GAMELANS OF INDONESIA: MUSIC, INSTRUMENTS, MUSICIANS

GAMELAN

Javanese gamelan ensemble performance during traditional Javanese Yogyakarta style wedding ceremony in Jakarta

The Gamelan is the national instrument of Indonesia. A miniature orchestra, it is an ensemble of 50 to 80 instruments, including tuned percussion comprised of bells, gongs, percussion, traditional drums and metallophones (xylophone-like instruments with bars made from metal instead of wood). The wood frames for the instrument are usually painted red and gold. The instruments fill up an entire room and are usually played by 12 to 25 people. [Sources: Rough Guide to World Music]

Gamelan refers to both the traditional music made with a gamelan ensemble and the musical instrument used to play the music. A gamelan is mostly made from bronze, copper, wood and bamboo. Gamelans are unique to Java, Bali and Lombok. They are associated with court music and often accompany Indonesia's favorite traditional form of entertainment: shadow puppet plays. They are also played at special ceremonies, weddings and other major events. There are variations are due to the number of instruments used, purpose of the music and location.

Highly stylized in movement and costume, dances and the “wayang” drama are accompanied by a full “gamelan” orchestra comprising xylophones, drums, gongs, and in some cases string instruments and flutes. Bamboo xylophones are used in North Sulawesi and the bamboo “angklung” instruments of West Java are well- known for their unique tinkling notes which can be adapted to any melody. [Source: Embassy of Indonesia]

History of Gamelan Music

8th century bas-relief of musicians performing in a somewhat gamelan-like musical ensemble at Borobudur

Gamelan is often translated as “orchestra” but more likely derived from gamel meaning "to handle." Modern gamelans date back to the later 1500s, and their precursors can be traced to the 10th century. The musical form and the ensemble itself likely developed from an early fusion of male drum and gong groups with stringed and wind instruments associated with female ensembles. Over time, men came to dominate the performance of most instruments. [Source: “Culture and Customs of Indonesia” by Jill Forshee, Greenwood Press, 2006]

The tuned gongs, gong-chimes and flat metallophones which we associate with the gamelan styles of Bali and Java, appears to have developed between the construction of the 9th century Buddhist temple Borobudur and the arrival of the first Dutch expedition in 1595. According to legend gamelans were created in the 3rd century by the God-King Sang Hyand Guru. More likely they were created through a the process of combining local instruments— such as bronze “keetle drums” and bamboo flutes— with ones introduced from China and India. A number of musical instruments—hourglass-shaped drums, lutes, harps, flutes, reed pipes, cymbals— are depicted in reliefs at Borubudur and Pramabanan. When Sir Francis Drake visited Java in 1580 he described the music he heard there "as very strange, pleasant and delightful." Most likely what he heard was gamelan music.” [Sources: Edward Herbst, Rough Guide to World Music ^^]

Ingo Stoevesandt wrote in his blog on Southeast Asian music: “Karawitan” is the term for every kind of Gamelan music in Java. The history of Gamelan ensembles in Java is very old, starting as soon as from the Dongson bronze era in the second century BC. The term “Gamelan” can be understood as a collecting term for different kinds of metallophone ensembles (old Javanese “gamel” means something like “to handle”). Under the Dutch gamelan music was not abandoned but supported too. Following the contract of Gianti (1755) each division of the old Mataram state got its own Gamelan sekati ensemble.

Gamelan music reached its zenith in the 19th century in the courts of the sultans of Yogyakarta and Solo. Yogyakarta court players were known for their bold, vigorous style while gamelan players from Solo played a more understated, refined style. Since independence in 1949, the power of the sultanates was reduced and many gamelan musicians learned how to play in state academies. Even so the finest gamelan are still associated with royalty. The largest and most famous gamelan, the Gamelan Sekaten, was built in the 16th century as is played only once a year. ^^

The popularity of gamelan music is declining somewhat today as young people become more interested in pop music and recorded music replaces live music at weddings. Even so gamelan music remains very much alive, especially in Yogyakarta and Solo, where most neighborhoods have a local hall where gamelan music is played. Festivals and gamelan competitions still draw large, enthusiastic crowds. Many radio stations have their own gamelan ensembles. Musicians are also in high demand to accompany drama, puppet and dance shows. ^^

