Two Families of Metal-keyed Instruments in a Gamelan

Allow's begin past watching the post-obit video. You lot have likely never heard Gamelan nor anything similar information technology before. As you lot 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 exercise? What near the music itself? What is striking you lot about the Rhythm/Tune/Harmony/Timbre/Dynamics/Texture/Form of the music that gives Gamelan its unique quality?

WHAT IS GAMELAN?

GAMELAN is the proper name for a mostly percussion-based ensemble type found on the Indonesian islands of Java and Bali off the due north-west declension of Australia. This ensemble is both rhythm and melody based due to the presence of MEMBRANOPHONES (members of the pulsate family unit of instruments) and IDIOPHONES (instruments that produce a pitch when struck - such every bit 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 metallic. The ensembles do non accept 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-thirty individuals.

GAMELAN DEFINED

The word GAMELAN is believed to exist a low Javanese give-and-take 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 fabricated of.

Gamelan predates the arrival of Buddhism and Hinduism to Republic of indonesia, making it an aboriginal ethnic 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 loftier level in Gamelan ensembles.

Past the 15th century, the island of Java was colonized past 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 terminal 300 years, Gamelan has served as a cultural marking of ethnic people of Java and Bali. Ensembles generally perform to back-trail trip the light fantastic toe and WAYANG (shadow puppetry).

INSTRUMENTS

PELOG (the septatonic/seven-note Gamelan scale)

SLENDRO (the pentatonic/v-note Gamelan scale)

Each Gamelan ensemble is built as a custom set of instruments that are all pitched to the aforementioned tuning system and decorated in a uniform way. Gamelan ensembles are built to play one of ii musical scales: Pelog and Slendro. PELOG is a newer scale with 7 uneven pitches and SLENDRO is an older scale with five fifty-fifty pitches. While the two scales are both established patterns, a Gamelan tin can be constructed starting on any notation, and so each gamelan musical instrument tin just be played with the rest of its original prepare. Ane cannot obtain a single Gamelan musical instrument and expect to join any Gamelan they wish.

GONG

The GONG is considered the near important instrument of the ensemble. It keeps the longest trounce only being struck one time at the beginning of each phrase to signal the beginning of a new section. It is believed that each Gamelan ensemble is accompanied by a spirit and that the spirit resides inside the gong. Its timbre is spread, murky, and ringing.

KEMANAK

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 college and lower pitched pair struck back and forth based on the pattern of the piece of music. Their timbre is brilliant, metallic, and hollow.

KENDANG

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.

GANGSA

The GANGSA is the chief melodic musical instrument. It is a mallet instrument in the xylophone family but the bars are made of metal, nearly often brass. It is struck with a hammer or mallet and - unlike most metallophones in the world - players merely utilize a single mallet rather than one in each hand. Its timbre is metallic, round, and ringing.

BONANG

The BONANG is another melodic musical instrument fabricated 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 as well sometimes referred to as "gongs" only are non the traditional flat gongs we generally think of. The tiptop 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 & Caption

Dance

Gamelan is rarely performed as simply a musical concert. Instead, it commonly accompanies some other visual art form like dance. Balinese (and Javanese) dance follow a centuries-one-time tradition of storytelling through trunk language. The trip the light fantastic toe incorporates very specific movements and gestures from the body, hands and arms, fingers, head, and eyes.

Wayang Kulit mini-documentary

WAYANG | SHADOW PUPPETRY

Some other art form that is frequently paired with Gamelan is WAYANG or traditional Javanese shadow puppetry. Intricate colored puppets made from buffalo hibernate are manipulated behind a screen where their shadows are projected through with lite.

Kecak scene from the movie, Baraka (1992)

KECAK | MONKEY Dirge

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 more often than not has one to several leaders who call out the side by side department or design with the rest of the group switching instantaneously while also staying in very precise synchronization.

AN ORAL TRADITION

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 pedagogy increased in the 1950'south equally a fashion to increase cultural pride in Coffee and Bali past the opening of national Gamelan schools. The manner Gamelan musicians tin learn and perform such complex and precise rhythms continues to baffle musicologists.

MUSICAL ELEMENTS OF GAMELAN …

Gamelan Rhythmic Structure

RHYTHM: In general, the larger the musical instrument, the slower rhythms it plays and the smaller the instrument, the faster rhythms it plays. The Gong plays the slowest only striking one time at the end of each musical phrase while the other instruments subdivide in the phrase more chop-chop. Each rhythmic phrase in Gamelan is chosen a COLOTOMY and they can be of curt or long beat values, repeated or not inside a larger slice. Each Colotomy is based on a sequence and repetition of instruments and how they strike in relationship to each other.

MELODY: A central, "core tune" called a BALUNGAN is played by a pocket-sized number of instruments in the Gamelan. The residue of the instruments play supportive roles or change and embellish the melody past adding more complexity of notes and rhythms as the tune plays out over fourth dimension. The notes come up from 2 basic scales in Gamelan: the Pelog or the Slendro.

HARMONY: Western Classical music harmony does non exist in Gamelan in that the musicians' goals are non to build chords or harmonies through functioning. Instead, some incidental harmony does occur when the melodic instruments strike different notes simultaneously in functioning (resulting in intervals) merely 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 brilliant. Depending on the ratio of sure instruments (similar having more drums or more than wooden idiophones), the timbre of various Gamelan may be more than mellow or fifty-fifty more than bright.

DYNAMICS: Dynamics tend to start at ane volume, die down at the end of a musical phrase, and so jump dorsum to forte or fortissimo suddenly. Depending on the genre of Gamelan beingness 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 class is mostly considered heterophonic. The Balungan "cadre tune" is modified by diverse instruments all at once.

FORM: The grade 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 grade of an entire slice. Private Gamelan pieces are quite long compared with music form in other parts of the world with most pieces being over ten minutes in length.

GAMELAN SUB-GENRES

There are nigh 50 varieties of Gamelan that involve different ensemble sizes, instrumentation, and performance practices. Distinctions of Gamelan are based on the geographical regions of Javanese (Primal and East Java), Balinese (Bali), and Sundanese (West Java). I of the near pop is GAMELAN GONG KEBYAR, a style characterized by its sudden and rapid jumps in book and speed (kebyar meaning to "burst open" or to "flare up").

COSTUME

In that location is no set attire for Gamelan functioning. Performers may be dressed casually in t-shirts and shorts or very simply and even shirtless (male person performers). For special occasions, performers may wear the traditional formal costume of Indonesia chosen a PAKAIAN BADAT of which at that place are many styles and variations. In full general, when dressed in formal garb, Gamelan ensembles will all wear matching costumes to unify their appearance.

WHERE TO HEAR GAMELAN IN THE USA

Gamelan are very rare in the USA as a complete prepare is very expensive and requires a lot of exercise from a big ensemble to play at a high performance level. In America, most Gamelan performances volition take place on college campuses by the school's Gamelan grade 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 be on the west coast at ASU, BYU, and UC Berkeley where any student can participate in the grade or social club. In Washington state, Gamelan can be establish at Evergreen Land College and Cornish College of the Arts. In improver, areas of the country with loftier Indonesian populations maintain traditional Gamelan equally part of their cultural heritage.

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Source: https://kaitlinbove.com/gamelan

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