Gamelan is a major Indonesian style of: Cooking; Music; Martial Arts; or Fishing? View the step-by-step solution to: Gamelan is a major Indonesian style of: Cooking; Music; Martial Arts; or Fishing? This question was answered on May 31, 2016. View the Answer Gamelan is a major Indonesian style of: Cooking; Music; Martial Arts; or Fishing? noelgray768 posted a question · May 31, 2016 at 6:11am Top Answer rampsaud answered the question · May 31, 2016 at 6:12am Other Answers Here is the explanation for... View the full answer {[ getNetScore(29838826) ]} The answer to this question... View the full answer {[ getNetScore(29838848) ]} View Full Answer or ask a new question Related Questions Need a World History tutor? Lynettehero 9 World History experts found online! Average reply time is 3 mins Get Homework Help Why Join Course Hero? Course Hero has all the homework and study help you need to succeed!

We’ve got course-specific notes, study guides, and practice tests along with expert tutors and customizable flashcards—available anywhere, anytime. - - Study Documents Find the best study resources around, tagged to your specific courses. Share your own to gain free Course Hero access or to earn money with our Marketplace. - Question & Answers Get one-on-one homework help from our expert tutors—available online 24/7. Ask your own questions or browse existing Q&A threads. Satisfaction guaranteed! - Flashcards Browse existing sets or create your own using our digital flashcard system. A simple yet effective studying tool to help you earn the grade that you want! Gamelan Ensembles About Gamelan | Gong Kebyar | Angklung | Joged Bumbung | Gender Wayang | Tektekan | Bebonangan | Audio Files About Gamelan A gamelan is an Indonesian percussion orchestra. The word gamelan (pronounced gah-meh-lan) comes from the Javanese word “gambel,” meaning “to strike” or “to play” and most often refers to the sets of percussion orchestras of Bali and Java.

The instruments consist mainly of bronze gongs of varying sizes and pitches, keyed metallophones, often suspended over bamboo resonators, double-headed drums, cymbals, vocals, bamboo flutes, and spiked fiddles. Gamelan music is known for its extensive use of polyphony. Musical compositions are often constructed so that lower pitched instruments, such as the larger gongs, play at a relatively slow pace to give structure to the musical composition, while the higher pitched instruments play much faster melodic passages to create a rich and entrancing musical texture. Balinese gamelan, the style which Gamelan Mitra Kusuma studies and performs, is known for its use of tightly interlocking polyphonic melodies, called kotekan, wherein one musician or group of musicians play one portion of a melody,while another musician or musicians play the other portion. Kotekan are often performed at very high speeds, requiring intensive rehearsal and group coordination. In Bali, music and dance are essential components of almost any activity, and a wide variety of ensembles has developed to accompany both religious and secular events.

One might see gamelan performances at Balinese-Hindu temple ceremonies, weddings, tooth filing ceremonies, and cremations, as well as secular concerts, music competitions, and school and governmental functions. There are dozens of different types of gamelans in Bali to fulfill these functions, ranging from large metal orchestras to bamboo ensembles, vocal groups, and even groups dedicated to the imitation of frog sounds. Gamelan Mitra Kusuma studies and performs upon a number of these different ensembles, and they are briefly described below. Gong Kebyar Gamelan Gong Kebyar is often the first style of Balinese gamelan that a Westerner is exposed to, and it is by far the most popular ensemble in Bali. Gong kebyar developed in the early 20th-century, and its rise in popularity is believed to be tied to the loss of power of the Balinese royal courts during Bali's brief period of Dutch colonization. At this time, many traditional court-owned gamelan instruments were passed down to village authorities who, realizing an opportunity to create an entirely new style of music, modified these old ensembles to fulfill their creative ambitions.

Because of its early association with the royal court gamelan traditions, gong kebyar is often viewed as a direct descendant of the grand gong gede, which played a slow, stately, and very loud style of gamelan called lelambatan for royal ceremonies. Thus, gong kebyar groups are often called upon to play a somewhat updated version of this court music to accompany certain rituals and festivals. However, gong kebyar's earliest composers, wishing to make an unforgettable impact on their audience, also developed new compositions with unexpected and explosive changes in tempo and dynamics, and extremely fast and dazzlingly syncopated melodies, requiring virtuosic musicians and tightly coordinated ensemble playing. The word kebyar, in fact, means "a sudden burst", as in the sudden blooming of a flower, and also describes the arrhythmic and unpredictable introductions, transitions and conclusions of most gong kebyar compositions. The core melody of most gong kebyar compositions is played by large five-keyed xylophone-like instruments called jegog and jublag (or calung). This melody is subdivided by a seven-keyed instrument called penyacah.

The jegog, jublag and penyacah are accompanied by a set of ten-keyed instruments called gangsa, played by nine musicians, and a set of 12 small horizontally suspended gongs, called reyong, played by four musicians. These instruments play kotekan, which in gong kebyar can be quite difficult and elaborate, as well as many other elaborations on the core melody. Two drummers act as the “conductor,” cueing the many changes in tempo and dynamics. A set of small cymbals, called ceng-ceng, accompany the drummer, and quite often the reyong, ceng-ceng and drummers overlay elaborate rhythmic constructs, called ocak-ocakan, over the melody. Bamboo flutes, called suling, and occasionally a spike fiddle, called rebab, reinforce and further elaborate the song's core melody. The texture as a whole is punctuated by the large suspended gongs, considered to be the spiritual centre of the ensemble. Gong kebyar uses a five-tone modal scale, called selisir, which is derived from a seven-note scale used in several older Balinese ensembles.

The gangsa are two octave instruments, and the reyong's 12 gongs contain a little more than two octaves. A gong kebyar's pitch range for its melodic instruments is a little over four octaves. Much of the gong kebyar repetoire is designed to accompany dance and other theatric performances, and musicians and dancers in Bali often work for days on end to perfectly coordinate a dancer's every movement with a musical counterpart, from a simple walk from one end of the stage to another, to the eye movements and facial expressions of the dancer. Gamelan Angklung While the instrumentation of gamelan angklung is similar to gong kebyar, it has several critical differences. First, the scale of gamelan angklung only uses four pitches, derived from a different set of notes in the traditional seven-note scale. Secondly, whereas many of the instruments in gong kebyar span multiple octaves of its pentatonic scale, gamelan angklung instruments only contain one octave. Gamelan angklung also has a more delicate and sweeter sound than gong kebyar. The instruments are considerably smaller, and hence more portable, than gong kebyar.