Gamelan Instruments

gamelan instruments

Large gamelans are usually made of bronze. Wood and brass are also used, especially in villages in Java. Gamelans are not uniform. Individual gamelans often have distinct sounds and some even have names like "The Venerable Invitation to Beauty" in Yogyakarta. Some ceremonial instruments are believed to posses magical powers. [Sources: Rough Guide to World Music]

A gamelan is an ensemble composed primarily of metallophones and gong-type instruments such as kenong, kethuk, kempyang, and bonang (bowl-like bells), and xylophone-like gender, saron, and slenthem that produce tones when struck with mallets. The other instruments in a complete gamelan include a wooden xylophone (gambang), a set of two-headed drums (kendhang), a two-stringed fiddle (rebab) played with a bow, a plucked zither-type instrument (celempung or siter), a bamboo flute (suling), and male and female singers. Most gamelans have fixed pitches and employ two tuning systems (laras): the five-toned slendro and the seven-tone pelog. A complete gamelan is therefore a double set—slendro and pelog gamelan—although they are never played simultaneously.[Source: International Encyclopedia of Dance, 1998]

Most of the percussion instruments vary in size depending on their register. All are played in a sitting or kneeling position. A typical gamelan ensemble is composed of one set of kenong (for one player), a kethuk and two kempyang (all three for one player), four bonang (for two players), six gender (for two players), 16 saron (for eight players), two slenthem (for one player), three gambang (for one player), and three kendhang. One drummer leads the ensemble, which also includes an array of gongs and kempul (divided among three players), a rebab, a suling, a celempung, a female solo singer, and a small choir made up of around five male singers.

Gamelan instruments are typically owned by villages rather than individuals, and each village tunes its set uniquely, preventing instruments from being interchanged. This results in a distinctive local sound identity. [Source: “Culture and Customs of Indonesia” by Jill Forshee, Greenwood Press, 2006]

Sundanese gamelan from southwest Java highlights the “rehad”, “kendang” a large two-headed barrel drum), “kempul”, “bonang rincik” (a set of ten pot-shaped gongs) and “panerus” (a set of seven pot-shaped gongs), “saron”, and “sinden” (singer).

Music Played by the Gamelan Instruments

The history of gamelans has been shaped by the development of three elements: 1) the loud ensemble (drums, gong-like instruments, and metallophones played with unpadded mallets); 2) the soft ensemble (various combinations of metallophones played with padded mallets, along with flutes and strings); and 3) singing in various poetic forms. These forms are still alive today, with the soft style characterized by the loud instruments played softly and the loud style characterized by the soft instruments played loudly. Singing is most often associated with the soft style, typically featuring single melodic lines. Alternations between loud and soft styles characterize gamelan accompaniment to dance and dance drama. [Source: International Encyclopedia of Dance, 1998]

dancer performing with a gamelan in Bali, unknown date

According to the International Encyclopedia of Dance: In gamelan, melodic structures are based on stratification of pulsing. Some instruments play pulsing melodic patterns at a high level of density; another group plays at medium density; yet another plays at low density. Stratification also applies to the melodic ranges of the gamelan instruments. The instruments function within the ensemble based on both their melodic range and their density stratum.

A complete gamelan is made of two sets of instruments that play in the two Javanese scales: the five-note “laras slendro” and the seven-note “laras pelog”. The instruments play three main elements: 1) the melody; 2) embroidery of the melody; and 3) punctuation of the melody The metallophones in the middle of the gamelan play the "skeleton melody." There are two kinds of metallophones (metal xylophones): “saron” (with seven bronze keys and no resonators, played with hard mallets), and the “gendèr” (with bamboo resonators, played with soft mallets). The saron is the basic instrument of the gamelan. There are three kinds: low, medium, and high pitched. The saron carries the basic melody of the gamelan orchestra. The “slentem” is similar to the gender except it has less keys. It is used carry the embroidery of the melody.

The instruments at the front of the gamelan embroider the melody. They include “bonangs” (small bronze kettles mounted on the frame and struck by a pair of long sticks bound with a chords), and sometimes softened with instruments such as “gambang” (xylophone with hard wood bars struck with sticks made of buffalo horn), “suling” (bamboo flute), “rehab” (two-string fiddle of Arab origin), “gendèr”, “siter” or “celempung” (zithers). The “celempung” has 26 strings organized in 13 pairs that a stretch over a coffin-like soundboard supported on four legs. The strings are plucked with the thumbnails.

