Gamelan Sekar Jaya, the first community-based Balinese gamelan in the United States, performing jegog (bamboo gamelan) music in San Francisco
There are more than 100 gamelan groups in the United States. A gamelan is a musical ensemble from Indonesia, typically from the islands of Bali or Java, featuring a variety of instruments such as metallophones, xylophones, drums and gongs; bamboo flutes, bowed and plucked strings. Vocalists may also be included. The earliest appearance of a gamelan in the U.S. is considered to be at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893; this set of instruments is still at the Chicago Field Museum. The first academic program to include the playing of gamelan was established by Mantle Hood at UCLA in 1958.
There are actively performing gamelan groups in roughly two thirds of the states in the U.S., using instruments made in the Indonesian regions of Java, Bali, Sunda (West Java), Banyumas, and/or North America. Many schools, universities and other institutions in North America own sets of gamelan instruments, and there are increasing numbers of community-based ensembles as well.
The earliest directory of gamelan in North America was compiled by Barbara Benary in 1993 for Ear Magazine, which included 98 sets (not all with active players); since then the number has increased steadily.[1]
Laras Pelog (complete), Bronze (Pak Kuat), from private collection of Craig Rowe (Dir.).
Solonese klenengan
Ensemble members are often drawn from Cal Arts, UCLA, various other institutions and the Indonesian community. Ensemble was named by and dedicated to Bapak Djoko Waluyo.[3]
Traditional Balinese baleganjur, a 29-piece set of unique chromatic reyongs, drum set, synths, computer processing, trumpet, saxophone, flute, voice, and other instruments from around the world
Original gamelan fusion, traditional processional baleganjur, and kecak.
Balinese Gong Kebyar, Gambuh, Kecak, Baleganjur, Gender Wayang
A community-based ensemble founded by Hirotaka Inuzuka in 2014. Performs traditional and contemporary Balinese music professionally in the greater Los Angeles area.
Gamelan Tunas Mekar ("Tunas" means a stored bit of life force, such as a seed of a floral bud, and "Mekar" means to put forth. This name has given the group its sense of identity: a wayward seed, blown far from the parent plant and landing on unfamiliar soil that has nonetheless produced an amazing flower.)
Kyai Tlogo Beruang Perak (Venerable Lake of the Silver Bear)
This American made gamelan was built by and directed by Professor Michael Zinn of University of Delaware. When Dr. Zinn retired, the gamelan went with him. There is currently no active gamelan at the university.[3]
Gong kebyar, gender wayang, joged bumbung, gong suling, tektekan, genggong, and godogan
Balinese traditional and new music and dance compositions
Gamelan Wrhatnala of Boyds is the sister of Gamelan Sanggar Wrhatnala Pusat Abiantuwung in Bali. Both are directed by I. G. A. Ngurah Supartha, who is also a prominent choreographer, composer and puppeteer.[3][44]
Since its operation in 1976, ACCI has three main departments: Indonesian Traditional Art of Music and Dance, Indonesian Authentic Shadow Puppet Theater, and Gallery of the Community Arts & Crafts.[3]
Balinese 5 or 7 tone —- a unique tuning by Wayan Beratha, 1983
Traditional semar pegulingan and angklung repertoire
Genta Pinara Pitu has 11-key gangsa and a 14-kettle terompong. It permits 4-tone slendro, 5-tone slendro, 5-tone pelog, 6-tone pelog and 7-tone pelog.[3]
Boston Village Gamelan and Tufts Gamelan Ensemble / Rinengga Sih Tentrem (Well-Made by Tentrem's Feeling of Friendship; Enhanced by Serenity)
Javanese, Rinengga Sih Tentrem (Solo, by Tentrem Sarwanto)
Traditional Solonese court traditions
The Boston Village Gamelan is now in residence at Tufts University, and rehearses together with the Tufts ensemble. It performs also occasionally on a 19th-century Solonese set owned by the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Kyai Jati Mulya.[3][46]
Javanese traditional (Solonese), also contemporary.