Part of the reason for this portability is its use in cremation rituals in Bali, where the musicians often play in a procession as the funeral bier is carried from the cemetary to the cremation site, in addition to playing music to accompany the ceremony. The structure of the music is similar to gong kebyar. Jublag and jegog carry the basic melody, which is elaborated by gangsa, reyong, ceng-ceng, drum, and flute. A medium sized gong, called kempur, is generally used to punctuate a song's major sections. And although most older compositions generally do not employ gong kebyar's more ostentatious virtuosity and showmanship, many Balinese composers have created kebyar-style works for gamelan angklung, often featuring dance. Gender Wayang A gender (pronounced with a hard "g" sound) is a bronze-keyed metallaphone, similar to gangsa, but with somewhat thinner, more delicate keys. It also differs from gangsa in the way it is played. Whereas the gangsa is played with a single mallet, the gender is played with two mallets.

Gender wayang is an ensemble of four gender used to accompany shadow puppet plays, or wayang kulit. It is considered one of the most difficult gamelan instruments to play, partly because of the playing technique, but also because these four instruments, along with a puppeteer and his assistants, perform all of the duties of a gamelan group. The gender players play a slower basic melody, similar to what the jublag, jegog and penyacah would play in gong kebyar, with their left hands, while playing elaborations similar to gangsa and reyong with their right. The puppeteer, or dalang, acts as conductor, knocking a small piece of wood , called cepala, against the puppet box, giving signals similar to those given by a drummer, while he maneuvers the puppets, speaking and/or singing all their parts. The themes of the puppet shows are generally derived from the Hindu epic, the Mahabharata.

Sometimes the Ramayana, a tale of the exile of Prince Rama of Ayuda, is used as a basis of the plot, but in this case, the gender wayang is augmented with additional instruments such as drums, ceng-ceng, flute, a cluster of bells called gentorag, and many of the smaller gongs used for time keeping in other gamelan ensembles. Gender wayang is also played as an accompaniment the Balinese ceremonial tooth filing, where a young person's teeth are ritually filed to refine his or her appearance, weddings, and other temple ceremonies. Joged Bumbung A Joged bumbung ensemble consists of four ten-keyed bamboo instruments played with rubber mallets. The technique for playing is similar to gender wayang, with the left hand playing a basic melody while the right hand plays elaboration. It is an ensemble used for social occasions, and accompanies a flirtatious social dance. Female joged dancers invite members of the audience to dance with them, giving young men an opportunity to show off their dance skills and flirt with the dancers.

Tektekan Tektekan is played with bamboo slit drums, called kul-kul, that are cradled in the players' arms and struck with a wooden mallet, producing a sharp rhythmic sound. Groups of between 10 and 20 players strike these in interlocking patterns similar to kotekan, and they are sometimes accompanied by drum and gongs to punctuate rhythmic cycles. Tektekan is often used to accompany a performance called calanarong, a ritual drama wherein men go into trance and are possessed by the spirits of witches, led by a queen named Rangda. This ritual is believed to be dangerous to both participants and spectators, and is only carried out at specific times under conditions very carefully controlled by a Balinese priest. Today, a more benign form of calanarong is staged for tourists in Bali, where the participants simply enact the possession. However, many of the same precautions are taken, as there is always a danger that the reenactment could become real. Other uses of tektekan include processions, since the instruments are very portable. Tektekan has also recently been incorporated into new gong kebyar pieces.

Bebonangan/Beleganjur Bebonangan, or beleganjur, is processional music, and has a very similar history and function as marching bands in the West. Like marching bands, it was originally used to lead armies into battle, and today it is used for parades and festivals. However, beleganjur has an additional use in religious ceremonies such as odalan, held on the anniversary of a temple's concecration, and cremations. In fact, if a particular gamelan is not available for a ceremony, beleganjur often takes its place, because the instruments used are comparatively less expensive than most other gamelan. The simplest form of beleganjur can consist of only about nine instruments: a large gong ageng, a second gong called bendé, four pairs of large, handheld cymbals called ceng-ceng, two drums played with mallets, and some kind of small time-keeping instrument called ketuk, kempli, or tawa-tawa. The drums and cymbals play interlocking patterns of a repeating gong pattern.

This form of gamelan can be then augmented with more cymbals, a smaller gong to compliment the gong ageng, two tuned, handheld gongs called ponggang, and small tuned gongs often taken from the reyong of a gong kebyar. When these gongs are used in this context, they are often called bonang, hence the name bebonangan or beleganjur bebonangan. In recent years, this ensemble has gain popularity among young men, who are attracted by its martial qualities, high volume, and the challenge of playing the instruments, particularly the ceng-ceng, bonang, and drum, as they demand physical strength and endurance. Ensembles often compete fiercely for prizes in competition, and the performances often include elaborate, bewildering and physically exhausting compositions played at breakneck speed, accompanied by detailed and difficult choreography. Indonesia - Gamelan: From Palace To Paddy Field – World Music Network – Guide To World Music Sambasunda Quintet: Java The Sambasunda collective of Bandung has gained international attention for its fresh, groundbreaking approach to the traditional music of West Java, releasing a series of albums boldly bringing together pan-Indonesian styles and instruments with added global percussion.

Their Riverboat Records album, Java (2012) is a specially commissioned project performed by a ‘chamber ensemble’ comprising Sambasunda founding members Ismet Ruchimat, Yadi Cahyadi, Asep Yana and Budi Sofyan with new singing discovery Neng Dini Andriati. It reflects an enduring classical tradition of Sundanese music while at the same time creating something fresh, modern and original. The music is centred on the kacapi, a boat-shaped zither whose mellifluous tones have been heard in Sunda (West Java) for centuries. The instrumentation of the Sambasunda Quintet follows the Tembang Sunda tradition, using up to three kacapis, augmented by violin and suling (bamboo flute) accompanied by a female singer. The addition of thekhendang drums – a large barrel-shaped drum played at both ends with various tones elicited by pressure of the foot and three smaller high-pitched drums known as kulenter – is a contemporary touch, and, although some of the compositions are based on standards from the Tembang Sunda repertoire, they are performed with a distinctly urban rhythmic accent.

