Gamelan is the traditional ensemble music of the Javanese, Sundanese, and Balinese peoples of Indonesia, made up predominantly of percussive instruments. The most common instruments used are metallophones played by mallets and a set of hand-played drums called kendhang which register the beat. The kemanak and gangsa are commonly used gamelan instruments. Other instruments include xylophones, bamboo flutes, a bowed instrument called a rebab, and even vocalists named sindhen.
Pelog is one of the two essential scales of gamelan music native to Bali and Java, in Indonesia. In Javanese the term is said to be a variant of the word pelag meaning "fine" or "beautiful". The other, older, scale commonly used is called slendro. Pelog has seven notes, but many gamelan ensembles only have keys for five of the pitches. Even in ensembles that have all seven notes, many pieces only use a subset of five notes.
Evan Ziporyn is an American composer of post-minimalist music with a cross-cultural orientation, drawing equally from classical music, avant-garde, various world music traditions, and jazz. Ziporyn has composed for a wide range of ensembles, including symphony orchestras, wind ensembles, many types of chamber groups, and solo works, sometimes involving electronics. Balinese gamelan, for which he has composed numerous works, has compositions. He is known for his solo performances on clarinet and bass clarinet; additionally, Ziporyn plays gender wayang and other Balinese instruments, saxophones, piano & keyboards, EWI, and Shona mbira.
Gamelan gong kebyar is a style or genre of Balinese gamelan music of Indonesia. Kebyar means "to flare up or burst open", and refers to the explosive changes in tempo and dynamics characteristic of the style. It is the most popular form of gamelan in Bali, and its best known musical export.
Bali is an Indonesian island that shares in the gamelan and other Indonesian musical styles. Bali, however, has its own techniques and styles, including kecak, a form of singing that imitates the sound of monkeys. In addition, the island is home to several unique kinds of gamelan, including the gamelan jegog, gamelan gong gede, gamelan gambang, gamelan selunding and gamelan semar pegulingan, the cremation music angklung and the processional music bebonangan. Modern popular styles include gamelan gong kebyar, dance music which developed during the Dutch occupation and 1950's era joged bumbung, another popular dance style. In Balinese music you can also hear metallophones, gongs and xylophones.
Joged bumbung is a style of gamelan music from Bali, Indonesia on instruments made primarily out of bamboo. The ensemble gets its name from joged, a flirtatious dance often performed at festivals and parties. This style of Gamelan is especially popular in Northern and Western Bali, but is easily found all over the island. Unlike many styles of Balinese Gamelan which have sacred roles in religious festivals, Joged music is much more secular, and in many ways has become the folk music of Bali. With the rapid rise of tourism in recent decades, Joged music is now often found being performed at hotels and restaurants.
The angklung is a musical instrument from West Java, Indonesia made of a varying number of bamboo tubes attached to a bamboo frame. The tubes are carved to have a resonant pitch when struck and are tuned to octaves, similar to Western handbells. The base of the frame is held in one hand, while the other hand shakes the instrument, causing a repeating note to sound. Each performer in an angklung ensemble is typically responsible for just one pitch, sounding their individual angklung at the appropriate times to produce complete melodies.
Kotekan is a style of playing fast interlocking parts in most varieties of Balinese Gamelan music, including Gamelan gong kebyar, Gamelan angklung, Gamelan jegog and others.
The ugal is an instrument in the Indonesian gamelan orchestra. It is a bronze metallophone played one handed with a small hammer, often in a dance-like manner. There are usually ten keys, giving a maximum range spanning about two octaves. Like the gangsa and gendér, they are suspended over tuned bamboo resonators.
A gangsa is a type of metallophone which is used mainly in Balinese and Javanese Gamelan music. In Balinese gong kebyar styles, there are two types of gangsa typically used: the smaller, higher pitched kantilan and the larger pemade. Each instrument consists of several tuned metal bars each placed over an individual resonator. The bars are hit with a wooden panggul, each producing a different pitch. Duration of sound intensity and sound quality factors are generally accomplished by damping the vibration of the bar with the fingers of the free hand. Balinese gong kebyar gangsas, as with other metallophones in gong kebyar ensembles, are played in neighboring pairs with interlocking, rapid-tempo parts that elaborate on the melody of a piece of music ; these pairs are tuned to be dissonant and create certain wavelengths of sympathetic vibrations to create a shimmering tone that travels long distances. The gangsa is very similar to the old gendér and the saron.
Gamelan beleganjur is one of the most popular styles of gamelan music in Bali. Its closest Western analogue is probably the Western military band.
Gamelan Sekar Jaya is a Balinese gamelan ensemble located in the San Francisco Bay Area. It has been called "the finest Balinese gamelan ensemble outside of Indonesia" by Indonesia’s Tempo Magazine. It performs the music and dance of Bali in many different genres of Balinese gamelan, mainly gamelan gong kebyar, gamelan angklung, gender wayang, and gamelan jegog. Past performances have also featured ensembles playing in other styles as well, including gamelan joged bumbung, kecak, gender batel, gamelan gambuh, genggong, and beleganjur. GSJ has also performed contemporary pieces featuring instruments from the Western tradition.
Gamelan gong gede, meaning "gamelan with the large gongs", is a form of the ceremonial gamelan music of Bali, dating from the court society of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, associated historically with public ceremonies and special occasions such as temple festivals.
Gamelan gender wayang is a style of gamelan music played in Bali, Indonesia. It is required for wayang and most sacred Balinese Hindu rituals. The smallest of gamelan ensembles, it requires only two players and is complete at four, the additional instruments doubling an octave above. Like other gamelan genres, it incorporates delicate interlocking melodies and active contrapuntal movement, yet poses unique challenges in technique and composition.
A Calung is a bamboo tube xylophone used in the Indonesian music of Javanese and Balinese.
I Made Subandi is a gamelan composer and performer from Gianyar, Bali. Having studied with his father, drummer and gender wayang player I Made Dig, and at SMKI ('85-'88) and STSI ('89-'93), he teaches at the Indonesian Academy of Performing Arts in Bali. In 1999, during his residency with Gamelan Sekar Jaya, he composed a soundtrack for the 1933 silent film "Legong Dance of the Virgins" with American composer Richard Marriott, scored for Balinese gamelan, string quartet, trumpet and clarinet. He has collaborated with Dutch trio Boi Akih and American ensemble Club Foot Orchestra. He is well known for his use of experimentation. Tenzer describes Subandi as one of a few composers who, "have achieved a self-conscious and fundamental break with the tabuh kreasi form of the recent past."
Condong is a Balinese dance which is often performed as a preface to legong and accompanied by the semar pangulingan style of gamelan. The term also refers to a stock character, a quintessential representation of the maidservant, found in the condong dance, as well as the legong, gambuh, and arja dances.
Kebyar duduk is a Balinese dance created by I Mario and first performed in 1925. Inspired by the development of the quick-paced gamelan gong kebyar, kebyar duduk is named for the seated and half-seated positions taken by the dancers. It does not convey a story, but is interpretative.
Oleg, often identified as "the dance of the bumblebees", is a form of dance in Bali, Indonesia.
