Gamelan (music)

Gamelan is a type of musical ensemble that originated in Southeast Asia on the islands of Indonesia. Gamelan orchestras primarily consist of percussion instruments such as gongs and drums, although other types of instruments are sometimes featured. Gamelans were very popular among Indonesian courts between the eighth and fifteenth centuries. Although gamelan music's popularity has declined in modern times, its distinctive style has influenced numerous Western music genres over the centuries, from classical music to electronica.

Background

The term gamelan derives from the Javanese word gamel, a type of blacksmithing hammer. Although little is known about the origin of gamelan music, scholars believe the custom emerged during the early history of Indonesia. Gamelan music featured prominently in Indonesian court life between the eighth and eleventh centuries, specifically among the Hindu and Buddhist kingdoms within the islands of Java, Bali, and Sumatra. The Borobudur temple, a Buddhist monument in Java, features sculptures depicting gamelan musicians dating back to the Srivijaya empire, a period in Indonesian history lasting between the seventh and thirteenth centuries. The sculptures pictured musicians playing instruments such as the flute, metal drums, and stringed instruments.

More complete records of the presence of gamelans in Indonesia began appearing between the twelfth and fifteenth centuries. Gamelans continued to play an important role in Hindu and Buddhist courts. Members of royal families and their courtiers were required to learn to play in a gamelan, and their talent greatly affected their social status. Metal percussion instruments were especially important during this period, as evidenced by their repeated appearance on the walls of temples built during the Majapahit empire. The gong, a circular bronze plate played by striking a mallet against the metal, emerged within gamelans during this time. The Majapahit empire had a special government office responsible for supervising performing arts such as gamelan music. The office was in charge of building gamelan instruments and arranging performances at court. The style and instrumentation of gamelans were essentially identical in both Bali and Java during this period, since both islands were a part of the Majapahit empire. Balinese and Javanese gamelan music eventually took on distinct characteristics that distinguished one from the other.

In the fifteenth century, several Indonesian islands, including Java, began converting to Islam. Most Javanese people converted to a branch of Islam known as Sufism, an Islamic sect that practiced mysticism and highly valued music. Sufism believed music had the power to connect a subject to divine beings. Bali remained a Hindu island, however, and the gamelan styles of Bali and Java diverged over the next few centuries. Balinese gamelans continued to foster musical expertise and were quicker in tempo than their Javanese counterparts. Gamelan musicians in Java adopted a much slower tempo to complement Sufi teachings, and the music took on a meditative and entrancing quality.

When the Portuguese invaded Indonesia to take advantage of the region's spice and silk reserves, they brought along enslaved peoples from Africa, Arabia, and India, who in turn brought new styles of music to the islands. The mid-1400s saw a new style of gamelan emerge in Indonesia called kroncong, which introduced Western instruments such as the ukulele, cello, violin, and guitar into the gamelan musical style. Dutch colonizers eventually expelled the Portuguese and took control of the spice trade. The Dutch regularly observed gamelan concerts performed for Indonesian royalty, and many of these productions also featured a gamelan dance troupe. Indonesia remained under Dutch control until 1949. Eager to maintain its musical history, the newly established Indonesian government started several publically funded gamelan schools in the 1950s and 1960s to preserve one of Indonesia's most beloved pastimes. By the twenty-first century, gamelan music had become an important component of many Indonesian cultural activities such as shadow puppet shows, ceremonies, dances, and religious rituals. The gamelan style had also penetrated the music of the West, influencing modern musical genres such as electronic music. Several contemporary composers had also experimented with hybrid music genres combing the gamelan style with classical, jazz, and popular music. Educational programs about Balinese and Javanese gamelans could also be found at universities in Europe and the United States.

Overview

A gamelan consists of an ensemble of musicians playing primarily percussion instruments, specifically gongs, metallophones, and drums. Gamelans can also include wind and string instruments such as the suling, a type of bamboo flute, and the rebab, a string instrument that is bowed or plucked. Some gamelan orchestras also utilize vocalists. Each gamelan ensemble creates its own special tuning for each instrument, and all the instruments are kept together as a set for performances. The gongs of a gamelan ensemble come in many different sizes, and each size is used to mark musical cycles within a piece of music. These cycles are referred to as gongan. Traditionally, gamelan music was not notated and was taught to musicians orally. Gamelan ensembles later began utilizing musical notation for performances.

Gamelan music produced sounds in layers. Each layer of sound is played by a specific instrument within the set. Gamelans' musical layers revolve around a balungan, or a core melody. Each layer plays a variant of this core melody. This type of performance, during which several variations of a core melody are played simultaneously, is called heterophony. A gamelan's heterophonic sound has distinguishing characteristics. Lower-pitched instruments have longer note durations, while the higher-pitched instruments are played very fast. Less experienced musicians play the lower pitched instruments, while virtuosos are charged with playing the higher pitched instruments. Gamelan music is divided into four beat groups known as keteg. IRegarding tonality, gamelan ensembles are normally adjusted to one of two tunings: slendro, a five-note scale, or pelog, a seven-note scale.

Bibliography

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