Contemporary Gamelan Music

Gamelan is a creative and vibrant musical expression. It is full of newness and innovation, rich in musical and imaginative possibilities. The influence of gamelan has spread to many countries throughout the world, and is studied both as a traditional and as a modern, creative art form.

photo: Andrew McDermot

Most beginning encounters with gamelan bring the individual into contact with simple, traditional forms of Indonesian music. There is a large and attractive repertoire to learn the basics from, and traditional music can teach us a great deal. Much of this music is in active circulation, played by established gamelan ensembles throughout the world. Some of it is hauntingly beautiful, some of it challenging, and most of it presents unusual ways of thinking about music.

What is the role of new music in the gamelan? Stepping away from the traditional repertoire is not always easy, particularly when we are beginning to gain some mastery of the musical elements involved. It is even more difficult knowing the wealth of technical challenges with traditional forms. However, gamelan music is the stuff that inspires composers in all cultures, and there are good reasons to encourage the develpoment of new music. Gamelan is as vital and innovative as any other form of music in the world.

The gamelan orchestra is primarily a metal orchestra of chimes and gongs. An ensemble can vary in size from 6 to 30 musicians. It is a predominately percussion oriented orchestra, where the various metal instruments are hand-forged, crafted and tuned specifically to each ensemble. With the emergence of the gamelan in the UK, a large range of new musical possibilities have become available to the western musician both in education and performance. Because the instruments are often tuned differently from western scales, the gamelan is a special resource for composers to work with. Nowhere else than within the gamelan are such combinations of metal-based tonality to be found.

Since the late 1800’s gamelan has been studied and adopted by musicians, ethnomusicologists, and sociologists throughout the world. The music has been imported and exported, collected and recorded by entrepreneurs and record companies. Margaret Meade, Colin McPhee, Jaap Kunst, Mantle Hood, Michael Tenzer and many others have made pioneering studies of the music and culture. Claude Debussy, Lou Harrison, Henry Cowell, John Cage, Phillip Glass, Steve Reich, Benjamin Britten and countless others have brought it’s influences into their art.

In Glasgow, the City Council provides access to the gamelan through a set of instruments purchased in 1991, known as The Spirit Of Hope. These pelog tuned instruments are currently housed at the Tramway, and are used both in education and performance. The group Gamelan Naga Mas rehearse and perform on this set of instruments, running open sessions and courses for those who wish to experience the music. Several independent organisations led by members of Gamelan Naga Mas offer workshops for general and special educational needs. Luminous Music have created a series of imaginative programmes bringing the treasures of these instruments to many very happy children in Scotland and England

www.nagamas.co.uk/

There are many different approaches to contemporary gamelan music. Some music is developed close to traditional music models, some with dance, some with shadow puppets, and some is created for it’s own sake. New and old music, mixed together or separate, can vary from highly conservative to highly experimental pieces that can be challenging, insightful, serious or humorous.

In Scotland, composers within Gamelan Naga Mas, Jon Keliehor, J. Simon van der Walt, Katherine Waumsley and Margaret Smith are taking the group more toward new music performance, using mixtures of gamelan instruments, non-gamelan acoustic instruments and electronic processing tools.

Listen to the music samples below to get a better idea of ways in which these composers are developing musical ideas within the context of gamelan.

The selections are in two predominant gamelan tunings: slendro and pelog, which are five and seven tone tunings respectively, but there are pieces using instruments and tunings entirely outside of traditional music forms.

The spirit of gamelan seems to be alive and well inside all of this music.

Some music scores are available upon request.