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THE JAVANESE GAMELAN ORCHESTRA

In actual fact gamelan orchestra is found in many part of the Indonesian archipelago. The Dayak people

in the hinterland of East Kalimantan, for example, use small kettle gongs and drums to accompany social sacred dances. They also use those instruments in exorcise rites to cure ill people. The kolintang music ensemble has similar origins.

To the general layman and student the term of gamelan orchestra refers to the highly elaborate and   refined musical system which use its expression with great variety gongs, metal and wooden xelophones, drum, zither , a bowed lute, flute, human voice and various othe instruments. Actually,  they are depending on the context in which it's used. In this form there are many musician consider that gamelan orchestra and it's hybrid offshoots is as being the only true orchestra in the world part from that of the West. It seems likely that the development of gamelan orchestra had its beginnings. It was somewhere during the first centuries AD when  waves of migrants from  the Asian mainland brought the skills of and advanced Bronze age to these islands. Bronze casting  however is  not and never was an indigenouse indonesia  art.  While bronze casting appeared to have remained an alien art, the hand-forging of the alloy was quickly mastered and applied to the cultural needs of the indigenous population.

From these early beginnings, apparently separated courses of development  led to the accomplishment of the two currently known tuning systems. Those are the five-tone slendro and the seven-tone pelog. The five-tone slendro was developed by the eight century during the rule of the Caylendra Dynasty in Central Java. While the seven-tone pelog was fully developed by the time the east javanese hindu epire of majapahit. It was past the zenith of its power around the beginning of the 15th.

Considering the profoundness of the hindu influence, especially in java and bali it may seem odd that there should be so litle impact on the music of these islands it self. The use of Indian musical instruments was well-knwon in indonesia. It's showed clearly by the stone reliefs found in the borobudur and other temple sites. On  the other hand, the intimate chiming and briliant ebulliance of the balinese gamelan are well-knwon to anybody who has visited the island.

Actually, The gamelan orchestra of java is harder to describe. According to one translation of muchquoted description by a Duct scholar, the javanese gamelan orchestra is ka comparable to only two things. Those are moonlight and flowing water it's pure and mysterious like moonlight. It is always the same yet, always changing like flowing water. This music is a taste of being such as moonlight itself that lies poured over the land. It flows murmuring tingling and grugling like water in a mountain stream but it is never monotonous.

Basically,  to produce this effect, the gamelan orchestra uses a principle of orchestration, it's stratification. The most basic melody of the composition is played by the saron family of instruments. Those are the bronze bars or key place over a wooden box resonator,coming in three size. This basic theme is taken up with variation of the bonang.  Those are kettle gongs arranged horizontally on wooden frames. Of the impraving instruments, one of the most loved and which maybe used independently is the soft-playing gender. It consists of thin bronze keys. It si suspensed on string over tube resonators of metal [ in surakarta ] or bamboo   [ in Yogyakarta ]. It is useful to produced a sound which is not unlike the western xylophones.