Gamelan

A gamelan is a musical ensemble of Indonesian origin typically featuring metallophones, xylophone(s), drums, and gongs. Traditionally, the term "gamelan" is used to refer to either the set of instruments making up the ensemble, or the players of those instruments at any given time.

Gamelan outside Indonesia

The Netherlands

The first gamelans outside of Indonesia were in the Netherlands, which had colonized the islands. Before World War II, the Javanese dancer Jodjana had a small gamelan group in the Netherlands, which accompanied his performances. He had to train Dutch musicians. Early during the war the resistance fighter Bernard IJzerdraat Sr. was murdered by the Germans. His son Bernard then left home and in Amsterdam heard a group of stranded javanese sailors play a gamelan at the Colonial Museum (later: Museum of the Tropics). He took lessons with them and soon started his own group with friends from his school in Haarlem. This became Babar Layar, the first serious gamelan group in the Netherlands. Babar Layar played in Yogya style after Bernard studied one full year in the kraton. They often accompanied Mas Pakun, a Yogyanese dancer who studied theology in Amsterdam. When Mantle Hood came to Amsterdam to write his dissertation on pathet, Bernard trained him to play gamelan. (Mas Pakun died a few years later in a tragic traffic accident after his return to Indonesia.)

Related Topics:
Museum of the Tropics - Haarlem - Kraton - Mantle Hood

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Mantle Hood later taught enthnomusicology in the US, and is regarded as the founding father of gamelan in that country. Bernard married a Sundanese wife and emigrated to Indonesia in 1954, where he became known as Suryabrata, working for RRI Jakarta and Univeritas Nasional.

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In 1970, the ethnomusicologist Ernst Heins invited K.R.M.T. Ronosuripto of the Mangkunagaran to Amsterdam. This gave a new impetus to gamelan playing in The Netherlands. Heins's group gave many concerts, and Rien Baartmans, who as a child had been taking lessons from Bernard IJzerdraat, studied kendhang with Pak Ripto which very much stimulated his own group Ngesthi Raras in Haarlem.

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In 1978 the new gamelan society Naga acquired a gamelan from Solo. This gamelan was used by several groups. When in 1995 Naga was dissolved, this gamelan was given to the Raras Budaya foundation, and used by groups conducted by Elsje Plantema (a pupil of Pak Ripto) and Jurrien Sligter (a musician who is interested in modern compositions for gamelan).

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Today, several Javanese and Balinese gamelan groups are active in The Netherlands. Javanese style groups exist in Amsterdam, Delft, Den Haag, Renkum and Arnhem. Balinese groups can be found in Amsterdam and Den Haag (The Hague). A Sundanese group exists in Leiden (Leyde).

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North America

Many schools, universities and other institutions in North America own sets of Gamelan instruments. These gamelans are typically played by mixed-gender groups of students, a practice that's rare in Indonesia for religious reasons. Among the earliest such groups were Wesleyan University http://www.wesleyan.edu/music/gamelan/ and UCLA http://www.ethnomusic.ucla.edu/courses/ensembles/java/index.htm. Established institutional gamelan ensembles in the U.S. include Gamelan Burat Wangi and Gamelan Kyai Dorodasih at California Institute of the Arts http://calarts.edu/schools/music/programs/indonesian.html, Gamelan Galak Tika at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Gamelan Lila Muni at Eastman School of Music, Gamelan Semara Santi at Swarthmore College, and Gamelan Saraswati at University of Maryland, College Park.

Related Topics:
Wesleyan University - UCLA - California Institute of the Arts - Gamelan Galak Tika - Massachusetts Institute of Technology - Gamelan Lila Muni - Eastman School of Music - Swarthmore College - University of Maryland, College Park

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A few professional gamelan ensembles also exist, including Gamelan Son of Lion, a group that focuses on newly composed music by non-Indonesian composers. Since 1979 a few gamelan ensembles have been organized as community arts organizations or clubs. The first Javanese community group was the Boston Village Gamelanhttp://www3.shore.net/~samq/bvg/ in Massachusetts and the first Balinese community group was Gamelan Sekar Jaya http://gsj.org in California. Another community Balinese gamelan is Gamelan Mitra Kusuma in Washington, DC.

Related Topics:
Gamelan Son of Lion - 1979 - Boston Village Gamelan - Gamelan Sekar Jaya - Gamelan Mitra Kusuma - Washington, DC

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