Gending Waters Of The Heart

Why has gamelan music been such an attractive enterprise for me? Exactly what is it about gamelan music that peaks my interest and quells my determination and my inclination. For one thing gamelan music is very ancient music. For that reason alone makes it fascinating and compelling to me. Gamelan music has its origins in the Indonesian regions of Bali and Java. To this day, many consider gamelan music to be an integral part of Indonesian culture. In 2021 Gamelan was inscribed onto theUnesco representative list of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. The word gamelan comes from the Javanese word gamel, which refers to playing of percussion instruments or the act of striking something with a mallet.

In Javanese mythology, the gamelan was created by Sang Hyang Guru in Saka era 167 (c. AD 230), the god who ruled as king of all Java from a palace on the Maendra mountain in Medang Kamulan (now Mount Lawu). He needed a signal to summon the gods and thus invented the gong. For more complex messages, he invented two other gongs, thus forming the original gamelan set. The word Degung is an old Sundanese term which refers to gongs and gong ensembles. Western musicians and scholars often visited Java and Bali in the mid-twentieth century. And from this cultural musical introduction serious study, examination, research and dissemination in the west began.

My schooling, coaching, education and instruction in gamelan music began when I attended the Cornish School for the Allied Arts located in Seattle Washington, from 1976-1981. Lou Harrison was invited there and consequently in residence there many times. Oftentimes Lou would play traditional Javanese gamelan music for us and oftentimes he would play his own compositions for gamelan which were quite beautiful. I must say his instruction in gamelan emphasized the traditional perspective of gamelan music which I adopted as well. While at Cornish we even built a gamelan orchestra from scratch using aluminum. I learned the craft of writing gamelan music from Lou Harrison and Janice Giteck. 

If you look at the score you will notice the notation is different. In Java and Bali the music traditions are past down verbally from generation to generation. They almost never wrote things down on paper. The notation that you see here is called cypher notation and was invented by the western ethnomusicologists that visited Java and Bali in the 1960’s. This invention has, in my opinion, withstood the test of time and is therefore wonderful. At present there are many devoted gamelans ensembles residing in the west and many utilizing authentic instruments. It is a thriving community of dedicated and committed musicians that truly love this compelling and culturally interesting music.

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