COMPARISON OF WESTERN AND INDONESIAN MUSIC

The main types of performing arts on the neighboring islands of Java and Bali are very closely related, since, in the 15th century when Islam overtook the entire island of Java, the royal courts of East Java fled to the island of Bali, bringing with them their music, dance, and dramatic theatrical arts (especially the shadow-puppet play and the dance drama). Consequently, today in both Java and Bali gamelan music is used to accompany closely related types of dance dramas as well as various types of aesthetically related puppet-theater traditions. As orchestral traditions, Javanese and Balinese gamelan music share several similarities with the orchestral symphonic music of the West. Both the Indonesian gamelan orchestra and the symphony orchestra, for instance, consist of a large instrumentarium of standard instruments: they perform highly structured sophisticated compositions, and they use the manipulation of dynamics (i.e., volume) for expressive purposes. However, aside from these few fundamental similarities, the two types or orchestral traditions have many differences, particularly in terms of aesthetics, playing techniques, and musical styles. The Western orchestra, for example, is essentially an audience-oriented, bowed-string ensemble played by professional musicians who "read" from notated music, while an Indonesian gamelan is essentially a performer-orientated, struck-percussion ensemble played by amateur musicians who "perform" from memory. In addition, the conductor of the Western orchestra is the designated "leader" of musical compositions of nearly unlimited melodic diversity but considerable restricted rhythmic range, while the drummer of the gamelan orchestra is the "leader" of compositions of limited melodic diversity but great rhythm ic range. Whereas Western symphonic music is typically an indoor, virtuosic, secular art form reserved as an elitist activity, Indonesian gamelan music is generally an outdoor, nonvirtuosic, religious art form designed ideally for Everyperson.

There are six basic instrument types shared by the principle kinds of gamelan in Java and Bali. The first is a large, vertically suspended gong, sometimes over three feet in diameter, which is used to punctuate the ends of long musical phrases (i.e., it is used like a period in a sentence); smaller suspended gongs are used for shorter internal phrases (i.e., they are used like a comma in a sentence). A second instrument type found in both Java and Bali is the gender type--an instrument that has thin, metal (usually tuned bronze) keys suspended over sympathetically tuned tube resonators; it is played with either one or two mallets (two are used for playing polyphonically). Another instrument type common to both cultures is the rebab, a two-stringed bowed fiddle, which is a relatively new instrument of the gamelan--one that was imported along with Islam from the Middle East. An end-blown bamboo flute, the suling, is another important instrument in both Javanese and Balinese gamelans: in Java it characteristically plays melodic phrases only intermittently, while in Bali it plays the main melody continuously throughout long sections of music. A fifth shared instrument type is a gong chime of tuned metal kettles. Called bonang in Java, it comes in two sizes, each played by one player; called reyong in Bali, it is played simultaneously by three or four players sitting side by side. (The even larger Balinese trompong, like the Javanese bonang, is played by a single musician, however.) The last and most important--since it is generally the "leader," that is, the conductor of the gamelan--of the six instrument types shared by Javanese and Balinese gamelan types is the drum. The kendang, a double-head, barrel-shaped, laced drum is normally played with bare hands and thus produces a wide range of different sounds, depending on precisely how it is struck.

There are some twenty-five different types of instruments used in a complete modern Javanese gamelan orchestra:
(1) vertically suspended and horizontally mounted tuned gongs of six or seven different basic sizes,
(2) tuned wooden and metal (normally bronze or iron) xylophones of four different sizes struck with wooden or felt-covered beaters (tabuh),
(3) stringed instruments (two plucked zithers and one bowed fiddle),
(4) two end-blown flutes with different tunings, and
(5) laced or tacked barrel-shaped drums of four different sizes. In addition, there are two important vocal parts, the female pesinden (often a solo singer) and the male gerong (normally a chorus of a half dozen unison singers). Although they render classical poetic texts, the singers are not often featured as soloists, but are treated, as are all the other instruments of the gamelan, as merely an additional tone color or just another melodic strand in the intricate warp and weft of the complex orchestral fabric. Along with their descriptions, the instruments of the most common type of gamelan heard in Java today, the Gamelan Gong Ageng, are listed categorically below.