The whole is suffused with a contemporary awareness of global sounds, from the local and international pop music prevalent in Bandung, to the influences of the group’s interactions with international artists they have met and performed with at major music festivals around the world. This is most apparent in the instrumental piece ‘Paddy Pergi Ke Bandung’ (‘Paddy Goes To Bandung’), which, as the title suggests, is a playful collision of Irish and Javanese themes. Gamelan Degung The sound of degung is perhaps the most accessible gamelan music to Western ears. Degung uses its own five-note version of the pelog scale found in Java, and its special character owes much to the additional presence of the suling (bamboo flute), which is regarded as a signature for Sundanese music. Gamelan Salendro Nowadays, gamelan Salendro is used primarily to accompany performances of wayang golek – classical dance – as well as the more recent social dance jaipongan. Although it has a lowly, unaristocratic status, it can display a technical brilliance and virtuosity rarely heard in Central Java.

Tembang Sunda Although related, tembang Sunda is, strictly speaking, not a gamelan genre at all. It was developed at the Kabupaten (Regent’s court) of Cianjur during the colonial era, and consists of sung poetry accompanied by one or two kecapi (zithers) together with a suling or a rebab. East Java Madura Gamelan music from the island of Madura is, in some respects, closer to the traditions of mainland Central Java. Of particular note is the topeng dalang, in which the great Indian epics of the Mahabharata and Ramayana, as well as the Javanese story of Panji, are recounted. Osinger The Osinger of Banyuwangi represent yet another branch of East Javanese music and dance. Angklung (bamboo xylophone) is played by young boys through amateur organizations, while Gandrung is performed by professional musicians at all-night social events, and consists of a small group of instrumentalists together with a female singer-dancer (the gandrung). Bali The kecak was adopted in the twentieth century from an ancient trance dance into a drama using the Hindu Ramayana story.

The chorus represents the monkey army helping King Rama rescue his queen, Sinta, from Rahwana, the ogre-king. Hindu Bali The Balinese practise their own religion, a unique blend of Hinduism and traditional Balinese beliefs. Important island-wide festivals, such as Galungan, call for ten days of prayer, music and dance. Most villages boast several gamelans owned by the local music club. The members, all men, meet there in the evenings to rehearse. They are almost all amateurs, earning their living as farmers, craftsmen or civil servants. Kebyar – the new style When the Dutch took control of Bali in the early twentieth century the island’s courts all but disappeared. This had an enormous impact on the musical life of the island. New gamelans were made for the latest style: kebyar – a word that means “like the bursting open of a flower”. Another popular ensemble is the joged Bumbung (“bumbung” means bamboo). This style was born in the 1950s in west Bali and was based on the joged, an old flirtatious dance where the female dancers invite men from the audience to take turns dancing with them.

Gamelan Semara Santi :: Music :: Swarthmore College Gamelan Semara Santi Extracurricular Opportunities Gamelan Semara Santi Gamelan Semara Santi is a classical percussion orchestra from Bali, Indonesia, consisting of tuned gongs, bronze-keyed xylophones, drums, and bamboo flutes. Approximately 20 to 25 musicians participate, mostly Swarthmore students, plus a few additional community members. We perform classical and modern compositions from Bali - some instrumental, some with dance. We rehearse Indonesian style, without the use of notation. Musicians may receive 0.5 credit per semester if desired. We welcome any student musician to play, with or without prior training in music. No audition is necessary. Students who wish to dance should have a background in some form of dance (not necessarily Indonesian dance). Weekly rehearsals are on Mondays from 4:30-6:30 p.m. in Lang Music 410, plus an additional 30 minutes per week in smaller groups ("sectionals"), day and time TBA. There will also be three Sunday afternoon rehearsals per semester .

Gamelan Semara Santi is co-directed by Tom Whitman , I Nyoman Suadin, and Ni Luh Kadek Kusuma Dewi. Gamelan Concerts: 2016-2017 Gamelan History | Indonesian Music and Dance Share By Kallie Szczepanski Across Indonesia , but particularly on the islands of Java and Bali, gamelan is the most popular form of traditional music. A gamelan ensemble consists of a variety of metal percussion instruments, usually made of bronze or brass, including xylophones, drums and gongs. It may also feature bamboo flutes, wooden stringed instruments, and vocalists, but the focus is on the percussion. The name "gamelan" comes from gamel, a Javanese word for a type of hammer used by a blacksmith. Gamelan instruments are often made of metal, and many are played with hammer-shaped mallets, as well. Although metal instruments are expensive to make, compared with those of wood or bamboo, they will not mold or deteriorate in Indonesia's hot, steamy climate. Scholars suggest that this may be one of the reasons that gamelan developed, with its signature metallic sound.

Where and when was gamelan invented? How has it changed over the centuries? Origins of Gamelan: Gamelan seems to have developed early in the history of what is now Indonesia. continue reading below our video 4 Tips for Improving Test Performance Unfortunately, however, we have very few good sources of information from the early period. Certainly, gamelan seems to have been a feature of court life during the 8th to 11th centuries, among the Hindu and Buddhist kingdoms of Java, Sumatra, and Bali. For example, the great Buddhist monument of Borobudur , in central Java, includes a bas relief depiction of a gamelan ensemble from the time of the Srivijaya Empire , c. 6th-13th centuries CE. The musicians play stringed instruments, metal drums and flutes. Of course, we do not have any record of what the music these musicians were playing sounded like, sadly. Classical Era Gamelan: During the 12th to 15th centuries, the Hindu and Buddhist kingdoms began to leave more complete records of their doings, including their music.

