Players' character trait
The elaborate orchestration of gamelans testifies to a thorough coordination between the players. While they are playing a gamelan, they are in complete musical agreement. All is mutual harmony, complementarity of parts, instinctive distribution of tasks. Looking at them playing, listening to their music, we feel a pleasant absence of conflict, of tension or dispute. We even guess now and then their easy-going nature in the softness of sounds or their joie de vivre in the energy of rhythms.
We can wonder whether this coordination, this agreement of rhythms, is an inborn or acquired aptitude among the Javanese and Balinese. It seems in any case to be a natural inclination of their character, and they get pleasure out of it. Their natural, economic and social environments have most probably played a role in the forming of their distinctive character. The music of the gamelan would then not simply be a direct consequence of their character but would have been formed at the same time, under the environment's influence, and would have acquired a character similar to that of the people. This correlation would already be anchored and well formed under the hinduized kingdoms of Java's center. The orchestral organization of the gamelans we hear today inherit a beautiful tradition where arts, anchored in their cultural context, were a collective expression based on artistic canons.
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