"Kyai Medharing Madu" (Venerable Flowering Honey); made by Tentrem Sarwanto of Solo, owned by The Schubert Club. An iron pelog set made by Pak Mulyadi of Solo, owned by The Schubert Club, used for school residencies.[3]
Winona Gamelan Ensemble at Winona State University
Javanese. Bronze pelog / slendro made in Solo by Pak Raharjo, "Sumber Gongso"
Traditional
Winona State University ensemble in partnership with the Schubert Club of Saint Paul (loan of instruments made by John and Ferry Banks). A community/university ensemble.[3]
Iron-keyed gamelan selonding instruments are from the village of Tenganan, Bali. Gamelan Encantada is rolled steel, slendro and pelog, with gongs, drums, and suling from Java.[3][64]
Hudson Valley Gamelan Ensemble comprising Gamelan Giri Mekar, Gamelan Chandra Kanchana, and the Bard Gender Consort
Balinese gong kebyar, gender wayang
Primarily traditional
Gamelan Giri Mekar, a community ensemble originally of Woodstock, NY, is now in residence across the river at Bard College. Gamelan Chandra Kanchana is primarily composed of Bard students but also has some faculty and Giri Mekar members.[3]
Catskill Mountain Gamelan consists of two community ensembles directed by Dr. Dorcinda Knauth. Sekar Mawar (the Rose Blossom gamelan) is a degung gamelan built in 2012 by the Bandung builder, Asep Ahum. It is named after the rose, the state flower of New York, and for its red and gold coloring. Sekar Mawar musicians perform both classical and popular Sundanese music styles. Sekar Ligar (Falling Rose Petals) is a kacapi suling ensemble that performs both traditional Tembang Sunda repertoire from the West Javanese highlands, as well as a lighter style of music called Pop sunda.
Gamelan Son of Lion presents new music concerts in New York City and downstate New York counties. A subsidiary group, Rockland Angklung Society, plays Balinese and American pieces for gamelan angklung and is based in Rockland County, 30 min. NW of the city.[3][10]
Semara Dana (7-toned gong kebyar) and arrangements
Balinese and American New Music; Traditional Balinese
In residence at the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College. Composed of students, professors, and alumn, YS performs regularly in New York City and has performed on festivals throughout the U.S. In 2018 and 2020, the group studied and performed in Pengosekan, Bali, at the home of preeminent composer I Dewa Ketut Alit.
Gamelan Kusuma Laras was founded in 1983. The group consists of American and Indonesian players and rehearses on instruments owned by the New York Indonesian Consulate.[3][67]
Sekaha Gong Kusuma Sari (Floral Essence Gamelan Club)
Balinese gong kebyar
Traditional, with some modern pieces such as those composed by David Harnish and student composers
Bowling Green State University ensemble, directed by Kurt Doles; the director emeritus is David Harnish. The ensemble was founded 1990, replacing an earlier gamelan with a different name that had been established in 1980.[3]
The Oberlin College gamelan was a slendro set from Malang, East Java, purchased in 1970. In 1984 a pelog set was custom built to match by a Yokya maker.[3]
Traditional and contemporary (Javanese and American) music
A non-profit organization providing opportunities for learning about Indonesian music and art. Performances also include wayang kulit, the shadow puppet theater.[3][73]
Kyai Tunjung Mulya (Noble Lotus Blossom)
Central Javanese and Cirebon—slendro/pelog extended range—iron/brass/bronze by Suhirdjan in Yogyakarta (1999).
