Gamelan

Gamelan refers to both a group of musical styles traditional music of Java and Bali as well as the musical instrument ensembles with which this music is played.

Generation and distribution

The ensembles consist originally from metallophonic with bars made of gong and drum. There are also depending on the style and Angklung, flute, rebab, xylophone and singers and / or dancers. Only the instruments used to improvise a solo over the core melody, which is sung by the metallophonic. The core melody consists of patterns that dot the coastline. The combination of blade core melody and ornamentation is regarded as " inner melody ".

The mood is different depending on the style of music and also varies from ensemble to ensemble. There Gamelans 4, 5 and 7 tones per octave. The unusual for Western listeners vibration conditions, for example, f 1.7 and 2.29 f the keynote f come from those manufactured in Indonesia for over 1600 years, round tone plates. These one hand opposite plate inside vibrate against each other and on the other hand, edges and interior plate against each other.

Gamelan music is heard on various occasions, such as religious celebrations, social occasions such as weddings and births, as an accompaniment to dance, puppet and shadow theater or even in concert.

Some partly very old ensembles can still be found at princely courts (Kraton ), Yogyakarta and Surakarta in Central of Java.

Gamelan ensembles come outside their core area of ​​Central Java, East Java and Bali also on the island of Lombok; in West Java uses the Degung ensemble Gong similar games. From Gamelan derivative instruments and ways of playing kulintang are mentioned in the Minahasa region of North Sulawesi, in parts of Mindanao and on some intervening islands. The typical for the gamelan gongs hump are traditionally played on Sumatra; the influence of the gamelan characterizes the classical music of Southeast Asia between Malaysia, Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia.

The first gamelan orchestra outside the region were established in the early 20th century by emigrants in the Netherlands. The Dutch ethnomusicologist and musician Jaap Kunst (1891-1960) and his American students Mantle Hood (1918-2005) contributed much to the understanding of the music and the setting up of gamelan ensembles in the West. In Germany concert several gamelan music groups. Some ethnological museums and music schools teaching courses.

Gamelan of Central Java

The gamelan is in Central Java to social and religious occasions, to Javanese feast days and the shadow play ( wayang kulit ) and played on classical dances.

A gamelan consists of four groups of instruments:

• The Gong game Bonang in two sizes
• The Metallophon gender in two sizes
• The wood xylophone Gambang similar to the various Cambodian Roneat
• The bamboo end-blown flute Suling
• The spike fiddle rebab. Name and form are from the Arab rebab
• The zither Siter

In Central Java two different tunings are used:

• The fünftönige Slendro and
• The siebentönige pelog.

The distances between the tones in Slendro are almost the same. The steps in Pelog show marked differences. Neither of the two moods contains pure intervals except the octave. Each gamelan has its own, slightly different from the other mood. For Slendro Pelog and there is a separate set instruments. Each piece is composed for a mood. In the game are identical instruments placed " in a corner " and the player each turn to the instrument that is used. There are also some specific to the sultan yards gamelan, played only there. They usually have a special repertoire.

Gamelan in Bali

In Bali, there are a greater number of different ensemble types. You are using partially different instruments and tunings and have different social or religious functions. Besides gamelan orchestras metallophonic there are occasionally also gamelan orchestra with wooden instruments, especially the bamboo gamelan Jegog, in which the deepest Idiophone are about three feet long. The Jegog instruments there are outside of Bali just three times all over the world - in San Francisco, Tokyo and in the Bavarian Mühldorf.

Probably the most popular contemporary - classical music style is the Gamelan Gong Kebyar. He has replaced the former courtly Gong Gong Gede orchestra. The small gamelan Gambuh with bamboo flutes and stringed lute Rebab accompanied dance dramas.

Gamelan at Lombok

On the eastern neighboring island of Lombok Balinese minority plays his own music tradition in somewhat reduced form. The majority of Sasak has adopted and adapted in the music of Lombok native of Java and Bali gamelan traditions. The Balinese Gamelan Gong Gede was reduced to Gamelan Gong kuna. The classical orchestra on Lombok is the gamelan Gendang Beleq in which the bronze Metalophones are occasionally supplemented by the melody leading bamboo flute Suling and through the double reed instrument Preret. The third major orchestra is the Gamelan Wayang Sasak, is listed with its accompaniment of the shadow play cycle Serat Menak Sasak.

Influences on Western music

At the World Exhibition in Paris in 1889 Claude Debussy was fascinated by the sustained sound of a Javanese gamelan ensemble. However, the nature and degree of the influence of this experience on his compositions are controversial. For example, often assumed that Debussy's use of the whole-tone scale from the Javanese (not equidistant ) pelog was inspired, actually possessed the instruments used at the World Exhibition in Paris but only about ( equidistant) Slendro tuned instruments.

The post-rock band Godspeed You! Black Emperor is the gamelan music as one of their influences, and has also released a song called gamelan.

The British band 23 Skidoo released several albums in the 1980s who were influenced by gamelan music. Including the 1984 released album Urban Gamelan.

The composer Steve Reich occupied himself in the 1970s with the Balinese Gamelan, which was reflected in the composition Music for 18 Musicians.