Origins of gamelan

A long history spanning several centuries has carved out the gamelans we can hear today. This ensemble exists as a large variety of forms, some more common than others. Some are more ancient than others, some have even vanished.

In Java, one finds especially gamelans whose type is of recent origin, even though the importance of the gongs (lying and standing alike) in these ensembles reflects an influence of ancient gamelans (that didn't include keyed instruments. In Bali, one finds a large variety of gamelans, and some are highly developed whereas others are archaic.

The distinctive nature of this music, in its present form, is explainable by the present and past conditions. Gamelan reflects its environment to a great extent. The evolution of this music, of its styles, of its orchestration, of its instruments, of its repertoire, of the rituals for which it plays, and even of the symbols it carries, depended on several factors :

1. The human context
2. The cultural and economic context
3. The climate environment
   • availability of materials
   • conditions of instrument use
   • conditions of instrument maintenance
4. People's technological abilities
   • specific types of workmanship in the making of instruments
   • specific choices of materials for tone qualities
   • exploitation of acoustic properties
   • quality of workmanship and of finish
5. Geographic situation and historical events
6. Extra-south-east Asian influences :
   • what has their importance been ?
   • have they been decisive ?
   • where have they come from ?
   • when have they made themselves felt ?
7. Functional factors, purely musical factors
   • Inheritance of previously acquired features

For that matter, these factors are themselves interdependent. For example, it is easy to conceive that the factor 3 has conditioned the factor 2.

If such or such aspect of this music goes back to the first origins, others are the fruit of the tradition's subsequent evolution, of its internal interactions. From when has this music become gamelan ; Was it already gamelan in the early stages ? Has this music become gamelan all of a sudden at a precise period of history or has it taken several centuries ? And what factors have lead to gamelan's birth ?

Influences have different duration types. There are those happening punctually, at a precise time and having a consequence on gamelan's subsequent history. Or else those having the form of a slow evolution working on a long duration.

They have a global or local effect : some have radically changed the tradition as a whole, determining the later forms of gamelan, others have only changed some forms in some regions.

A given influence could have arisen at different stages of gamelan's evolution : it can have intervened at gamelan's very origin or work on the already established tradition.

An influence can be more or less voluntary, subjected or decided by the musicians. For example, the frequent sound of raindrops, the nocturnal noise of numerous swamp-scattered batrachians, must have most probably “accustomed” the people's ear during centuries. These people would then have slowly created a music carrying an unconscious trace of the familiarization to their natural sound context. But there has also been such and such musician remembering a specific batrachian rhythm (ah, those dear animals !) and taking the opportunity to create a new music piece. There is also these pieces called with suggestive titles like “Udan Mas” referring to rain and its beautiful sounds. Here too, the inspiration is conscious.