At Gettysburg College. The ensemble was founded by Dr. Brent C. Talbot in 2010. They perform throughout Central Pennsylvania, and artist-in-residence programs bring the instruments to local elementary schools.[75]
University of Pittsburgh ensembles. The university formerly owned a set of Balinese angklung. Members of the ensemble also perform tembang Sunda. The Sundanese Gamelan Ensemble is run by the University of Pittsburgh music department during the regular school year, and directed by Andrew Weintraub. The university also owns a set of calung (bamboo tube xylophone). In summers the Balinese angklung gamelan is taught aboard a cruise ship as part of the Semester At Sea.[3][78][79]
Kyai Tirta Rukmi (Venerable Rivers of Gold)
Javanese, iron, by Suhirdjan, 1995
Ligar Pasundan (The Spreading Fragrance of Pasundan)
Gamelan Semara Santi (in honor of Semar, the god of love, and Santi, the Sanskrit word for peace, to commemorate the peace-loving Quaker traditions of Swarthmore College)
This ensemble was the first American gamelan, which began at Goddard College in 1967 and became a community group in 1980. It is now located at Dennis Murphy's farm. It also uses a second iron set built by Dennis Murphy, Venerable Small Tiger.[3][10][87]
Chandra Wyoga ("Chandra" refers to the beauty of the full moon, and "Wyoga" has a double meaning indicating both "Wyoming Gamelan" and "meditation on the beauty of the full moon.")
Balinese Semar Pegulingan, acquired in 1996
Traditional
The University of Wyoming Gamelan, Chandra Wyoga, is a community gamelan with many UW students and community members.[3][91]
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 and a set of hand-drums called kendang, which keep the beat. The kemanak, a banana-shaped idiophone, and the gangsa, another metallophone, are also commonly used gamelan instruments on Bali. Other notable instruments include xylophones, bamboo flutes, a bowed string instrument called a rebab, and a zither-like instrument called a siter, used in Javanese gamelan. Additionally, vocalists may be featured, being referred to as sindhen for females or gerong for males.
As it is a country with many different tribes and ethnic groups, the music of Indonesia itself is also very diverse, coming in hundreds of different forms and styles. Every region has its own culture and art, and as a result traditional music from area to area also uniquely differs from one another. For example, each traditional music are often accompanied by their very own dance and theatre. Contemporary music scene have also been heavily shaped by various foreign influences, such as America, Britain, Japan, Korea, and India.
Pelog is one of the essential tuning systems used in gamelan instruments that has a heptatonic scale. 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, sometimes the additional 4th tone is also used in a piece like western accidentals.
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.
Slendro is one of the essential tuning systems used in gamelan instruments that have pentatonic scale. Based on Javanese mythology, the Slendro Gamelan tuning system is older than the pélog tuning system.
American gamelan could refer to both instruments and music; the term has been used to refer to gamelan-style instruments built by Americans, as well as to music written by American composers to be played on gamelan instruments. American gamelan music usually has some relationship to the gamelan traditions of Indonesia, as found primarily on the islands of Java and Bali in a variety of styles. Many American compositions can be played on Indonesian or American-made instruments. Indonesian gamelan can be made of a variety of materials, including bronze, iron, or bamboo. American gamelan builders used all sorts of materials including aluminum, tin cans, car hubcaps, steel, antique milk-strainers, etc. American gamelan may also describe the original music of American ensembles working with traditional instruments.
Dennis Murphy was a composer, musician, instrument maker, artist, and playwright.
The angklung is a musical instrument from the Sundanese in Indonesia that is made of a varying number of bamboo tubes attached to a bamboo frame. The tubes are carved to produce 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.
Barbara Benary was an American composer and ethnomusicologist specializing in Indonesian and Indian music.
Gamelan Son of Lion (GSOL) is a new-music American gamelan ensemble based in New York City. The group was founded in 1976 by Barbara Benary, Philip Corner, and Daniel Goode. It is a composers' collective as well as repertory ensemble. Current composers in the group in addition to the co-founders are: David Demnitz, Laura Liben, Jody Kruskal, Lisa Karrer, Marnen Laibow-Koser, Jody Diamond, and David Simons.
