Let’s begin by watching the following video. You have likely never heard Gamelan nor anything like it before. As you watch the video, consider some things:
What other kinds of music does it remind you of?
What purpose might this type of music serve?
In this video specifically: what kind of instruments do you see/hear? What are the musicians wearing? How are they arranged physically? How does the ensemble appear to know when to play and what to do? What about the music itself? What is striking you about the Rhythm/Melody/Harmony/Timbre/Dynamics/Texture/Form of the music that gives Gamelan its unique quality?
GAMELAN is the name for a mostly percussion-based ensemble type found on the Indonesian islands of Java and Bali off the north-west coast of Australia. This ensemble is both rhythm and melody based due to the presence of MEMBRANOPHONES (members of the drum family of instruments) and IDIOPHONES (instruments that produce a pitch when struck - such as the xylophone and gong). The idiophones in Gamelan are further classified into the subfamily of METALLOPHONES meaning that all the melodic keyboard instruments are made of metal. The ensembles do not have set instrumentation and may include instruments of other families such as strings, flutes, and singers. Depending on the style, the ensemble size ranges from 4-50 performers with most ensembles consisting of 20-30 individuals.
The word GAMELAN is believed to be a low Javanese word that refers to the mallet with which Gamelan musicians strike their instruments. Gamelan may also be referred to as GANGSA which is high Javanese for “bronze” which is what the metallophones are made of.
Gamelan predates the arrival of Buddhism and Hinduism to Indonesia, making it an ancient indigenous music tradition. Javanese mythology includes an origin story for Gamelan in which a pagan god created a series of gongs to deliver complex messages across long distances. In the 13th century, Gamelan was elevated to a court music and royalty were expected to perform at a high level in Gamelan ensembles.
By the 15th century, the island of Java was colonized by Islamic settlers which created a schism between Javanese Gamelan and that of Bali which remained mostly Hindu. The 17th century brought Dutch colonization and the area remained under European influence through 1949. Over the last 300 years, Gamelan has served as a cultural marker of indigenous people of Java and Bali. Ensembles mostly perform to accompany dance and WAYANG (shadow puppetry).
PELOG (the septatonic/7-note Gamelan scale)
SLENDRO (the pentatonic/5-note Gamelan scale)
Each Gamelan ensemble is built as a custom set of instruments that are all pitched to the same tuning system and decorated in a uniform way. Gamelan ensembles are built to play one of two musical scales: Pelog and Slendro. PELOG is a newer scale with seven uneven pitches and SLENDRO is an older scale with five even pitches. While the two scales are both established patterns, a Gamelan can be constructed starting on any note, so each gamelan instrument can only be played with the rest of its original set. One cannot obtain a single Gamelan instrument and expect to join any Gamelan they wish.
The GONG is considered the most important instrument of the ensemble. It keeps the longest beat only being struck once at the beginning of each phrase to signal the start of a new section. It is believed that each Gamelan ensemble is accompanied by a spirit and that the spirit resides within the gong. Its timbre is spread, murky, and ringing.
The KEMANAK is a pair of metallophones that are composed of flat discs rounded into a hollow banana shape that produce a resonant pitch when struck. They are generally played with a higher and lower pitched pair struck back and forth based on the pattern of the piece of music. Their timbre is bright, metallic, and hollow.
The KENDANG is the drum in the Gamelan and the main source of rhythm and tempo. The drum sits on its side on a stand so players have access to both sides of the drum to play. It has a flat, thick, warm sound.
The GANGSA is the main melodic instrument. It is a mallet instrument in the xylophone family but the bars are made of metal, most often brass. It is struck with a hammer or mallet and - unlike most metallophones in the world - players only use a single mallet rather than one in each hand. Its timbre is metallic, round, and ringing.
The BONANG is another melodic instrument made of bronze or iron in a lower range than the Gangsa. It is a collection of hollow “kettles” or “pots” of different sizes which are also sometimes referred to as “gongs” but are not the traditional flat gongs we generally think of. The top of the pot is struck with a mallet. It has a warm, resonant, metallic sound.
Many Gamelans may include other regional instruments including other brass metallophones, wooden xylophones, flutes, reed instruments, cymbals, small gongs, other unpitched percussion, and even vocalists.
Balinese Dance Demonstration & Explanation
Gamelan is rarely performed as just a musical concert. Instead, it usually accompanies another visual art form like dance. Balinese (and Javanese) dance follow a centuries-old tradition of storytelling through body language. The dance incorporates very specific movements and gestures from the body, hands and arms, fingers, head, and eyes.
