The Music of Java

Java’s Gamelan Two types of gamelan: Loud playing: outside, festivals, parades, noisy events (cd set :Kembang Pacar”) Soft playing: inside, often with singing (cd set: “Wilujeng”)

Which instruments are used? There is no standard selection of instruments. All of those chosen, however, are placed at right angles to one another. Photos…from Javanese Gamelan by Jennifer Lindsay (ML1251.I53L56)

Melodic Instruments of the gamelan celempung: metal-stringed zither with a box resonator. Strings are paired in double courses and plucked with the performer’s long thumbnails.

Rebab A bowed lute with a long and delicately turned neck that runs through a triangular-shape resonator. The top face is covered with a thin membrane.

Gambang Gambang: 20 to 22 wood bars resting on top of a wood box resonator. The bars are struck with two long beaters.

Gamelan instrument makers In Java, the metal worker is held in very high esteem. The process is infused with mystical significance. “Transforming molten copper and tin into sound-producing instruments is believed to make one especially vulnerable to dangerous forces in the spirit world.”

Smiths make ritual preparation and may actually assume mythical identities during the forging process. The chief smith is ritually transformed into Panji, a powerful mythical hero, and the smith’s assistants become Panji’s family and servants.

Meditation, prayer and fasting get one ready to do this work. If the forging of the instruments is successful, they become in turn the abode of spirits The gong ageng, the most difficult instrument to make, contains the greatest spiritual power. Gamelan in the making, brief example Gamelan in the making, brief example

Proper etiquette means when entering the gamelan that you remove your shoes and avoid the rudeness of stepping over an instrument. Further, the spirit of the gamelan, embodied in the gong ageng, is paid homage with offerings of food, flowers, and incense.

The gong ageng is a large, vertically-suspended bronze gong with turned-back rims and a raised central boss which is struck with a thickly-padded beater. It produces a deep, resonant low pitch.

It takes time... It takes a full month or so to make a large gong. The molten metal is pounded, heated, pounded, heated, etc. until the gong is former. It may take a truckload of coal to heat the fire for only one gong. The Rhythm of the Gamelan I

Small court ensemble from JVC (Vol.10, #3) Gamelan degung (small ensemble) highly refined style from the courts of West Java Recording shows a solo for suling (flute) with great virtuosic finger movements Bonang: in front of suling, set of gong kettles in a 3 sided frame and struck with beaters Left rear shows jenglong (suspended gongs) where the central melody happens Saron are keyed percussion on either side of the bonang (hit with right hand, dampened with left hand) double headed drum is the kendang

Tembeng: a type of Javanese music means “poem” or “song” genre of music in Java serves as a major vehicle for Javanese poetry Even important letters between members of the nobility were (until this century) composed as tembang and delivered as song. The postal system has stopped doing this…too bad.

Tembang Sunda Cianjuran (JVC Vol. 10, #4 Song with instrumental ensemble Origin in a “macapat”, which is a poem sung to a child, sort of like a nursery rhyme, but it requires intellectual effort, like a complicated riddle. Non-metered song Example shows a suling, followed by a male singer, then a female singer Instrument is a kacapi Kacapi are a family of zithers which are to gamelan as the piano is to the orchestra

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Tarawangsa and kacapi siter JVC (Vol. 10, #7) Tarawangsa: bowed lute like rebab but the tuning is significantly different sitting on the left Kacapi siter: plucked zither… on the right Song is a Kidung, usually sung after a rice harvest to give thanks

Wayang Kulit: Shadow Puppetry "Wayang" means "shadow", and "Kulit" means "skin" in the Indonesian language