Literature from this era mentions the gamelan ensemble as an important element of court life, and further relief carvings on various temples support the importance of metal percussion music during this period. Indeed, members of the royal family and their courtiers were all expected to learn how to play gamelan, and were judged on their musical accomplishments as much as their wisdom, bravery, or physical appearance. The Majapahit Empire (1293-1597) even had a government office in charge of supervising the performing arts, including gamelan. The arts office oversaw the construction of musical instruments, as well as scheduling performances at the court. During this period, inscriptions and bas reliefs from Bali show that the same types of musical ensembles and instruments were prevalent there as in Java; this is not surprising, since both islands were under the control of the Majapahit emperors. During the Majapahit era, the gong made its appearance in Indonesian gamelan. Likely imported from China , this instrument joined other foreign additions such as stitched-skin drums from India and bowed strings from Arabia in some types of gamelan ensembles. The gong has been the longest-lasting and most influential of these imports.

Music and the Introduction of Islam: During the 15th century, the people of Java and many other Indonesian islands gradually converted to Islam, under the influence of Muslim traders from the Arabian peninsula and south Asia. Fortunately for gamelan, the most influential strain of Islam in Indonesia was Sufism , a mystical branch that values music as one of the pathways to experiencing the divine. Had a more legalistic brand of Islam been introduced, it might have resulted in the extinction of gamelan in Java and Sumatra. Bali, the other major center of gamelan, remained predominantly Hindu. This religious schism weakened the cultural ties between Bali and Java, although trade continued between the islands throughout the 15th to 17th centuries. As a result, the islands developed different forms of gamelan. Balinese gamelan began to emphasize virtuosity and quick tempos, a trend later encouraged by Dutch colonists. In keeping with Sufi teachings, Java's gamelan tended to be slower in tempo and more meditative or trance-like. European Incursions: In the mid-1400s, the first European explorers reached Indonesia, intent on elbowing their way into the rich Indian Ocean spice and silk trade.

The first to arrive were the Portuguese, who started out with small-scale coastal raids and piracy, but managed to capture the key straits at Malacca in 1512. The Portuguese, along with the Arab, African, and Indian slaves they brought with them, introduced a new variety of music into Indonesia. Known as kroncong, this new style combined gamelan-like intricate and interlocking musical patterns with western instrumentation, such as the ukulele, cello, guitar, and violin. Dutch Colonization and Gamelan: In 1602, a new European power made its way in to Indonesia. The powerful Dutch East India Company ousted the Portuguese, and began to centralize power over the spice trade. This regime would last until 1800, when the Dutch crown took over directly. Dutch colonial officials left only a few good descriptions of gamelan performances. Rijklof van Goens, for example, noted that the king of Mataram, Amangkurat I (r. 1646-1677), had an orchestra of between thirty and fifty instruments, primarily gongs. The orchestra played on Mondays and Saturdays, when the king entered the court for a type of tournament.

van Goens describes a dance troupe, as well, of between five and nineteen maidens, who danced for the king to the gamelan music. Gamelan in Post-Independence Indonesia: Indonesia became fully independent of the Netherlands in 1949. The new leaders had the unenviable task of creating a nation-state out of a collection of different islands, cultures, religions, and ethnic groups. The Sukarno regime established publicly-funded gamelan schools during the 1950s and 1960s, in order to encourage and sustain this music as one the national art forms of Indonesia. Some Indonesians objected to this elevation of a musical style associated primarily with Java and Bali as a "national" art form; in a multiethnic, multicultural country, of course, there are no universal cultural properties. Today, gamelan is an important feature of shadow puppet shows, dances, rituals, and other performances in Indonesia. Although stand-alone gamelan concerts are unusual, the music may also be heard frequently on the radio. Most Indonesians today have embraced this ancient musical form as their national sound. For more information, please see " Intro to Gamelan " by Megan Romer.

Sources: gamelan | Indonesian orchestra | Britannica.com Indonesian orchestra pelog Gamelan, also spelled gamelang or gamelin , the indigenous orchestra type of the islands of Java and Bali , in Indonesia , consisting largely of several varieties of gongs and various sets of tuned metal instruments that are struck with mallets. The gongs are either suspended vertically or, as with the knobbed-centre, kettle-shaped gongs of the bonang , placed flat. Percussive melodic instruments include the bonang, the xylophone (gambang kayu), and various metallophones (instruments with a series of tuned metal plates, either suspended over a resonance trough or on resonance tubes). A sustained melody is played either by the bamboo flute (suling) or by a bowed stringed instrument ( rebab ) or is sung—the last especially when, as often occurs, the gamelan is used to accompany theatrical performances, or wayang . The voice is then part of the orchestral texture. Dominating these two groups of instruments is the drum (kendang), which unites them and acts as leader. Javanese gamelans frequently include singers, while most Balinese gamelans consist exclusively of percussion instruments .

Many types of gamelans, of different sizes and for a variety of purposes, may be distinguished. The bonang, one of the instruments that elaborate the main melody in … Wesleyan University Virtual Instrument Museum ( No two gamelans are tuned precisely alike; rather, each instrument is tuned to match the ensemble for which it is intended rather than to an external standard of pitch. A gamelan may be tuned to the scale of slendro (in which the octave is divided into five tones roughly equidistant) or to pelog (a scale consisting of seven notes of varying intervals of which five are given principal stress). The so-called double gamelans of Java consist of both a slendro and a pelog set of instruments, which typically share one or two common pitches. The modes ( patet ) of Javanese gamelan music are determined in part by the relative placement on either scale of the basic note (dong) and its fifth above and fifth below. (A fifth is an interval more or less the size of that formed by five adjacent white keys on a piano.) Similar Topics Collaborations distinguish gamelan concerts | News | Bates College Collaborations distinguish gamelan concerts By Bates News .

Published on March 27, 2003 In Olin Arts Center Concert Hall performances a week apart, Indonesian-style orchestra breaks new ground for the Maine music scene. A concert at 8 p.m. Friday, March 28, pairs the Gamelan Mawar Mekar with the Bates College Orchestra, a collaboration that may well be Maine’s first between the traditional Indonesian form and a Western-style orchestra. A definite first is the premiere of a composition for the two ensembles by Maine composer Philip Carlsen, a visiting assistant professor of music at Bates and conductor of the orchestra. Two other composers performing that night, American gamelan specialist Jody Diamond and Indonesian musician I.M. Harjito, also contribute works bridging Western and Indonesian sensibilities. Traditional gamelan works complete the evening. Again at 8 p.m. the following Friday, April 4, the gamelan band shares a bill with two Caribbean-influenced ensembles: Bates’ own Steel Pan Rhythm Riders and special guests, the Bowdoin College World Music Ensemble.Both concerts are free and open to the public. In its third year at Bates, the Gamelan Mawar Mekar (“blossom of inspiration”) has 13 members.

