximates that of the phrygian mode of the Western major scale (E-E on the white keys of the piano), with the notes EFGBC corresponding to the note positions 12356 in the slendro scale used by most gamelan.^[24]

In addition to non-western scales, Javanese gamelan uses a combination of tempo and density known as Irama, relating how many beats on the saron panerus instrument there are to notes in the core melody or balungan; density is considered primary.^[25]

Notation[edit]

Gamelan music is traditionally not notated and began as an oral tradition. In the 19th century, however, the kraton (palaces) of Yogyakarta and Surakarta developed distinct notations for transcribing the repertoire. These were not used to read the music, which was memorized, but to preserve pieces in the court records. The Yogyanese notation is a checkerboard notation, which uses six or seven vertical lines to represent notes of higher pitch in the balungan (melodic framework), and horizontal lines which represent the series of beats, read downward with time. The fourth vertical line and every fourth horizontal line (completing a gatra) are darkened for legibility. Symbols on the left indicate the colotomic or metric structure of gongs and so forth, while specific drum features are notated in symbols to the right. The Solonese notation reads horizontally, like Western notation, but does not use barlines. Instead, note values and rests are squiggled between the notes.^[26]

Today this notation is relatively rare, and has been replaced by kepatihan notation, which is a cipher system. Kepatihan notation developed around 1900 at the kepatihan Palace in Surakarta, which had become a high-school conservatory. The pitches are numbered (see the articles on the scales slendro and pélog for an explanation of how), and are read across with dots below or above the numbers indicating the register, and lines above notes showing time values; In vocal notation, there are also brackets under groups of notes to indicate melisma. Like the palace notation, however, Kepatihan records mostly the balungan part and its metric phrases as marked by a variety of gongs. The other parts are created in real time, and depend on the knowledge each musician has of his instrument, and his awareness of what others are playing; this 'realization' is sometimes called 'garap.' Some teachers have also devised certain notations, generally using kepatihan principles, for the cengkok (melodic patterns) of the elaborating instruments. Some ethnomusicologists, trained in European music, may make transcriptions onto a Western staff. This entails particular challenges of tuning and time, sometimes resulting in unusual clefs.^[27]

Influence on Western music[edit]

The gamelan has been appreciated by several western composers of classical music, most famously Claude Debussy who heard a Javanese gamelan in the premiere of Louis-Albert Bourgault-Ducoudray's Rhapsodie Cambodgienne at the Paris Exposition of 1889 (World's Fair). The work had been written seven years earlier in 1882, but received its premiere only in 1889. The gamelan Debussy heard in it was in the slendro scale and was played by Central Javanese musicians.^[28] Despite his enthusiasm, direct citations of gamelan scales, melodies, rhythms, or ensemble textures have not been located in any of Debussy's own compositions. However, the equal-tempered whole tone scale appears in his music of this time and afterward,^[29] and a Javanese gamelan-like heterophonic texture is emulated on occasion, particularly in 'Pagodes', from Estampes (solo piano, 1903), in which the great gong's cyclic punctuation is symbolized by a prominent perfect fifth.

The composer Erik Satie, an influential contemporary of Debussy, also heard the Javanese gamelan play at the Paris Exposition of 1889. The repetitively hypnotic effects of the gamelan were incorporated into Satie's exotic Gnossienne set for piano.^[30]

Direct homages to gamelan music are to be found in works for western instruments by John Cage, particularly his prepared piano pieces, Colin McPhee, Lou Harrison, Béla Bartók, Francis Poulenc, Olivier Messiaen, Pierre Boulez, Bronislaw Kaper and Benjamin Britten. In more recent times, American composers such as Henry Brant, Steve Reich, Philip Glass, Dennis Murphy, Loren Nerell, Michael Tenzer, Evan Ziporyn, Daniel James Wolf and Jody Diamond as well as Australian composers such as Peter Sculthorpe, Andrew Schultz and Ross Edwards have written several works with parts for gamelan instruments or full gamelan ensembles. I Nyoman Windha is among contemporary Indonesian composers that have written compositions using western instruments along with Gamelan. Hungarian composer György Ligeti wrote a piano étude called Galamb Borong influenced by gamelan. Avant-garde composer Harry Partch, one of America's most idiosyncratic composers, was also influenced by Gamelan, both in his microtonal compositions and the instruments he built for their performance^[31]

In jazz, the music of Don Cherry, especially his 1968 record Eternal Rhythm, shows influences of gamelan music.