Suspended tuned gongs:
1. gong ageng/gede (the largest gong)
2. gong siyem/suwuk (second largest gong),
3. kempul (set of medium-size gongs);
Horizontally mounted tuned gongs:
4. kenong (set of medium-size gongs),
5. ketuk (1 medium-size gong),
6. engkok/kemong (2 small slendro gongs),
7. kempyang (2 small pelog gongs),
8. bonang barung (set of 2 parallel rows of small gongs),
9. bonang panerus (set of 2 parallel rows of smallest gongs);
Tuned xylophones:
10. gambang (wooden),
11. saron demung (largest saron),
12. saron barung (medium-size saron),
13. saron peking/panerus (smallest saron),
14. gender barung (medium-size gender),
15. gender panerus (small gender),
16. slentem (large gender);
Stringed instruments:
17. clempung (large plucked floor zither),
18. siter (small plucked floor zither),
19. rebab (bowed 2-stringed vertical fiddle),
End-blown flutes,
20. suling pelog (6-holed bamboo ring flute),
21. suling slendro (4-holed bamboo ring flute);
Drums:
22. kendang gending/gede (large double-head laced drum),
23. ketipung (small double-head laced drum),
24. batangan/ciblon (medium-size double-head laced drum),
25. bedug (very large double-head tacked drum).

In actuality a complete Javanese gamelan consists of twice as many instruments as those listed above, since in such a full set there are two completely different tuning systems, pelog and slendro. Accordingly, each musician sits cross-legged on the floor between two instruments of the same type, one that is tuned to a 7-tone pelog scale and one that is tuned to a 5-tone slendro scale. If a particular gending ("composition") is to be rendered in pelog tuning, then all the musicians must turn to face and play the instrument of the pair that is tuned specifically to that scale. Similarly, if slendro is desired, all the musicians turn 90 degrees in order to face the slendro-tuned instrument of the pair. A complete pelog/slendro gamelan, then, consists of two instruments for each type (i.e., two demung, two gender, two gambang, etc.). Sets of instruments are also doubled, such as the set of kempul, the set of kenong, and even the set of bonang (one pelog, with 14 kettles, and one slendro, with 10 kettles). Both tuning systems, however, share three characteristics:
(1) they both share a common pitch, often pitch 2 of the two scales (with all the other pitches of the two scales being different and thus musically incompatible, that is, the pitches of the pelog scale cannot be mixed musically with the pitches of the slendro scale in the same composition),
(2) they both share the four drums, and
(3) they both share the largest gong, particularly if its pitch is too low to produce a specific and identifiable musical sound.
Gamelan is the music of Indonesia (pronounced Gah-Meh-Lahn). Gamelan orchestras are usually percussion oriented, but some varieties may feature flutes, bowed and plucked strings, or vocalists in a prominent role. Many different islands, or regions within islands, have their own unique Gamelan instruments and traditions.

The most common types of Gamelan use bronze, iron, bamboo, or wood bars, as well as bronze and iron gongs, gong chimes, cymbals, bells, and two headed drums. Gamelan-like instruments are found in Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, and other Southeast Asian nations.
The word Gamelan comes from the ancient roots "gambel" (Bali) and "gamel" (Java). Gambel means to play, musically. Most Indonesian languages define gambel as to make a sound by striking or playing a musical instrument, such as a gong or a drum (in Indonesian Pukul Bunyi Bunyi. Bunyi means to sound. It also means to ring, to blow, or to pronounce. In other words, to make a desired and intentional sound.) However, earlier languages, such as Kawi in Bali and Jawa Kuno in Java, also define the term as to handle or hold, as a musician handles an instrument or a worker handles a tool.

The root word gamel is no longer used in modern Indonesian languages and gamelan has come to officially mean "an Indonesian orchestra."
Technically put, Gamelan is really just music. The suffix "-an" converts the word gamel from a verb to a noun. Today the word Gamelan is used to distinguish Indonesian music as a style. But, at one time, Gamelan meant all kinds of music. When new music came to the islands, it was called Gamelan. For thousands of years, the artistic tradition of Indonesian cultures was to absorb the best of music and arts from the outside. This accounts for many instruments, scales, songs, and aesthetic aspects of the music. For instance, in Kawi, the words Gamelan and Merdangga are synonymous. Merdangga is a drum from South India. There was never a need for the term Gamelan to be "style specific" until the western world introduced radically different musics and new exclusive names to go with them.

The term Gamelan is not at all "percussion dependent," as it might appear. For example, flute ensembles in Bali play gamelan music exclusively, yet percussion takes a secondary role. Gamelan Kacapi Suling from sunda consists of flute and zithers and no percussion at all. Gamelan is a particular way of playing and thinking about music. It can be done with a gong, a few slabs of lumber, a string, or a double reed horn. Percussion is merely preferred in some cases. Often this is for the purpose of projecting over a great distance.

Some definitions may suggest that the root word "gamel" means to hammer. This may be assumed because many instruments are struck with a wooden mallet. But, hammers are for nails. The word for hammer is Palu in most Indonesian languages. And gamel means more than to strike or hit something. The Balinese words for strike or hit include nglantig, ngemplang, and nyagur. Gamel only means to strike in the context of initiating a defined sound (bunyi). In other words, one would not gamel a nail. So, please don't hit a gamelan instrument. Play it.