At the back of gamelan are the gongs and drums. The gongs hang from frames and punctuate the melody and are named after the sound they produce: “kenong”, “ketuk” and “kempul”. A stroke of a large gong usually marks he beginning a piece. They smaller gongs mentioned above mark off sections of the melody. "Gong" is a Javanese word. “Kendnag” are drums beaten by hand. The “bedug” is a drum struck with a stick. They are made from the hollowed out trunks of the jackfruit tree.

Gamelan Music

arrangement of bonang in pairs of notes in ascending pentatonic scale from a Sundanese gamelan

Gamelan music is extremely varied and is usually played as background music not as feature music in its own right. It usually accompanies traditional dance performances or wayang kukit (shadow puppet plays) or used as background music at weddings and other gatherings. [Sources: Rough Guide to World Music]

Not surprisingly gamelan music used for dance performances emphasize rhythm while music for wayang kulit is more dramatic and features music linked with different characters and parts of the play, with the musicians usually responded to cues by the puppeteer. Gamelan music also sometimes accompanies the reading of poetry and folk stories.

No traditional Javanese wedding is complete without gamelan music. There are usually set pieces that go with certain parts of the ceremony, such as the entrance. There are also ceremonial pieces associated with the coming and goings of sultans and guests and one that dispel evil spirits and attract good ones.

Ingo Stoevesandt wrote in his blog on Southeast Asian music: The earliest Gamelan sekati covered the whole range of three octaves with the saron metallophones. It was a very loud ensemble. Quiet instruments like the lute rebab and the long flute suling were missing. The playing tempo was slow and the resounding instruments quite deep for a Gamelan set. It is assumed that some ensembles only played in order to convince the Hindu by their love for music to convert to Islam, but this is still questionable to be the only reason. It seems to be more reliable that even the Wali could not resist the beauty of this music. One of them, famous Sunan Kalijaga, did not only considerate to let the Gamelan play for sekaten celebrations, he is also supposed to be the composer of several new gender (pieces) for this ensemble. There is even more evidence for the importance of generations of sekati ensembles if one sees the great effect on the manifestation of the heptatonic pelog system in the later centuries.

Peter Gelling wrote in the New York Times, “Gamelan has evolved over the centuries into a complex system of layered melodies and tuning, a system unfamiliar to the Western ear. (Fans of the television show “Battlestar Galactica” will recognize strains of gamelan from the show’s music.) Each orchestra is uniquely tuned and cannot use another’s instruments. With no conductor, gamelan is a communal, and often delicate, negotiation among a dozen or more musicians where age and social status factor into the music’s evolution through a single performance. Though gamelan music is still played throughout Indonesia — it can be heard at most traditional ceremonies and wafting out of Bali’s open-air meeting houses, where neighbors gather to discuss local issues or simply gossip — its popularity is dwindling among the younger generation of Indonesians, who are more easily lured by Western rock. [Source: Peter Gelling, New York Times, March 10, 2008]

Playing Gamelan Music

One remarkable feature of gamelan performance is that musicians usually play entirely by ear, without written notation or a conductor. Musical patterns can include as many as seventeen beats per measure, and pieces accompanying dance may contain up to fifteen interwoven layers of sound. [Source: “Culture and Customs of Indonesia” by Jill Forshee, Greenwood Press, 2006]

Within the ensemble, certain instruments play leading roles. The rebab and gender guide the melodic line, particularly in quieter passages, while the gender also elaborates on the melody. Other metallophones reinforce or expand the musical texture, sometimes in parallel octaves or through deeper, more abstract tones. Kettle gongs help regulate timing and signal shifts in tempo, while large hanging gongs mark the beginning, ending, and key intervals of a piece.

Striking these gongs at precisely the right moment is considered one of the most demanding skills in gamelan. Instruments are generally divided into loud and soft categories, with melodic lines often carried by softer instruments. Ensembles may include between ten and forty musicians, each contributing to central melody, rhythmic control, or structural support. As one concise description notes, gamelan “integrates a great variety of musical lines in shifting degrees of aural clarity.”

Gamelan Musicians

Gamelan musicians learn to play all the instruments on a gamelan and often change position during the all night shadow puppet plays. During performances they the same direction. There is no conductor. The musicians respond to cues from a drummer playing a double-headed drum at the center of the ensemble. Some gamelans are accompanied by vocalists—often a male chorus and female solo singers.

Many of the gamelan instruments are relatively simple and easy to play. The soft-tone embroidering instrument such as the gender, gamban and rebab require the most skill. Musicians are required to remove their shoes when they play and not step over the instruments. They don’t always play set pieces but respond to cues of other musicians. Music made by Indonesian bamboo xylophones is known for its "feminine beauty.”

