A History of Gamelan

Gamelan music is the sum of diverse foreign influences. Pitch relationships from China,
bronze instruments from southeast Asia, drums and modal practice from India, bowed strings
from the middle east, and even military styles from Europe contributed to the traditional music
we hear in Java and Bali today.

The First Gamelan

Among the earliest evidence of gamelan instruments is a series of stone relief carvings on the
Borobudur Buddhist temple in central Java (ca. 800ad).

Borobudur shows the world's first record of a bar percussion instrument. It appears to be a
gambang style "xylophone" with ten wide bars resting over a trough resonator. We have no
way to tell, but the bars were most likely made of wood or metal. The instrument is shown
being played with two sticks with large, presumably padded, balls on the ends (see Kunst,
"Hindu Javanese Musical Instruments," fig. 21). Cymbals resembling Balinese ceng ceng
kopyak used in modern processional music can be seen as well as two-headed hand drums
which appear to be of both Javanese barrel shape and Balinese conical styles.

The reliefs of Borobudur and other central Javanese temples of the period, including
Prambanan and Candi Sari, depict many other instruments including zithers, lutes, harps,
vessel drums (gatam), and transverse flutes. Most are extinct in Indonesia today and may
have never really existed on the islands, possibly carved from memory by mainland artisans.
Only the bar instrument, cymbals, and drums remain. Notably absent from all reliefs of this
period are gongs.

The First Gongs

Gongs first appear in the carvings of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, among temples
of the Majapahit Hindu empire. These depictions show small gongs, often mounted in pairs on
a stick or hanging singly from a cord in the hand and played with a padded mallet. Also
evident are significant advancements in bar instruments since the time of Borobudur,
including four-mallet gambang style xylophones of a type still used in Bali for cremation rites.
Suspended bar gangsa and gender as well as saron with resting bars can be found. The
earliest evidence of tuned acoustic resonators, bamboo tubes which amplify the sound of the
bars, also appears in this period.

Notable in the east Javanese reliefs are images resembling sitar and other gourd resonated
plucked string instruments like those used today in India. Many drums depicted in this period
also strongly resemble Indian mridanggam and pakawaj. These instruments became extinct
in Indonesia, and again may have never existed, but their presence indicates a powerful
foreign cultural infusion.

Gongs most probably did not originate in Indonesia. There is no evidence of the development
of bronze gongs in Indonesia before the thirteenth century. They simply appear in the record
as highly refined instruments, complete with an embossed center and deep shell. Mainland
Asia, however, displays a much wider variety of bronze gong styles, including shallower
shells, flat faces, and a clear developmental lineage.

Ancient literature suggests that gongs may have been known and used in Indonesia as early
as the ninth century. Their original use may have been as instruments of battle, a sound used
to encourage soldiers as it instilled fear in their enemies. But, their absence from the earliest
stone record suggests that they were either relatively uncommon until that time. Perhaps they
were not an instrument of the ruling class, or had no religiously important purpose.
Majapahit is where all the primary elements of modern gamelan came together. Bronze gongs
combined with Indian and southeast Asian influences and the "indigenous" music and
instruments of the central Javanese cultures which built Borobudur make east Java the
birthplace of gamelan as we know it today. Influence of the Majapahit was strong throughout
Indonesia and the southern Philippines and reached deep into the mainland of southeast
Asia.

Bali and Java Split

In the fourteenth century, people from the middle east introduced the religion of Islam and the
fall of the Majapahit empire began. Those who wished to remain Hindu were exiled to Bali,
where they remained relatively isolated for hundreds of years.

The gamelan we hear in Bali today is a direct, almost pure, descendant of the music of the
Majapahit period. Many instruments in Bali are exactly the same as those recorded by stone
carvers in east Java over six centuries ago. But, while the tools of the trade have remained
similar, the music has changed and developed. Every generation of musicians in Bali puts
their personal stamp on the music. An added variation here, a new section there, or another
composition for a particular ritual, add up considerably over six hundred years. Changes in
popular taste also had an effect.

In Java, the new Islamic Mataram empire began and music and instrumentations changed
considerably. In Bali, we still find primarily homogenous ensembles of bronze, iron, bamboo,
etc. But, in central Java, this diverse instrumentation was combined into a single orchestra.
Also combined were the two scales, slendro and pelog, which had remained exclusive to
certain ensembles and rituals in Majapahit times. While scales and even melodies may have
remained the same, theories behind them were amended to create the Javanese "patet"
modal system.

The Javanese Mataram empire is responsible for advancing bronze foundry techniques to
produce the very large gongs which have become a staple of modern Javanese and Balinese
gamelan. The village of Semarang on the north coast of central Java became the new
Indonesian center for gong making, supplying instruments to most of Java, Sumatra, Bali,
Borneo, and surrounding islands.

The use and purpose of gamelan music in Java was also revised by Mataram. Originally,
gamelan was played in outdoor temples for religious rites, to inspire trance and to invite
ancestral spirits. But, in Java religious worship was redirected to the royal courts and the old
Hindu and Buddhist temples were left to decay. This change of environment gave rise to
many of the aesthetic differences between Balinese and Javanese musical styles. Music in
Java moved from open air temples to large roofed platforms within the royal court. Mallets
were softened to allow the instruments to reverberate within the space in a more pleasing
manner. Forms were also slowed down and elongated to take advantage of the new acoustics
and lend austerity to the court. Music became largely a cerebral pursuit of the aristocracy and
musicians became servants of the courts.

The Twentieth Century

The last hundred years has brought great changes in both Balinese and Javanese music.
Older Balinese musicians speak of times when tempos were slow and variations less intense.
Older Javanese musicians relate stories of now rare grand court events and lost
compositions. Balinese kebyar style is a product of this century, as is the bonang imbal and
kembangan playing techniques so typical of today's Javanese sound.

Gamelan music continues to change and evolve in both style and purpose. Government
performing arts schools are the new patrons driving the future. Students in these institutions
are required to create new music and dance, expanding the scope and popularity of gamelan
both at home and around the world.