American folk guitarist John Fahey included elements of gamelan in many of his late-1960s sound collages, and again in his 1997 collaboration with Cul de Sac, The Epiphany of Glenn Jones. Influenced by gamelan,^[32]Robert Fripp and Adrian Belew used rhythmically interlocking guitars in their duets with each other in the 1981–1984 trilogy of albums (Discipline, Beat, Three of a Perfect Pair) by rock band King Crimson^[33][34] and with The League of Crafty Guitarists.^[35] The gamelan has also been used by British multi-instrumentalist Mike Oldfield at least three times, 'Woodhenge' (1979), 'The Wind Chimes (Part II)' (1987) and 'Nightshade' (2005).

On the debut EP of Sonic Youth the track 'She's not Alone' has a gamelan timbre. Experimental pop groups The Residents, 23 Skidoo (whose 1984 album was even titled Urban Gamelan), Mouse on Mars, His Name Is Alive, Xiu Xiu, Macha, Saudade, The Raincoats and the Sun City Girls have used gamelan percussion. Avant-garde performance band Melted Men uses Balinese gamelan instruments as well as gamelan-influenced costumes and dance in their shows. The Moodswinger built by Yuri Landman gives gamelan–like clock and bell sounds, because of its 3rd bridge construction. Indonesian-Dutch composer Sinta Wullur has integrated Western music and gamelan for opera.

Influence on contemporary music[edit]

In contemporary Indonesian music scene, some groups fuse contemporary westernized jazz fusion music with the legacy of traditional ethnic music traditions. In the case of Krakatau and SambaSunda, the bands from West Java, the traditional Sundanese kacapi suling and gamelan degung Sunda orchestra is performed alongside drum set, keyboard and guitars. Other bands such as Bossanova Java fused Javanese music with bossa nova, while the Kulkul band fuse jazz with Balinese gamelan.

The Indonesian singer Anggun often incorporated in her works Indonesian traditional tunes from the gamelan and tembang style of singing. Typical gamelan tunes can be traced in several songs in her album Snow on the Sahara such as 'Snow on the Sahara', 'A Rose in the Wind', and also in her collaboration works with Deep Forest on 'Deep Blue Sea' on their 2002 album, Music Detected. Philippine-born Indonesian singer Maribeth Pascua also features gamelan tunes in her songs Denpasar Moon and Borobudur.

Beyond Indonesia, gamelan has also had an influence on Japanese popular music, specifically the synthpop band Yellow Magic Orchestra. Their 1981 record Technodelic,^[36] one of the first albums to heavily rely on samples and loops, made use of gamelan elements and samples. Yellow Magic Orchestra member Ryuichi Sakamoto also used gamelan elements for his soundtrack to the 1983 British-Japanese film Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence,^[37] which won him the 1983 BAFTA Award for Best Film Music.^[38]

Many listeners were introduced to the sounds of gamelan by the popular 1988 Japanese anime film Akira. Gamelan elements are used in this film to punctuate several exciting fight scenes, as well as to symbolize the emerging psychic powers of the tragic hero, Tetsuo. The gamelan in the film's score was performed by the members of the Japanese musical collective Geinoh Yamashirogumi, using their semar pegulingan and jegog ensembles, which were also used in the previous album, Ecophony Rinne. Gamelan and kecak are also used in the soundtrack to the video games Secret of Mana, Sonic Unleashed, and Hotline Miami 2. The two opening credits of 1998 Japanese AnimeNeo Ranga use Balinese music (Kecak and Gamelan gong kebyar). Each 'waking up' of Ranga in the anime uses the Gong Kebyar theme. The musical soundtrack for the Sci Fi Channel series Battlestar Galactica features extensive use of the gamelan, particularly in the 3rd season,^[39] as do Alexandre Desplat's scores for Girl with a Pearl Earring and The Golden Compass. James Newton Howard, who composed Disney's 2001 feature film Atlantis: The Lost Empire, chose Gamelan for the musical theme of the Atlanteans.^[40]

Loops of gamelan music appear in electronic music. An early example is the Texas band Drain's album Offspeed and In There, which contains two tracks where trip-hop beats are matched with gamelan loops from Java and Bali and recent popular examples include the Sofa Surfers' piece Gamelan, or EXEC_PURGER/.#AURICA extracting, a song sung by Haruka Shimotsuki as part of the Ar tonelico: Melody of Elemia soundtracks.