The gamelan — a term referring to both the genre and the musical ensemble itself — is the traditional orchestra of Java and Bali. It’s a percussion-based music whose systems of pitch and timing are very different from the systems familiar to Americans. The March 28 concert “shows what kind of exciting collaborations can occur when composers cross cultural divides and bring their own traditions to an encounter with something new,” says Rose Pruiksma, director of the Gamelan Mawar Mekar. The program includes: Carlsen’s Suite Mawar Mekar in its world premiere. The performance comprises two movements from a projected larger work. Jody Diamond performs as vocal soloist, singing texts from Tennyson’s Song of the Lotos-Eaters and Wordsworth’s Prelude. Harjito’s Dhandhanggula, for gamelan and orchestra will also be performed. A renowned Indonesian musician, Harjito is an artist-in residence at Wesleyan University, where he teaches gamelan performance. This composition, which features a chorus singing in Javanese, was first composed for gamelan and then adapted for orchestral participation — one of the rare instances of such an adaptation by a Javanese composer. Diamond’s Sabbath Bride will be performed.

A major figure in American gamelan, Diamond is the founder and executive director of the American Gamelan Institute in Hanover, N.H., and a singer in the Javanese “pesindhen” style. Sabbath Bride is based on a Hebrew Sabbath melody. The April 4 program is divided among the two Bates bands and the Bowdoin ensemble. The gamelan portion highlights the playing of Jesse Fox, a senior from Potomac, Md., who is a founding member of the ensemble and plays a type of xylophone called a “génder” (pronounced “ghen-dare”). The Steel Pan Rhythm Riders play Caribbean calypso as well as jazz and other genres. The steel band was founded and is directed by assistant professor of music Linda Williams. On April 4 the band will concentrate on major Trinidadian composers Lord Kitchener, Len Boogsie Sharpe and David Rudder, Williams explains. She adds, “We especially acknowledge Sharpe’s tune Woman is Boss, because 16 of the 17 members of the band are female students. That’s a rare departure from previous years.” Well-known Portland percussionist Michael Wingfield directs the Bowdoin College World Music Ensemble.

For more information about both performances, please call 207-786-6135. Culture Culture Dance Almost all of the islands of Indonesia have their own dance styles, but those best known are from Bali and Java. Dance and drama are practically inseparable, and performances are almost always accompanied by gamelan music. Dancers take their art very seriously and practice for endless hours, usually from childhood, under the oversight of an expert. Unlike western style of dance, Indonesian dances are precise, jerky and at times, abrupt. They are also very expressive, with every fiber of the dancer involved, including the eye movements and finger twitches. Every dance tells a story, often a tale from the Hindu epic, Ramayana. Bali is known for several prominent dances, and there are several other lesser known styles of dance as well, but all tell a story and to a greater or lesser degree, involve dramatic portrayal of a character in the story, sometimes while in a trance. More than just an entertaining performance, the Barong & Rangda dance is a colorful and lively drama.

The barong, a strange lion-shaggy dog creature that is operated much like the two-man circus horse, is the protector of a village and personifies good. Rangda is the evil widow witch. There are also barong supporters, men flailing dagger-like krises. Although the barong is playful and jovial, once Rangda makes her attacking appearance, he becomes the protector and battles, along with the retaliating kris-armed men. Rangda puts the men in a trance and they turn the daggers on themselves. The barong's magical powers see to it that the men are not harmed in the process. Amid the crashing din of the gamelan accompaniment, good and evil battle. The barong triumphs and Rangda finally retreats in defeat. The Legong dance is considered to be the most graceful of the Balinese dances. There are several kinds of Legong dances, but the most commonly performed is the Legong Kraton (Palace Legong). In this dance there are three performers, two legongs and a condong, who is the attendant of the royal legongs. The condong introduces the dance and then exits the stage.

Then enters the two legongs who are tightly clad in golden brocade and elaborately made up. They dance in exact formation to gamelan accompaniment. The performance ends when the condong enters with golden wings, as a bird of bad fortune, signifying that the king will die in battle. For tourists, the best known Balinese dance is the Kecak. This is an performance that tells a story of intrigue and romance from the Ramayana. The a cappella chorus of bare-chested men wearing black-and-white checkered sarongs and hibiscus flowers behind their ears chant the distinctive "chak-chak-chak" with intensity, which is distinctive of this dance. These men constitute an army of monkeys. Both men and women participate in this dance, playing, among others, the characters of Prince Rama, his abducted wife Sita, and the evil King Lanka. As in all Balinese performances, in the end, good triumphs over evil. The Ramayana story is also performed in several dances of Central Java, the most well known is the Ramayana Ballet, which is performed in an open-air theater from May through October.

The Wayang Topeng is a dance drama where the characters use masks, dating back to the Majapahit kingdom. The masked characters are identifiable in the same manner as they are in Wayang Kulit puppet performances. The refined and elongated features denote nobility, whereas the exaggerated and grotesque characteristics indicate the vulgar players. The Topeng dance of Bali, however, is quite different. The word topeng means "pressed against the face," hence the masks. The Balinese Topeng masks are brightly painted, exaggerated and expressive human faces. The variety of characters indicated by the masks are acted out by a single performer. The stories are often drawn from the chronicles of Balinese history, but comedy, as well as topics dealing with current social issues may be mixed into the performance. The dancer usually chants and speaks only in the Balinese language. Music Indonesian gamelan music is the best known Indonesian music. This instrumental ensemble music played on a variety of metal pots, gongs, and drums (the word gamelan refers to the collection of instruments themselves) has enchanted first-time listeners (including Sir Francis Drake who visited Java in 1580) with its blend of exotic modality and shimmering timbre.

