- Also spelled:
- gamelang or gamelin
- Related Topics:
- orchestra
- colotomic structure
- Southeast Asian music
gamelan
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What is a gamelan?
A gamelan is a traditional Indonesian orchestra primarily from Java and Bali, comprised mainly of percussion instruments like gongs, metallophones, xylophones, and drums. Bamboo flutes, bowed string instruments, or voices often carry a sustained melody, particularly in theatrical performances. The drum leads the ensemble, setting the tempo and cues. Gamelans use either a five-tone scale called slendro or a seven-note scale called pelog. Each gamelan is uniquely tuned.
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Where does gamelan music come from?
Gamelan music comes from the islands of Java and Bali in Indonesia, and it is the indigenous orchestra type there. A gamelan is a percussion ensemble that consists mainly of gongs, metallophones, xylophones, and drums. In Java and Bali, puppet theatre, dance-drama, and some nondance theatrical performances are typically accompanied by a gamelan.
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).
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What instruments are used in a gamelan orchestra?
A gamelan is an Indonesian orchestra consisting primarily of various gongs and tuned metal instruments struck with mallets. The instruments can be categorized by function.
- Instruments that play the main theme without ornamentation: thick bronze slabs (saron demung, saron barung, saron panerus)
- Elaborating instruments that add ornaments to the main theme: gongs in double rows (bonang panembang, bonang barung, bonang panerus); thin bronze slabs with bamboo resonators (gender panembung or slentem, gender barung, and gender panerus); wooden xylophone (gambang); zither (celempung); end-blown flute (suling); and a 2-stringed lute (rebab)
- Colotomic instruments that provide punctuating beats in rhythmic patterns: heavy, suspended, or horizontally laid gongs
The drum (kendang) unites these groups and acts as leader. The kendang regulates tempos and cues transitions.
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How are gamelan instruments played together?
A gamelan is an Indonesian orchestra comprised mainly of gongs and tuned metal instruments struck with mallets. The instruments are united and led by the drum, or kendang.
Gamelan music features a theme that extends over four-beat bars, with other instruments playing related countermelodies, rhythmic paraphrases, and delicate rhythmic patterns. Punctuating instruments mark musical sentences, with the big gong marking the periods.
The highly developed polyphony or heterophony has a rhythmic origin. Some instruments play the theme in regular note values, while others add ornaments. The rebab (a two-stringed lute) leads the orchestra in softer music. In faster Balinese gamelan music, exact repetition is essential.
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Why is teamwork important in gamelan performances?
Teamwork is essential in gamelan performances because of the music's complex structure. Gamelan orchestras consist of various instruments, including gongs, metallophones, xylophones, flutes, zithers, and drums. Each instrument has a specific role, and musicians must work together to create a cohesive sound. The drum (kendang) unites the ensemble and acts as a leader, giving cues and tempi to the musicians. The highly developed polyphony or heterophony requires musicians to play related countermelodies and rhythmic paraphrases of a nuclear theme. The instruments must be tuned to match the ensemble rather than an external standard of pitch.
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How does gamelan music influence Indonesian culture and ceremonies?
Gamelan, the indigenous orchestra of Java and Bali, Indonesia, significantly shapes Indonesian culture and ceremonies. Ranging from a few to over 75 instruments, gamelan ensembles consist mainly of gongs and tuned metal instruments struck with mallets.
In Java and Bali, gamelan commonly accompanies puppet theatre, dance-drama, and other theatrical performances, with drums leading the ensemble and female singers creating the mood. Gamelan gong orchestras often open ceremonies and provide music for temple feasts in Bali. Further, important Islamic feasts and animistic ceremonies in Java are celebrated with shadow plays accompanied by gamelan music, highlighting the instrument's deep integration into social and religious life.
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gamelan, 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.
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.)
The highly developed polyphony (multipart music) or heterophony (music in which one part varies a melody played simultaneously in another part) of the gamelan has a rhythmic origin. A nuclear theme typically extends over a number of four-beat “bars,” against which other instruments play a related countermelody. Another group plays rhythmic paraphrases of this theme, and a fourth group fills out the texture with delicate rhythmic patterns. Highly important are the punctuating, or colotomic, instruments that divide the musical sentence, marking, as it were, the commas, semicolons, and periods. This last-named function is done with the big gong. Over this shimmering, variegated pattern of hammered sound floats the uninterrupted melodic line of the voice, the flute, or the rebab.
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