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unusual facts about Gamelan



American Gamelan Institute

The American Gamelan Institute is the publisher of all gamelan works by the American composer Lou Harrison, who built gamelan instruments with his partner William Colvig.

Anne Boyd

Many of Boyd's compositions have an East Asian influence, especially the music of Japan (such as the wood flute and the Japanese mode) and Indonesia (such as the gamelan orchestra and the Balinese modes).

Audlem

British composer Peter McGarr (born 1953) has written several pieces inspired by Audlem ('Audlem Sonatas', 'Night-time' and 'Mourning Gamelan'), as homage to his mother who lived in the village when a child.

Beleganjur

Bakan, Michael B. Music of Death and New Creation: Experiences in the World of Balinese Gamelan Beleganjur. University of Chicago Press, 1999.

Daniel Goode

Goode's works show influence from several sources, including bird song, Cape Breton fiddling, drone, Indonesian gamelan music, and minimal music (specifically music as a gradual process).

Since 1976, Goode has been a member of Gamelan Son of Lion, a Javanese-style iron gamelan ensemble dedicated to new music, for which he has composed many works.

Evan Ziporyn

A member of Bang on a Can All-Stars and a former member of Steve Reich and Musicians, he is Kenan Sahin Distinguished Professor of Music at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he directs Gamelan Galak Tika, an ensemble made up of 30 MIT students, staff and community members, in the study and performing of traditional and modern Balinese music.

Gamelan Council

The name of the organization is a combination of the Indonesian word referring to a music ensemble, ‘Gamelan,’ and English word referring to a Native American, community-fostering ritual, ‘Council’ (the same term used to refer commonly to a group of individuals providing advice and counsel).

Geinoh Yamashirogumi

For example, in the 1980s, MIDI digital synthesizers could not handle the tuning systems of traditional gamelan music, so the group had to teach themselves how to program in order to modify their equipment.

Jal tarang

The jal tarang developed on the pattern of gongs of gamelan orchestras played in Java, Bali, and Burma (now Myanmar).

Kroncong

In 1968 at Gunung Kidul, an area near Yogyakarta, a local musician named Manthous introduced Campursari, a mixture of gamelan music and kronchong.

Lagu

Balungan, aka Lagu, Indonesian gamelan musical ensemble's term for melody

Le marteau sans maître

The xylorimba recalls the African balafon; the vibraphone, the Balinese gamelan; and the guitar, the Japanese koto, though "neither the style nor the actual use of these instruments has any connection with these different musical civilizations" ("Speaking, Playing, Singing" (1963) in Boulez 1986, 341).

Michael Tenzer

In 1979, Tenzer co-founded the Sekar Jaya gamelan ensemble in Berkeley, California, an organization of Americans dedicated to the performance of Balinese arts that is now internationally known.

Nongan

Nongan (kenong), contents of kenong, an instrument used in the Indonesian gamelan


see also