All the instruments of the complete pelog/slendro Javanese gamelan orchestra can be arranged into six different basic categories according to their musical responsibilities, that is, according to their musical roles in the formal organization of a musical composition (a gending):
(1) the colotomic layer,
(2) the drum layer,
(3) the fixed-melody layer,
(4) the elaborating layer (loud style),
(5) the elaborating layer (soft style), and
(6) the vocal-tone layer. Normally the largest instruments, those in the colotomic layer, function to define the musical form of a composition which is organized into a series of several repeated rhythmic cycles of various lengths called gongan. Each instrument in this first category is seldom struck, but when it is it punctuates the course of the main melody, thus imparting context and meaning. The various types of drums play stereotypical rhythmic patterns--patterns that are closely associated with the different musical forms punctuated by the colotomic layer. The drums also give acoustical signals to the other members of the gamelan--signals to speed up, to slow down, to play a new melody, to change to a different style of interpretation, or to end a composition. Together in strict unison, many of the instruments play a basic fixed melody (a nuclear melody); that is, they play the same musical part, the so-called balungan. This part forms the melodic basis for the entire composition, and it is punctuated by the colotomic layer, controlled by the drum layer, and paraphrased through different types of melodic variations by the elaborating layers and the vocal-tone layer. The elaborating layers are two, one suitable for a rigorous and rhythmic loud-playing style and one for a more subtle and refined soft-playing style. Each of the elaborating instruments, loud style or soft style, paraphrases the fixed melody by rendering different melodic variation--variations that are idiomatic to each instrument type. The vocal-tone layer consists of those voices and instruments that may sound pitches from outside the main tuning system of a particular composition, borrowing pitches, for example, from pelog to add melodic variety to a gending in slendro. A list of the specific instruments associated with each of these six basic categories is provided below.
1. Colotomic Layer:
  a. gong ageng (marks the end of a cycle),
  b. kempul (secondary, internal emphasis of gong cycle),
  c. kenong (secondary, internal emphasis of gong cycle),
  d. ketuk (marks time units within gong cycle),
  e. kempyang (secondary, internal emphasis of gong cycle),
  f. engkok/kemong (secondary, internal emphasis of gong cycle),
  g. bedug (secondary emphasis of gong cycle);
2. Drum Layer:
  a. kendang/ketipung (rhythmic patterns that scan the gong cycle),
  b. ciblon (complex rhythmic patterns for dance accompaniment);
3. Fixed-melody Layer:
  a. saron demung (balungan or variations),
  b. saron barung (balungan or variations),
  c. saron panerus/peking (variations),
  d. slentem (balungan);
4. Elaborating Layer (loud style):
  a. bonang barung ("melodic leader," variations),
  b. bonang panerus (variations of bonang barung);
5. Elaborating Layer (soft style):
  a. gender barung (variations in 2-part polyphony),
  b. gender panerus (fast variations of passagework),
  c. clempung (variations in 2-part polyphony),
  d. siter (variations in 2-part polyphony);
6. Vocal-tone Layer:
  a. rebab ("melodic leader," variations),
  b. suling (stereotypical figures that preceed punctuation),
  c. pesinden (variations with poetic text),
  d. gerong (variations with poetic text). *TVK

Lking Through the Eyes of the Future... In Indonesia nowadays, there are a lot of young and old foreigners learning how to play traditional musical instruments called Gamelan--instruments made of metals and resembling piano with limited tunes. And because of that, they're going to have new perspectives how to use that instrument with their own point of view, since they come from different cultures from us. They may produce new beats with Gamelan and electric guitar. Not just foreigners, Indonesian also has lots of talented youth who can play classical instruments and they also come from different places in Indonesia. And the fact is that Indonesia has 31 provinces with each uniqueness in their area. So, with different cultures, Indonesia can also create new music with Western instruments. But what we think is the mixing of the unique music of Indonesian cultures and the universal music cultures of the Western. If we can create an imagination, it will be a big orchestra with hundreds instruments playing new music with new beats. For instance, they can use a DJ (disc jockey) to mix the voice of Indonesian traditional music singers called "pesinden" and the voice of the opera singers from western countries. The combination produces different melodies for one song without losing each uniqueness. Finally, our prediction will be there is no great gap of musical understanding, but a blend or unity of these two different music with two different cultural backgrounds without losing the original characteristics. ~ Two are better than one ~ Will this inheritance of this country develop into another shape ? Will this precious gold of Indonesia change because of the globalization?

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