Said to have been created by a Javanese king in the 3rd century, the gamelan has retained its ceremonial function in the royal courts of Java and Bali, while evolving into a modern folk form. In recent years there has been a remarkable surge of American and European interest in gamelan music. Buying a ticket to Indonesia to attend a live concert is no longer necessary, as many major universities have their own ensembles. A listing of gamelan music groups in the United States can be found in the Explorers' Room . Despite its high profile across the world, the gamelan is not representative of all Indonesian music. Among the many different music styles from the various cultures across this maritime continent, two other major music types that have become common are kroncong and dangdut. he roots of kroncong music date back to the 16th century when sailors brought Portuguese instruments and melodies to Indonesia. The ensemble typically consists of plucked string instruments (kroncong is the name of a ukulele-like instrument), a flute, and a female singer.

Over the steadily plucked arpeggios that provide the harmonic backdrop, the singer croons languidly of love, yearning, sadness, and the beauty of the countryside, as the flute flits up and down the scales in free-improvisational flight. Although the instruments and the singing style are clearly descended from European origins, the chord progression provides an unsettling flavor to the songs. The langgam jawa, a regional variation, uses Javanese gamelan scales. Dangdut is far more popular today, and it can be heard blaring from the loudspeakers of bemos (minivans used for public transport), storefront TV sets tuned to the music video channel, and, at night, from karaoke bars. As in rock music, there is a fairly wide range of music that gets classified as dangdut. The instrumentation and song forms of today's dangdut are obviously influenced by rock music, but it has its roots in orkes melayu, a music style that combined Malay and Western elements, as well as in Indian film music and urban Arab pop.

People As a nation of islands large and small over a vast area, Indonesia's citizens are made up of a multitude of separate island peoples resulting in an extremely diverse cultural and linguistic mosaic. A staggering 300 ethnic groups and over 365 languages and dialects are still alive and well among the large population of over 217 million people. It is therefore appropriate that the national motto Bhimeka Tunggal Ika (Unity in Diversity) was adopted by the Indonesian government. A melting pot of sorts, making it vaguely similar to the United States in this way, the heritage of the Indonesian people is not often easily defined. Many have at least some Malay heritage, originating in China. But Indonesia also includes isolated tribes, some with origins from Sri Lanka, or scattered pockets of indigenous dark-skinned people, such as those of the Dani tribe on the eastern island of Irian Jaya. Because of the influence of traveling Chinese and Arab merchants, as well as the successive invasions by the Portuguese, Spanish, English, and finally the Dutch, who held colonial domination over Indonesia for many years, in reality there are many nations mixed into the modern-day Indonesian bloodline.

The major ethnic groups that can be found on the two most populated islands of Java and Bali are the Javanese, Sundanese, Balinese and Overseas Chinese. The following is a bit of information on each group. Javanese ï¿½ This is the largest and most dominant ethnic group in Indonesia. Yogyakarta, located in Central Java, is the center of Javanese culture, as well as an eclectic university town and popular tourist destination. The majority of Javanese people today are Muslim, but their culture owes much to animism as well as Hinduism. As is true with many of the cultural groups in Indonesia, the Javanese also have their own language. It is quite complex when compared to the more easily learned national language of Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian). The Javanese language has nine levels ranging from low to high, reflecting status, age and familiarity between speakers. There are regional variations too. The Javanese language of East Java is more course and generally considered less respectful than that spoken in Central Java. In Central Java, politeness and good manners are highly regarded. Loud displays of emotion are considered quite rude.

Thus, the Javanese are known for their indirectness and deference to authority in order to avoid negative, embarrassing or uncomfortable feelings. This trait stems from the Hindu court traditions of pre-Islamic influence. It is not uncommon for Javanese people to use one name, although at times a common family name is chosen in upper class families. The Javanese are also known for world-famous arts, such as batik fabrics, gamelan percussion orchestral music, and the adapted Indian legend-based stories presented in shadow puppet plays known as wayang kulit. Sundanese ï¿½ The Sundanese people are primarily found in West Java and are the second largest ethnic group in Indonesia. Though less formal and indirect in their etiquette than the Javanese in the central part of the island, they are quite down to earth in nature. The Sundanese are now primarily Islamic, but much Hindu and animism influences remain. They share many similarities with the Javanese, such as their language. Though distinctly different, it is hierarchical based on age and status, which affects the level of speech. The Sundanese version of Javanese shadow puppet plays is done with three-dimensional wooden puppets, called wayang golek.

While the Javanese are known for their gamelan music (a variety of xylophone-type percussion instruments), the Sundanese are known for their suling or flute music. Spiritism is also interwoven into Sundanese culture, including belief in sorcery and magic. Balinese ï¿½ As the name indicates, these are the people of Bali, the famed tourist island paradise. Bali conjures visions of steaming volcanoes, vibrant tropical greenery, breath-taking ocean cliffs and long white and black sand beaches. The Balinese people are no less exotic than their island. Indonesia was predominantly Hindu before the spread of Islam. Bali is the only remaining Hindu island in the nation. To this day, the Balinese people have a strong connection to village life, even those who have moved to the city for employment or to work in the tourist center of Kuta at the South of the island. Village life is highly organized and land ownership and use are of prime concern. Family status in Bali is reflected in names, which is reminiscent of the old Hindu caste system. Often children are named according to birth order.

The main castes in Bali are: Brahman, the priestly class who use the title Ida Bagus (male) or Ida Ayu (female). Next is the Satria, who often use the name Agung Gede in their name and were the former ruling class. Then there is the Wesya, who were former lower nobility and sometimes use the title Gusti. Finally, the most common caste is the Sudra. Usually the first four children are named in the following order if born into this caste: Wayan, Made, Nyoman and Ketut, regardless of gender. The Balinese naming system is complex and not easily understood from a Western standpoint, but hopefully this brief review will give a flavor for some of the more common names in Bali. The primary religion on Bali is a hybrid form of Hinduism and Buddhism, which borrows much of its intricate ritual and drama from Indian Hinduism, but is also uniquely mixed with animism, where it is believed that the gods dwell in the mountains, particularly Mount Agung, the tallest mountain on Bali. Gunung Agung, as it is called by the Balinese, is really one of several active volcanoes on the island.

