Page 2 | A brief history of gamelan

The earliest gamelan

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 roots of the gamelan itself go back many centuries.

Among the archeological finds preserved in Yogyakarta's Sonobudoyo museum (a 'must visit' for anyone planning a trip) are gongs and gong-shaped stones dating back to the early years of the Christian era.

(Javanese legend has the first gamelan - Lokananta - being forged by the gods in 230 AD).

The gongs are certainly pre-Hindu, and are possibly related to the bronze drum cultures of mainland South-East Asia.

The archeological evidence for the Hindu-Buddhist period of Central Javanese history is ambiguous.

Finds include conch trumpets of an undeniably Indian type, while temple carvings, such as the reliefs at Borobudur (c.780-830 AD), show Indian instruments, such as transverse flutes and drums, no longer found in Java.

The rich Central Javanese culture of this period underwent cataclysmic destruction, probably by volcanic eruption or earthquake, and little, apart from stone religious monuments, has survived.

At some time around the 11th century the Javanese 'centre of gravity' moved East, where it stayed for the next 400 years or so.

In the gamelan, the survivals from the pre-Islamic period are the gongs and kendhang-type drums.

The two sacred pre-Islamic gamelan types of the Central Javanese palaces (munggangan and kodhok ngorek) are formed almost exclusively of gongs, gong kettles (giant bonang) and drums; as are animist 'folk' groups such as reog and jatilan ensembles.

Go to next page