Wayang Kulit mini-documentary
Another art form that is often paired with Gamelan is WAYANG or traditional Javanese shadow puppetry. Intricate colored puppets made from buffalo hide are manipulated behind a screen where their shadows are projected through with light.
Kecak scene from the film, Baraka (1992)
Gamelan is also used to accompany or prelude KECAK (pronounced “KEH-chak”), a vocalized “monkey chant” performed by large groups in complex rhythmic and form patterns. Kecak generally has one to several leaders who call out the next section or pattern with the rest of the group switching instantaneously while also staying in very precise synchronization.
As with many ancient music traditions, Gamelan performance technique and music is passed from teacher to student in oral tradition and involves no written sheet music. Gamelan education increased in the 1950’s as a way to increase cultural pride in Java and Bali by the opening of national Gamelan schools. The way Gamelan musicians can learn and perform such complex and precise rhythms continues to baffle musicologists.
Gamelan Rhythmic Structure
RHYTHM: In general, the larger the instrument, the slower rhythms it plays and the smaller the instrument, the faster rhythms it plays. The Gong plays the slowest only striking once at the end of each musical phrase while the other instruments subdivide in the phrase more rapidly. Each rhythmic phrase in Gamelan is called a COLOTOMY and they can be of short or long beat values, repeated or not within a larger piece. Each Colotomy is based on a sequence and repetition of instruments and how they strike in relationship to each other.
MELODY: A central, “core melody” called a BALUNGAN is played by a small number of instruments in the Gamelan. The rest of the instruments play supportive roles or modify and embellish the melody by adding more complexity of notes and rhythms as the melody plays out over time. The notes come from two basic scales in Gamelan: the Pelog or the Slendro.
HARMONY: Western Classical music harmony does not exist in Gamelan in that the musicians’ goals are not to build chords or harmonies through performance. Instead, some incidental harmony does occur when the melodic instruments strike different notes simultaneously in performance (resulting in intervals) but the primary importance of Gamelan is developing the melody rather than building harmony.
TIMBRE: The majority of the instruments in a Gamelan ensemble are metal (specifically brass) so the timbre of the ensemble tends to be ringing, brassy, and bright. Depending on the ratio of certain instruments (like having more drums or more wooden idiophones), the timbre of various Gamelan may be more mellow or even more bright.
DYNAMICS: Dynamics tend to start at one volume, die down at the end of a musical phrase, and then jump back to forte or fortissimo suddenly. Depending on the genre of Gamelan being performed, there may be separate sections of soft and loud music that tend to be very surprising and unpredictable to a Western ear.
TEXTURE: Based on the Balungan melody’s alterations by different musicians or instrument families in the Gamelan, the music form is generally considered heterophonic. The Balungan “core melody” is modified by various instruments all at once.
FORM: The form of a Gamelan composition is based on the COLOTOMIC structure. As above in the rhythm section, phrases of different lengths are strung together (repeated or not) to create a larger form of an entire piece. Individual Gamelan pieces are quite long compared with music form in other parts of the world with most pieces being over 10 minutes in length.
There are almost 50 varieties of Gamelan that involve different ensemble sizes, instrumentation, and performance practices. Distinctions of Gamelan are based on the geographical regions of Javanese (Central and East Java), Balinese (Bali), and Sundanese (West Java). One of the most popular is GAMELAN GONG KEBYAR, a style characterized by its sudden and rapid jumps in volume and speed (kebyar meaning to “burst open” or to “flare up”).
There is no set attire for Gamelan performance. Performers may be dressed casually in t-shirts and shorts or very simply and even shirtless (male performers). For special occasions, performers may wear the traditional formal costume of Indonesia called a PAKAIAN BADAT of which there are many styles and variations. In general, when dressed in formal garb, Gamelan ensembles will all wear matching costumes to unify their appearance.
Gamelan are very rare in the USA as a complete set is very expensive and requires a lot of practice from a large ensemble to play at a high performance level. In America, most Gamelan performances will take place on college campuses by the school’s Gamelan class or Gamelan club. Ethnomusicologist MANTLE HOOD studied in Indonesia and is responsible for bringing Gamelan to American college campuses starting with UCLA in the 1950’s. Such collegiate ensembles exist on the west coast at ASU, BYU, and UC Berkeley where any student can participate in the class or club. In Washington state, Gamelan can be found at Evergreen State College and Cornish College of the Arts. In addition, areas of the country with high Indonesian populations maintain traditional Gamelan as part of their cultural heritage.