Henry Eichheim was an American composer, conductor, violinist, organologist, and ethnomusicologist. He is best known as one of the first American composers to combine the sound of indigenous Asian instruments with western orchestral colors.
Jody Diamond is an American composer, performer, writer, publisher, editor, and educator. She specializes in traditional and new music for Indonesian gamelan and is active internationally as a scholar, performer, and publisher.
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, gamelan semar pegulingan, kecak, gender batel, gamelan gambuh, genggong, and beleganjur. GSJ has also performed contemporary pieces featuring instruments from the Western tradition.
The American Gamelan Institute (AGI) is an organization devoted to promoting and documenting all forms of gamelan, the performing arts of Indonesia, and their international counterparts.
Gamelan, although Indonesia is its origin place, is found outside of that country. There are forms of gamelan that have developed outside Indonesia, such as American gamelan and Malay Gamelan in Malaysia.
(Joseph) Vincent McDermott was a classically trained American composer and ethnomusicologist. His works show particular influence from the musics of South and Southeast Asia, particularly the gamelan music of Java. He was among the second generation of American composers to create and promote new compositions for gamelan.
The Gamelan Sekaten is a ceremonial gamelan from central Java, Indonesia, played during the annual Sekaten festival. The word "sekaten" itself is derived from syahadatain or shahada, the first requirement for converting into Islamic faith. Traditionally it is played once per year, on the occasion of Mawlid, Muhammad's birthday, for the week from the 6-12 of the month of Mulud. On this celebration it is brought from the palace at 11 pm to two pavilions before the Great Mosque. It is played every day during that week except the Thursday night/Friday morning. On the eve of the birthday proper, it is returned at 11 pm.
I Nyoman Renbang (1937–2001) was an Indonesian musician, composer, teacher and instrument maker. He is considered by many ethnomusicologists as one of the most influential Balinese musicians and composers of the twentieth century.
Gamelan Pacifica is an American musical ensemble, as well as a non-profit music and dance foundation that focuses on cross-cultural and interdisciplinary collaboration. Formed as a community group in 1980, the group plays the gamelan, and is as of 2022 ensemble in residence at the Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle. The ensemble is directed by Jarrad Powell.
Gamelan orchestral instruments were introduced to New Zealand from Java in 1974. There are several gamelan ensembles in New Zealand and gamelan has influenced many New Zealand composers such as Jack Body and Gareth Farr.
References
↑ Jody Diamond. "Review: Out of Indonesia: Global Gamelan." Ethnomusicology 42/1 (Winter 1998), pages 174-183.
↑ "The Sound of Surakarta"(PDF). Cultural Times -- HSU Multicultural Center. Fall 2008. p.20. Retrieved October 22, 2010.
1 2 3 4 5 Spiller, Henry, Henry. "A Gathering of Gamelans and a (Balinese) Tempest. Presented by ShadowLight Productions, Cowell Theater, San Francisco. 13–23 October 2005". Asian Theatre Journal. 23 (2): 401–407. doi:10.1353/atj.2006.0030. S2CID162477120.
↑ Koskoff, Ellen (2005). Music Cultures in the United States. New York: Routledge. p.124. ISBN0-415-96588-8.
1 2 3 4 5 Diamond, Jody; Benary, Barbara (2001). ""Indonesian music," In The United States and Canada.". In Koskoff, Ellen (ed.). The Garland Encyclopedia Of World Music and Dance. Vol.3. pp.1011–1033.
1 2 Blader, Bonnie (Spring 2009). "Let the Music Play"(PDF). Clockworks (Goddard College Alumni Journal). Archived from the original(PDF) on May 27, 2010. Retrieved April 26, 2009.
This list is based on a directory designed and first compiled by Barbara Benary in 1983, and published in a special issue of EAR magazine. A version of that list, still maintained by Benary, is at International Gamelan Directory, hosted by the American Gamelan Institute. That site also contains lists of groups in other countries as well, particularly Japan.
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