Bali has been called "The Island of the Gods" and this is not only believed seriously by the Balinese, but many Indonesians across the archipelago believe that this island has special powers and is sacred. The daily lives of the Balinese revolve around their religion, which includes many festivals tied to the village temples. Each village has three main temples: Origin Temple, Village Temple and Death Temple. Each Balinese family also has a temple in their home. This family temple is to honor ancestors and is used for prayer and small daily offerings. Bali's many festivals also serve as a main cultural attraction for tourists to the island. Almost daily processions in traditional festival attire, with colorful, decorative offerings to the gods en tow, as well as frequent full-costume dance performances and Balinese gamelan music are as exotic as the tropical island setting itself. Overseas Chinese ï¿½ The Chinese are the most important ethnic minority in Indonesia. They make up less than 3% of the total population and are primarily found living in the port cities of Java, Sumatra and Kalimantan. No other immigrants have had a greater impact on the Indonesian economy.

They have been very successful businesspeople and are by far the most prosperous ethnic group in the country. This fact alone causes much anti-Chinese sentiment from other ethnic groups in Indonesia. The Dutch also had a hand in the immigration and success of the Chinese, encouraging them as an entrepreneurial middle class. Unfortunately, the Chinese are therefore viewed as an over-privileged group and there has even been legal discrimination against their culture, such as with the banning of Chinese language literature and schooling, as well as making it difficult for Chinese people to become Indonesian citizens. Despite social prejudices, many Chinese have taken on Indonesian names, speak Indonesian, and are slowly blending into Indonesian society. There are now many generations of Overseas Chinese, as they are called, who view Indonesia as home along with all of the other diverse peoples of Indonesia. In recent years, the Chinese-influenced culture is being accepted more and more, such as the government recognizing and accepting the celebration of the Chinese New Year.

Article - Javanese and Balinese Gamelan Music Javanese and Balinese Gamelan Music All Music Guide - July 2002 (Used by permission - © 2002 All Music Guide) by Bruno Deschênes When music lovers talk of Gamelan music, they generally refer to Balinese Gamelan music, some important types of which came from Java to Bali around 14th or 15th century after Islam had taken root in Java. In the Western world, Balinese Gamelan music is more popular and more known than Javanese Gamelan. Although Balinese music has obvious similarities with Javanese, it as well evolved quite differently from it. This article gives a brief description of both Javanese and Balinese musics, showing their similarities and their differences. Javanese Gamelan Music (Main sources: Brinner, 1995 & Susilo, 2001) The word "gamelan" is a Javanese word meaning "orchestra," referring to the instruments that make up the ensemble.

Although we find similar types of music and ensemble all around Southeast Asia, as in Thailand and Cambodia, for example, gamelan music as is known today is particular to four nearby islands: Java, Madura, Bali, and Lombok. There are a large number of different types of gamelan ensembles, as much in terms of instruments used as in sizes, as much in styles of music performed as for occasions when they are performed, as well for whom they perform. These ensembles can range from few portable instruments, played by three or four musicians, to a large ensemble with as many as twenty-five musicians and between ten to fifteen singers. Large gamelan are own by wealthy patrons, shadow play puppeteers or particular institution such as banks, schools or government offices. For their part, musicians own smaller and more portable ensembles. Javanese Gamelan music has been performed for and enjoyed by people of all walks of life, from beggars to kings, although the sizes and types of ensembles, as well as the styles of music differs depending from which social class the audience is and on the occasions.

Most of the times, Gamelan ensembles accompany dance and theater, and especially "wayang kulit", the well-known Javanese (and Balinese) shadow puppet theater. The "dhalang", or puppeteer, and the ensemble sits behind a white screen generally lit up by a coconut oil lamp. (The audience may see the show from both sides of the screen.) Another theater is the "wayang wong", in wich the actors sing, dance and act. As for dance accompaniment, Gamelan accompanies a wide range of types of dances, which vary with the social context (e.g., from court dance to performances linked to folk dance). Gamelan, without dance and theater, are heard during particular events such as weddings, circumcisions and birthdays, for example, as well as on radio.

In a typical Javanese Gamelan, the instruments can be divided as follow: time-marking instruments (gongs of different sizes), melodic instruments (the "suling", an end-blown flute; and the rebab, a bowed spike fiddle, which plays the balungan, or fixed melody), elaborating instruments (all other metallophone instruments, which create the sound so typical of Gamelan music; the rebab and suling are also part of these groups). Singers can join in, either to sing solo songs or simply to add to the musical texture, normally during the soft moment of the piece. But there is a lot of variations between different ensembles, depending on their uses and purposes (as well as the wealth of the owner). For example, court ensembles will greatly differ in instrumentation and repertoire from more general ensemble used in weddings, or other social events. Three types of metal are use to make these metallic instruments: bronze, brass and iron, bronze being the most preferred. Javanese music uses two tuning systems (or "laras"): sléndro and pélog. Sléndro has five pitches to the octave, while pélog has 7 pitches.

With sléndro, the octave is divided in more or less 5 equals intervals; while with pélog, the octave is divided in 7 unequal intervals. Although pélog has 7 notes, usually only five are used in a given composition. The tuning can vary from one ensemble to the other, and from one instrument to the other. For our Western ears, this music may sound out-of-tune. These two laras will not be heard together during a performance. Out of these tunings, modes (or "pathet") are used, in a quite complex interrelated system and theoretical system. The Javanese pathet are associated with times of day, moods or theatrical conventions. One particularity of Javanese music, compare to Balinese, is that the musicians somewhat "improvise". It is not an improvisation in the Western sense of the terms, but more in the sense of being able to develop, embellish and "improve" a piece as it is being performed. Yet, musicians are not allowed to go beyond certain traditional rules, they "do not express personal feelings, but, rather, perform their personal interpretations of the tradition" (Susilo). They even have 5 different types of improvisations.