Edward Herbst wrote: Traditionally, instrumental music is rarely notated, and musicians learn their parts by rote. However, the music is highly structured and the only room for improvisation is in the leading drum or with the flute, both of which are still tightly bound by rhythmic or melodic form. In contemporary schools, music is taught using a system of cipher notation. [Source: Edward Herbst, International Encyclopedia of Dance, 1998]

Well-known gamelan composers and musicians include Ki Nartosabdho and Bagong Kussudiardja. Many musicians today are trained at the ISI (Institut Seni Indonesia), the Institute of Performing Art in Yogyakarta and the STSI (Sekolah Tinggo Seni Indonesia), the Academy of Performing Arts in Solo

Gamelan Gong Factory

Reporting from Bogor in West Java, Peter Gelling wrote in the New York Times, “Every day, a dozen grizzled men — shirtless, shoeless and with clove cigarettes dangling from their lips — hover over a pit of fire here in a tin-roofed shack, taking turns pounding glowing metal into the shape of a gong with the crudest of hammers. The men are artisans, turning out the xylophones, gongs, drums and strings that make up this country’s traditional gamelan orchestras. All the workers are descendants of the laborers hired when this family-run business began making instruments in 1811. Theirs is a dying art form. The business, the Gong Factory, is one of Indonesia’s few remaining gamelan workshops. Fifty years ago there were dozens of such tiny workshops in Bogor here on the island of Java alone. [Source: Peter Gelling, New York Times, March 10, 2008 ]

“The workshop in this small city 30 miles south of Jakarta has been one of the main suppliers of gamelan instruments in Java since the 1970s, when three of its competitors shut their doors because of a lack of demand. For a time, the lack of competition increased the workshop’s orders. But over the past decade, orders have been steadily declining here, too, adding to worries over the rising cost of tin and copper and the decreasing supply of quality woods like teak and jackfruit, which are used to build the ornate stands that cradle the gongs, xylophones and drums. “I try to make sure there is always work for them so they can earn money,” Sukarna, the factory’s sixth-generation owner, said of his workers, who earn about $2 a day. “But sometimes it is difficult.”

“Sukarna, who like many Indonesians uses just one name, is 82 years old and worried for years that his two sons, who do not share his passion for gamelan, might abandon the family business. He was relieved when his younger son, Krisna Hidayat, who is 28 and has a business degree, reluctantly agreed to take over as manager. Still, Mr. Hidayat said his favorite band was the American hard-rock spectacle Guns N’ Roses. “My father still listens to gamelan at home,” he said. “I prefer rock ’n’ These days, it is orders from abroad that keep the Gong Factory, and other workshops like it, in business. “Most orders come from America, but we also get many from Australia, France, Germany and England,” said Mr. Hidayat, the manager.

“To fill those orders, he and his father wake up every weekday morning at 5 to begin the process of mixing the metals that is crucial to producing high-quality gongs. Only the two men know the exact mix of tin and copper the workshop uses.“It’s like making dough: it can’t be too soft or too hard, it has to be perfect,” Mr. Hidayat said. “A lot of this process is instinctual.” Once he and his father have found the right blend, workers take it to the shack, where the smoke from the fire mixes with the men’s cigarette smoke. The men begin their banging, sending sparks flying. Once they are satisfied with the shape, another laborer cradles the gong between his bare feet and carefully shaves it down, testing it often until he thinks the tone is right. It often takes days to make a single gong. “

As Interest in Gamelan Music in Indonesia Wanes It Rises in the West

Reporting from Bogor in West Java, Peter Gelling wrote in the New York Times, “Joan Suyenaga, an American who came to Java to indulge her fascination with its traditional performing arts and married a gamelan musician and instrument maker, said it had been dispiriting to witness decreasing local interest in an art form that had such a storied history. According to Javanese mythology, an ancient king invented the gong as a way to communicate with the gods. “Our children play in rock bands and are immersed in emo, ska, pop and Western classical music,” she said. “There definitely are a few desperate attempts to preserve the gamelan tradition here in Java, but not nearly as much as there could be.” But in a twist, as interest in gamelan has waned in its birthplace, foreign musicians have become enamored with its sound. [Source: Peter Gelling, New York Times, March 10, 2008 ]

Bjork, the Icelandic pop star, has used gamelan instruments in a number of her songs, most famously in her 1993 recording “One Day,” and has performed with Balinese gamelan orchestras. Several contemporary composers have incorporated gamelan into their works, including Philip Glass and Lou Harrison, as did art-rock bands of the 70s like King Crimson, which adopted gamelan for Western instruments. Perhaps more significantly, some schools in the United States and Europe now offer gamelan courses. Britain even includes it in its national music curriculum for primary and secondary schools, where children study and play gamelan. “It is interesting and very sad that gamelan is used to teach basic musical concepts in Great Britain, whereas in Indonesian schools our children are exposed only to Western music and scales,” Ms. Suyenaga said.

