gamelan
A traditional ensemble from Indonesia, primarily Java and Bali, consisting mainly of tuned metallophones, gongs, and drums.
In Depth
A gamelan orchestra is a collection of instruments that belongs together as a unified set, tuned to its own unique scale. The ensemble typically includes bronze metallophones (like the saron and gender), hanging gongs, kettle gongs (bonang), drums (kendang), and sometimes bamboo flutes (suling) and bowed strings (rebab). Javanese gamelans tend toward a meditative, refined character, while Balinese gamelans are more exuberant and rhythmically explosive.
Gamelan music profoundly influenced Western composers who encountered it. Claude Debussy heard a Javanese gamelan at the 1889 Paris Exposition and its shimmering textures and non-Western scales transformed his approach to harmony and orchestration. Later, minimalist composers like Steve Reich and contemporary composers like Britten drew direct inspiration from gamelan. The music's layered structure, where different instruments play at different rhythmic densities, offers a fundamentally different approach to musical organization.
In Javanese tradition, a gamelan set is considered a single sacred entity with its own name and spirit — individual instruments should not be separated from their set.