In this sense, musicians do not learn a particular score, but a piece structure plus a traditional way to treat it. For this reason, musicians who never played together can often performed without much practice. Balinese Gamelan Music (Main sources: Tenzer, 1991, & Balinese music evolved from a complex mixture of local and Javanese sources. Hindus fled Java after the 14th-century collapse of the Javanese Majapaht dynasty to establish in Bali, bringing along their music and musical instruments. One thing that has always seemed remarkable to ethnomusicologists and historians is that Bali was able to sustain its Hindu culture, despite its proximity to Java. On the one hand, Balinese Gamelan music has still strong similarity with Javanese music. For example, some Balinese gamelans share important traits with older styles of Javanese Gamelan, which are no longer heard in Java. Yet, on the other, there are major differences.

Balinese have exceptionally active composers, writing new pieces for their ensembles, but also, have created, especially in the 20th century, new styles of music as well as new ensembles, involving either typical Gamelan ensembles, the voices or other musical instruments. As in Java, music in Bali is used to accompany ritual activities, as well as other non religious occasions. Religious events are surely the most prominent. Balinese being highly religious, they have set all around the island thousands of temples. When there is music there is also dance. For Balinese, both music and dance go hand in hand. As in Java, Balinese Gamelan music does not seem to be as influenced by the music of the Western world than in some other countries. The instruments used, such as gongs, all kinds of metallophones, drums, the suling and the rebab, are closely related to those found in Java; and as well as the tuning system and modes, though with some slight differences. Contrary to Java where Gamelan are commonly own by musicians, patrons, the court or institutions, in Bali each village are divided by wards, and most wards own at least one Gamelan.

It is the responsibility of the people to take care of the instruments. There may thus be several orchestras in each village and town. And the style of music may as well vary from one village, town or region from the other. As Michael Tenzer indicates, “Music is ubiquitous in Bali; its abundance is far out of proportion to the dimension of the island” (Tenzer, 1991). The major difference between Balinese Gamelan music in regards to Javanese music is that Balinese music is strictly composed. There is very little space for improvisation, although there is some at times. Each piece is written and practiced as such to attain a “unified musical expression” (Tenzer, 1991). This possibly gave the opportunity to composers to broaden the orchestral complexity of their Gamelan music. Balinese musicians “rehearse to perfect their music more than any other large ensembles in the world” (Tenzer, 1991). While Javanese gamelan does not possess these features, its great complexity comes from the many strands of performers’ improvisations. Balinese music went through major changes and developments in the 20th century.

When the Dutch seized power in 1908, the Balinese court lost much of its power. By 1930, the court was becoming some kind of remnant and the court gamelan were in storage. Unable to maintain its role as patrons of the arts, court Gamelan were sold or given to village musicians. This had a major impact. The arts, their fostering, creation and development, could now be taken of by the people. Many of the court orchestras were melted down and recast as into new and more versatile instruments better suited to the tastes of the villagers. By leaving the court, Balinese music became louder, faster, more dramatic and flamboyant, with sudden changes in tempo and dynamics. While in the south the music is often said to be more refined, in the north it is sometimes more aggressive. New styles of and types of ensembles developed, in particular the Gong Kebyar, which merged different older styles. We have also seen the emergence of a large number of composers, with their own individual style of music. Yet, although Balinese musicians have had many interactions and collaborations with Western musicians, their music remains distinctively their own.

This flamboyance and matchless creativity have surely been two of Bali’s trademarks for the attraction and interest Westerners have shown about their music. Javanese music is subtler, less obviously showy, and often remains more mysterious to those encountering it for the first time. Acknowledgements I want to sincerely thank Mr. Michael Tenzer and Prof. Pak Susilo for kindly accepting to review this paper and correcting my many mistakes. If some remains, they are my own. Suggested CDs of Javanese and Balinese Music Java Java, Javanese court gamelan, Elektra Nonesuch, 1971, 9 72044-2 Indonesia, The Angklung Group, Arion, 1991, ARN 64183 Java: Historic Gamelans, Philips, 6586 004 Java: Music of Mystical Enchantment, Lyrichord, 1993, 7301 Java: Palais Royal de Yogyakarta, Vol.

3: Spiritual and Sacred Music, Ocora, 2000, C 560069 Java: Music of the Theater, Auvidis/Unesco, 1999, D 8078 Java, Vocal Art, Auvidis/Unesco, 1989, D 8014 Ida Widawati, Java – Tembang Sunda, Sundanese Sung Poetry, INÉDIT, 1994, W 260056 Musiques d’Asie, Inde, Japon, Chine & Indonésie, Auvidis Naïve, 2001, Y 226129 Bali Bali, Gamelan & Kecak, Elektra/Nonesuch, 1989, 9 79204-2 Gamelan Semar Pegulingan of Binoh Village, King Record, 1992, KICC 5155 Geguntangan Arja “Arja Bon Bali”, King Records, 1994, KICC 5183 Anthology of the Music of Bali, Volume 3: Music

 for rituals, BUDA Records, 1997, 92602-2 Gamelan Semar Pegulingan of Binoh Village, King Record, 1992, KICC 5155 Magic Bali, le Ramayana, Playasound, PS 65003 Geguntungan Arja « Arja Bon Bali », King Record, 1994, KICC 5183 The Earth Greets the Sun, Gamelan Music from Bali, Deutsche Grammophon, 1972, 447 499-2 Bali, Musique du nord-ouest, Auvidis Ethnic, 1991, B 6769 References Benjamin Brinner.

Knowing Music, Making Music. Chicago: The University Of Chicago Press, 1995. T.M. McComb. Central Javanese Gamelan. 1999. Hardja Susilo, University of Hawai’i at Manoa. Toward an appreciation of Javanese Gamelan. 2001. Javanese Music. Encyclopedia.com, Bali Catherine Basset. Anthologie des musiques de Bali. BUDA Records, 1997, 92602-2. Ingrid Klune. Balinese Music as an Aspect of Art in Southeast Asia. Department of Anthropology, Northern Illinois University. Michael Tenzer. Balinese Music. Periplus/University of Washington Press, 1991. Excerpts found at Gamelan, Balinese Music. Balinese Music. Encyclopedia.com,

Question: Gamelan is a major Indonesian style of?
Answer: Music