%BEYOND WORDS

6:51 AM

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Fall in love with Gamelan so much!Why?Hehe..Gamelan produces very peaceful of sounds..While I'm listening to it, i imagine I'm having a SPA massage at a Bali SPA resort.. :)

A gamelan is a kind of musical ensemble of Indonesia typically featuring a variety of instruments such as metallophones, xylophones, drums, and gongs; bamboo flutes, bowed and plucked strings, and vocalists may also be included. The term refers more to the set of instruments than the players of those instruments. A gamelan as a set of instruments is a distinct entity, built and tuned to stay together — instruments from different gamelan are not interchangeable.
The word "gamelan" comes from the Javanese word "gamel", meaning to strike or hammer, and the suffix "an", which makes the root a collective noun.

Instruments and characteristics

Gamelan is found in the Indonesian islands of Java, Madura, Bali, and Lombok (and other Sunda Islands), in a wide variety of ensemble sizes and formations. In Bali and Lombok today, and in Java through the 18th century, the term "gong" has been preferred to or synonymous with gamelan. Traditions of gamelan-like ensembles (a well known example of which is Kulintang, sometimes called "gong-chime ensembles" by ethnomusicologists) also exist in the Philippines, Malaysia and Suriname, sometimes due to emigration, historic trade, or diplomacy. More recently, through immigration and local enthusiasm, gamelan ensembles have become active throughout Europe, America, Asia, and Australia.

Although gamelan ensembles sometimes include solo and choral voices, plucked and/or bowed string and wind instruments, they are most notable for the large number of metal percussion instruments. The percussion instruments of a central Javanese gamelan ensemble include:
metallophones, such as the saron, gendér, gangsa, and ugal (sets of metals bars laid out in a single row and struck like a glockenspiel) cradled gong chimes called bonang and kenong (sets of large, drum-shaped gongs laid out horizontally on stands) hanging gongs called kempul and the large gong ageng
xylophone-like instruments called gambang (similar to saron and gendér but with wooden bars instead of metal ones) drums called kendhang

Metals used include bronze, brass, and iron, with a 10:3 copper-to-tin bronze alloy usually considered the best material. In addition, there is gamelan ensembles composed entirely of bamboo-keyed instruments, of bamboo flutes, of zithers, or of unaccompanied voices with the functions of metallophones or gongs in the metal ensemble transferred to surrogates.

Gamelan music is built up in layers. At its centre is a basic melody (core melody) known as the balungan. Further layers, including singing in vocal pieces, elaborate upon this melody in certain ways, but the notes of each layer of music relate to the balungan, and generally coincide at the ends of phrases (called seleh in Javanese). There are also a set of instruments which delineate a colotomic structure, usually ending in the stroke of the largest gong.