Page 3 | A brief history of gamelan

The influence of Islam

Contents

A history of gamelan (1)

The earliest gamelan (2)

The influence of Islam (3)

Soft instruments and other additions (4)

Division and the Dutch (5)

Courts and Kêris (6)

Diverse styles (7)

Seleh Notes Volume 2 Number 2 March 1995

© Tim Byard-Jones

The coming of Islam in the 14th century brought about major changes in Javanese culture, particularly in the northern coastal Pasisir region which, to this day, practises a more orthodox form of Islam than the Central Javanese cities.

The development of the sekaten gamelan (still associated today with the celebrations of the Prophet Muhammad's birthday) is ascribed to Sunan Kalijaga (one of the wali sanga, the nine Islamic saints credited with the conversion of Java) in a literary work called the 'Titi Asri' which may, or may not, be an accurate historical record.

In either case, it is this period of the gamelan's development which saw the adoption of a section of saron alongside gongs and bonang.

The only drum in a sekaten gamelan is the bêdhug, otherwise used in mosques to call the faithful to prayer.

The 'Titi Asri' ascribes a range of new gendhing to Sunan Kalijaga and to a Prince Purusan, also known as Karanggayam.

Kalijaga is credited with 'Gonjang Ganjing' and 'Gambir Sawit'; Karanggayam with 'Jangkung Kuning' and 'Singa Singa'.

Pieces with these titles are still well-known in the Central Javanese repertory.

However, as Karanggayam is named in the 'Titi Asri' as a Prince of Pajang (just outside Surakarta), and the 'Titi Asri' itself is of undeniably Solonese origin, poetic licence may be involved.

The coming of Islam was not a conquest but a process of conversion, and the missionaries were willing to adapt Javanese cultural forms like gamelan and wayang to their own ends rather than attempt to stamp out pre-Islamic traits.

In any case, the Javanese have always had a knack (rather like the English) of 'borrowing' elements from other cultures and then coming to think of them as their own.

The Hindu Javanese who refused to convert to Islam mostly fled to Bali, which remains Hindu to this day.

Balinese culture appears to have preserved a number of features which were probably the norm in Java too until comparatively recent times.

Among these are the use of gender, which are not otherwise integrated into the gamelan ensemble, to accompany the wayang kulit shadow-puppet plays, and the use of the bamboo calung as a domestic instrument.

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