“Mr. Hidayat holds out at least some hope that Western interest in the music will jump start a resurgence of interest in gamelan music in Indonesia. But he acknowledges that he will not be uploading traditional songs to his iPod anytime soon. Ms. Suyenaga is less optimistic. “I cannot say the situation is improving or even healthy,” she said. “Probably the peak for us was 5 to 15 years ago.”

Balinese Gamelans

While Javanese gamelan instruments are known for their finely carved elegance, Balinese ensembles favor more ornate and exuberant designs. Often gilded and painted in vivid colors, Balinese gamelan produces faster, more energetic music. [Source: “Culture and Customs of Indonesia” by Jill Forshee, Greenwood Press, 2006]

Gamelans played in Bali include the “gamelan aklung”, a four-tone instrument, and the “gamelan bebonangan”, a larger gamelan often played in processions. Most of the individual instrument are similar to those found in Javanese gamelans. Unique Balinese instrument include “gangas” (similar to Javanese gendèr except the are struck with bare wooden mallets) and “reogs” (knobbed gongs played by four men). [Sources: Rough Guide to World Music |^|]

The Balinese Kebyar-style of gamelan playing is faster, more dynamically and more expressively than traditional Javanese gamelan music. It often accompanies by Keybar dance. Sacred gamelans in Bali include the Bamboo Gambang, which is usually played at cremations, and the Gamelan Selunding, found in the ancient village of Tenganan in east Bali. Most villages have gamelans owned and played by local music clubs, often known for their unique styles. Most performers are amateurs who worked as farmers or craftsmen during the day. At festivals several gamelans are often played at the same time in different pavilions. |^|

Javanese Versus Balinese Gamelan Music

Bali and Java, the principal centers of gamelan, developed markedly different musical styles. Courtly traditions in both regions fostered increasingly elaborate instrument design and musical complexity. In Bali, gamelan is practiced regularly, and music often fills the environment, while in Java it is more commonly reserved for special occasions. [Source: “Culture and Customs of Indonesia” by Jill Forshee, Greenwood Press, 2006]

Javanese gamelan is typically soft, sustained, and subtly textured, sometimes compared to a gentle breeze across the senses. Despite its calming effect, it is highly complex and abstract, presenting challenges for listeners seeking to understand its structure. Its elusive quality mirrors broader cultural tendencies in Java, including modes of interaction, storytelling, and artistic expression.

Instruments in Javanese gamelan are tuned to fixed pitches within two separate systems. A full ensemble actually consists of two orchestras, which are not played simultaneously but may alternate within a performance. While capable of seven tones, most compositions rely on a five-tone pentatonic scale. Javanese ensembles include large gongs, metallophones of varying sizes (notably the gender), and rows of kettle gongs, all typically cast in bronze. Additional instruments include elongated double-headed drums (kendhang), the bowed two-string lute (rebab), bamboo flutes (suling), and vocalists.

While Javanese gamelan instruments are known for their finely carved elegance, Balinese ensembles favor more ornate and exuberant designs. Often gilded and painted in vivid colors, Balinese gamelan produces faster, more energetic music. Its bright, forceful sound reflects the dynamism of Balinese ceremonial life.

Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons

Text Sources: “Encyclopedia of World Cultures Volume 5: East/Southeast Asia:” edited by Paul Hockings, 1993; “Culture and Customs of Indonesia” by Jill Forshee, Greenwood Press, 2006; National Geographic, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Smithsonian magazine, Encyclopedia.com, Library of Congress, Indonesia Tourism website (indonesia.travel), Indonesia government websites, Live Science, The Conversation, The New Yorker, Time, BBC, CNN, Reuters, Associated Press, AFP, Lonely Planet Guides, Google AI, Wikipedia, The Guardian and various websites, books and other publications.

Last updated April 2026