Gamelan influences can also be heard in the 2004 award-winning pop song, Pulangkan, a theme from the gamelan-cultural related film Pontianak Harum Sundal Malam by Malaysian songbird Misha Omar and also the 2006 hip hop song, Tokyo Drift (Fast & Furious), by Teriyaki Boyz.

In the Regular Show episode '150-Piece Kit', a gamelan is mentioned to be part of the eponymous kit.

Gamelan outside Indonesia[edit]

Gamelan is also found outside Indonesia. There are forms of gamelan that have developed outside Indonesia, such as American gamelan in the United States and Malay Gamelan in Malaysia. Gamelan has also become quite widespread along the South East of Sri Lanka, particularly with the Tamil community, and in Colombo, at the Indonesian Embassy.^{[citation needed]}

• Gamelan group Indra Swara in Mexico

• Gamelan Nyi Asep Mangsa Indra Swara México

See also[edit]

References[edit]

1. ^Wells, John (April 3, 2008). Longman Pronunciation Dictionary (3rd ed.). Pearson Longman. ISBN1405881186.
2. ^ ^abSumarsam (1998). Introduction to Javanese Gamelan. Middletown.
3. ^Bramantyo Prijosusilo, 'Indonesia needs the Harmony of the Gamelan'Archived 2013-01-15 at the Wayback Machine, The Jakarta Globe, 22 February 2011.^{[verification needed]}
4. ^ ^abLindsay, Jennifer (1992). Javanese Gamelan, p.10. ISBN0-19-588582-1.
5. ^Lindsay (1992), p.35.
6. ^Lentz, 5.
7. ^R.T. Warsodiningrat, Serat Weda Pradangga. Cited in Roth, A. R. New Compositions for Javanese Gamelan. University of Durham, Doctoral Thesis, 1986. Page 4.
8. ^ ^ab'Learn the History Behind Gamelan, Indonesian Music and Dance'. ThoughtCo. Retrieved 2018-11-13.
9. ^Need Citation
10. ^Roth, 4–8
11. ^Drummond, Barry. Javanese Gamelan Terminology. Boston.
12. ^Ben Jordan (10 June 2002). 'Javanese Gamelan: Instruments'. Archived from the original on 12 November 2013.
13. ^Across Madura Strait: the dynamics of an insular society, edited by Kees van Dijk, Huub de Jonge and Elly Touwen-Bouwsma.^{[full citation needed]}
14. ^Kartomi, Margaret (1990). On Concepts and Classifications of Musical Instruments. University of Chicago Press, p. 91.
15. ^For a discussion of dance in Central Java in Surakarta, see Ganug Nugroho Adi, 'Dancing at the Mangkunegara', The Jakarta Post, 30 May 2012.
16. ^Broughton, Simon, et al., eds. World Music: The Rough Guide. London: The Rough Guides, 1994. ISBN1-85828-017-6. Page 419–420.
17. ^ ^abcBroughton, 420
18. ^Lindsay, 45
19. ^ ^abBroughton, 421.
20. ^Roth, 17
21. ^'Kuningan: Ein Balinesisches Kulturfest', BaliPusa.de. (German)
22. ^Ganug Nugroho Adi, 'Ki Sarojo: Gamelan-making maestro', The Jakarta Post, 7 June 2012; Ganug Nugroho Adi, 'Forging gamelan in Central Java', The Jakarta Post, 11 July 2012.
23. ^Colin McPhee, Music in Bali. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1966.
24. ^'Listening to Balinese Gamelan: A Beginners' Guide' from Connexions.com retrieved 20/01/2012
25. ^Sumarsan. Gamelan: cultural interaction and musical development in central Java. University of Chicago Press, 2nd Edition, 1996. page 156.
26. ^Lindsay, Jennifer. Javanese Gamelan. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1979. Pp. 27–28. ISBN0-19-580413-9
27. ^For example, in Sorrell, Neil. A Guide to the Gamelan. United Kingdom: Faber and Faber, 1990.
28. ^Neil Sorrell. A Guide to the Gamelan. London: Faber and Faber, 2000. Pages 2–7 discuss the incident, about which much remains uncertain. In particular, it is unknown whether they played the Cirebonese instruments that the Paris Conservatoire received in 1887, which would be substantially different from their ordinary set, or if they brought their own set.
29. ^Neil Sorrell. A Guide to the Gamelan. London: Faber and Faber, 2000. Although the five notes of the slendro set are closest in pitch to a pentatonic scale, this scale would have been familiar from other folk sources, as it is a common scale worldwide. It is the equally tempered whole-tone scale that is more analogous of the exotic slendro scale.
30. ^Orledge, RobertSatie the Composer (Music in the Twentieth Century)Cambridge University Press (October 26, 1990)
31. ^'Western Artists and GamelanArchived 2014-03-07 at the Wayback Machine', CoastOnline.org.
32. ^P. 268: Martin, Bill (1997). Listening to the future: The time of progressive rock, 1968-1978. Open Court. p. 376. ISBN0-8126-9368-X.
33. ^Tamm (2003, Chapter 10):Tamm, Eric (2003) [1990], Robert Fripp: From crimson king to crafty master (Progressive Ears ed.), Faber and Faber (1990), ISBN0-571-16289-4, Zipped Microsoft Word Document, archived from the original on October 26, 2011, retrieved October 26, 2011
34. ^Bruford (2009, p. 148):Bruford, Bill (2009). Bill Bruford: The autobiography: Yes, King Crimson, Earthworks, and more. Jawbone Press. ISBN978-1-906002-23-7. ISBN1-906002-23-1.
35. ^'Live! Robert Fripp and The League of Crafty Guitarists (Review)'. Audio. 71. Radio Magazine. 1987. p. 98. LCCN26018838.
36. ^Carter, Monica (June 30, 2011). 'It's Easy When You're Big In Japan: Yellow Magic Orchestra at The Hollywood Bowl'. The Vinyl District. Retrieved 22 July 2011.
37. ^Pulvers, Roger (July 1, 2012). 'Ryuichi Sakamoto reminds Japanese what's the score on nuclear blame'. The Japan Times. Retrieved 24 July 2012.
38. ^Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence (1983) on IMDb
39. ^'SoundtrackNet 2/28/07 article'. Soundtrack.net. 2007-02-28. Retrieved 2012-09-11.
40. ^Various cast and crew members (January 29, 2002). Atlantis: The Lost Empire—Supplemental Material (DVD). Disc 2 of 2 (Collector's ed.). Burbank, CA: Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment. UPC786936163872.

