Download Gamelan - Musical Meanderings

Gamelan Music
An Introduction.
Gamelan
Gamelan music - a gamelan is a set of
instruments consisting mainly of tuned gongs,
metallophones and drums. The instruments of the
gamelan are made, tuned and kept together as a
set - they are not owned and bought by the
individual musicians. The players think of
themselves as performers on one common
instrument.
Gamelan music is heard at many different events,
from accompanying shadow puppet plays, poetry,
dance and drama to traditional rituals and
ceremonies, such as weddings.
Gamelan Music in Context.
The gamelan comes from the Indonesian
islands of Java and Bali in south-east Asia.
The word gamelan itself means 'to hammer
or handle' and refers to the set of bronze
gongs, metallophones (similar to a
xylophone), double-headed drums and
cymbals.
It is important to note that the Javanese
and Balinese gamelan ensembles are
different in many ways and have very
distinct musical styles.
Langiang
1. Langiang is used to accompany
shadow puppet plays. What other
events do the gamelan play at? Can
you imagine what the puppets may
be doing now?
2. This piece is played by four
metallophones. What is a
metallophone and how is it played?
Structure in Gamelan Music
Gamelan music is always
HETEROPHONIC =
Layers of the same melody on top of
one another.
Jauk Masal
1. What types of instruments can you
hear playing?
2. Which two instruments play in the
introduction?
3. Jauk Masal is a Balinese masked
dance depicting demons. Describe
how the music shows this?
4. How do we know that this music is
coming to an end?
Scales
Slendro - Five note scale (similar to pentatonic)
Slendro has five notes which divide the octave into
roughly equal segments, each a little larger than a
tone. This cannot be accurately expressed in
western notation.
Pelog - Seven note scale that slendro is derived
from Pelog is more complicated. There are seven
pitches to the octave, but they are in unequal
steps ranging from slightly less than a semitone to
almost a minor 3rd. In practice only five or six of
these notes are used in any one piece.
Your composition’s layers
Using the work cards you are going to
put together a performance which has
the following layers:
TRUNK (bass line/simple melody)
BRANCHES (middle part – more
complex than the bass)
LEAVES (most complex part – the
main melody)
One drum rhythm to keep the beat
Your whole piece
Your composition should follow this
pattern:
Section A (with the 3 layers of trunk,
branches and leaves)
Section B (with 3 different layers)
Section A (repeated)
Evaluation Questions
1.
2.
3.
Was the piece of music successful?
What were its strong points?
What were its weaker points, and how could it
have been improved?
4. Did the piece fulfil the task requirements?
Specify?
Answer these questions about your group and
yourself.
5. Did your group have a leader, or was it run
democratically?
6. Did you feel that your were playing a part in your
group that matched your ability as a musician?
Explain.