What is a gamelan?

1. Outline
2. Visual description
3. Aural description
4. Gamelan in its context

Visual description

Waiting for the players

There lies, in front, a collection of quite strange objects. It looks like furniture, some bed or boat-shaped. Is it the work of some crazy sculptor ? Unless this is all machines, but what would then be their function ? What are those large round dishes hanging at the far end ? And those plates lying in pairs on the floor ? What are those sets of handleless saucepans and of spoutless teapots ? There is one more possibility : could all that be used for music ? But what kind of music ?

It must well be musical instruments. At the bare view of this ensemble, one already perceives a rhythm, a visual and motionless rhythm. Such a pack of instruments, can it be used for something else than playing in rhythmes ? The instruments seem to give off a rhythm even when the players are not there. What other musical ensemble in the world can claim to give off such a power to the eyes ? The very shape of the instruments seems sculpted by the rhythms that emanate from the ensemble. The mumber of instruments too does not seem willing to contradict this general impression.

And all this metal, what a glare ! One is dazzled as if the rhythm were reflected by hundreds of mirrors. The rhythm, the number, the metal, the sculptures, the colors, it is too much. One is not only impressed, one must be filled with wonder, or else frightened.

How are they going to play it ?

Can all that give something coherent, musically speaking ? What on earth is a twenty-five player group going to do with it… IT ? There is no doubt that a soloist won't get much out of this distressing collection of instruments. The number of players does have to meet the number of gongs and of I don't know what other percussion. Also, those players have to comme to an agreement between themselves, otherwise it would be a cacophony. They do have to divide the tasks among themselves, to have a global structure where each one knows his situation in relation to the ensemble, where the individual ajusts his strikes in between those of the other instruments. Otherwise, what to do of such a mixture of instruments ? One is justified in imaginining that these dear players are able to organize themselves, cooperate, have a science of musical organization. If this is not the case, I prefer to go back to my poor guitar with its few well-behaved strings.

At the arrival of the players, one is reassured. They are many, they are tanned, all have the same garment, have a flower in the hair.

• They are many : that can be useful to face up to the number of instruments.
• They are tanned : that suggests they are not from round here. They may even come from a tropical land where rhythm is a music of everybody and where social organization rhymes with structure. Their smooth muscles and their shiny skin send us back to the texture of the prodigious ensemble's metal.
• They all have the same garment : that probably indicates that they are going to play as a united and coherent ensemble, that all the instruments are going to combine well, that there is certainly a possible order in all that.
• They have a flower in their hair : so they do have a taste for embellishment or for delicacy. Perhaps their music is, in the end, beautiful ?

The twenty-five people sit on the ground, each facing an instrument. They start to play, the gamelan takes life. Nobody is standing, nobody is reading. Nobody plucks, bows or sings. There is one blowing, but he seems so insignificant in the ensemble. Everybody strikes, hits, beats or muffles. The instruments are sitting directly on the floor, they are heavy. The players do not carry them, they come and go but the instruments stay.

About the site…	Date of this page : 22 SEP 2005