Further reading[edit]

Balinese gamelan[edit]

• Balinese Music (1991) by Michael Tenzer, ISBN0-945971-30-3. Included is an excellent sampler CD of Balinese Music.
• Gamelan Gong Kebyar: The Art of Twentieth-Century Balinese Music (2000) by Michael Tenzer, ISBN0-226-79281-1 and ISBN0-226-79283-8.
• Music in Bali (1966) by Colin McPhee. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
• Music in Bali: Experiencing Music, Expressing Culture (2007) by Lisa Gold, Oxford University Press, New York, ISBN0-19-514149-0 (paper)

Javanese gamelan[edit]

• Gamelan: Cultural Interaction and Musical Development in Central Java (1995) by Sumarsam, ISBN0-226-78010-4 (cloth) 0226780112 (paper)
• Music in Central Java: Experiencing Music, Expressing Culture (2007) by Benjamin Brinner, Oxford University Press, New York, ISBN0-19-514737-5 (paper)
• Music in Java: History Its Theory and Its Technique (1949/1973) edited by Jaap Kunst, ISBN90-247-1519-9. An appendix of this book includes some statistical data on intervals in scales used by gamelans.
• A Gamelan Manual: A Player's Guide to the Central Javanese Gamelan (2005) by Richard Pickvance, Jaman Mas Books, London, ISBN0-9550295-0-3
• Kartomi, Margaret J. (2002). Eastman Studies in Music #15 ; The Gamelan Digul and the Prison Camp Musician Who Built It : An Australian Link with the Indonesian Revolution (hardcover, bibliography, index, with CD). University of Rochester Press. p. 123. ISBN1580460887. Lay summary (May 2006). When the prison camp at Tanah Merah, on the Digul river in West Papua, was evacuated by the Dutch in 1943, the prisoners brought with them to Australia a gamelan they had constructed.
• Shadow Music of Java produced by Karl Signell, Rounder CD 5060.

External links[edit]

• Introduction to Gamelan Music by Qehn, Javanese gamelan only.
• Balinese and Javanese Gamelan written in 2005. Most links do not work as of January 2017.
• A curated collection of Javanese and Balinese music – by John Noise Manis