emergence of gamelan
Let’s take a moment to establish a few basic facts about gamelan.
The gamelan orchestra is predominately a percussion orchestra of hand-forged
metal instruments consisting of chimes, metalophones and gongs. Gamelan
music and related art forms are fundamental to Indonesia, and are highly developed in Java, Sunda,
Cirebon, Madura and Bali. Many of the instruments occur in different variations throughout SE Asia and Asia. A traditional gamelan ensemble can vary in size from 6 to 30 musicians, and can
include a range of soft instruments including strings, flutes and voice. The
instruments are ornately crafted and tuned specifically within each ensemble.
With the emergence of the gamelan in the Europe, UK, Americas, a large range of new musical
possibilities has become available to the western musician both in terms of
education and performance. Because the instruments are often tuned differently
from western scales, the gamelan is a special resource for composers to work
with. Nowhere else are such combinations of metal-based
tonality to be found, than within the gamelan.
Since the late 1800’s gamelan has been studied and adopted by musicians, ethnomusicologists, and
sociologists throughout the world. The music has been performed and studied, imported and exported, and collected and recorded by
various entrepreneurs and record companies. Margaret Meade, Colin McPhee, Jaap Kunst,
Mantle Hood, Michael Tenzer and many others have made pioneering studies of the
music and culture. Claude Debussy, Lou Harrison, Henry Cowell, John Cage,
Phillip Glass, Steve Reich, Benjamin Britten and countless others have brought
it’s influences into their art.
With the ancient origins of gamelan instruments more than likely from Africa, China and India, instruments such as gongs, xylophones, and the vibraphone, so highly developed in SE Asia/Indonesia by 1800, are now in use in many forms of western music. Essentially they are not unlike instruments from Indonesian traditions where the art of tuning is still more varied and complex.
