| Gamelan is not an instrument, but the term for the group of musicians
playing a variety of (mostly) percussion instruments. It's music that
is native to Indonesia. The most easily found recordings of this are
on the Nonesuch Explorer label, but a number of recordings on small
labels specializing in ethnic music are in print as well.
This music is rarely heard live in the US since the musicians are
usually in the employ of an Indonesian nobleman. However, an
Indonesian group toured the U.S. just last year (I missed it, sadly).
Brian
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> Gamelan is not an instrument, but the term for the group of musicians
> playing a variety of (mostly) percussion instruments. It's music that
> is native to Indonesia.
Sounds like it's a term not only for a kind of group, but more for
a type of music, kind of like Reggae could be used to mean "it's
a reggae group" but really referring to the type of music. In
which case I'm more interested in the musical type, and I can go
listen to the records you mention (thanks).
A friend saw the "Gamelan" group (they played Nightstage in Cambridge
a few months back) and said they were awesome. I got the impression
it was part jazz, part improv, part new-age, part world music.
I also have the new Todd Rundgren album and was told there was
some "gamelan playing" to be heard on it, now I gather it's more
of a musical style. I don't know much about Indonesian percussion
instruments, but even if none of them are called gamelans, there
must be something distinctive about either the instruments themselves
or the way they are played.
My ignorance is showing... but thanks for the info.
Tom
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| Gamelan music is not as rare here as one might think. There are a
number of active gamelans in the US -- I think I've read that there are
more than twenty -- including one in Boston called the Boston Village
Gamelan. The players in these are generally American, and I bet a lot
of them got into gamelan through ethnomusicology studies in college --
for example U of MD at College Park has an ethnomusicology program
and a gamelan, or at least they did when I was there, and I bet there
are others.
Head to your public library and look up "Javanese music" in the Harvard
Dictionary of Music for an overview that should answer some of your
questions.
Val
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