Gamelon in the West

Gamelan’s first appearance in the west is a debated subject, but it is agreed upon that individual instruments (as opposed to whole ensembles) were imported from the East Indies to Europe in the early 19th century. The very first gamelan outside of South-east Asia was brought to England by a man named Stamford Raffles. He had just finished his governorship of Java in 1816 and decided to bring a taste of the wonderful music he had heard home. He brought more than a taste. Raffles brought home two entire gamelan sets (just instruments) to Buckinghamshire, England. One was given to the Verney family to be put on display at the Clayden House, and the other

Ziporyn would then have a fateful introduction to Michael Tezner in the late 70’s, who had just returned from Bali. Tezner was a member of Sekar Jaya, an American gamelan in Berkeley California. Tezner convinced Ziporyn to enroll in the Ph.D. program at the University of California at Berkeley and join his gamelan, Sekar Jaya. Ziporyn was now pulling double duty studying both western composition and Balinese gamelan, and the affect it had on him would prove to create a genuinely American sound in his later compositions.

Another American composer who is known for having studied gamelan (1973-74) and implementing certain techniques from it is Steve Reich. In his piece Music for Mallet Instruments, he “embraced the lush timbres of the balinese orchestra” (Schwarz, 1997; p.9). His brief, melodic phrases in Music for 18 Musicians can also be said to resemble those of gamelan. And Reich admits that he was definitely listening to gamelan during the period that he ‘discovered phasing’ and composed Music for 18 Musicians. He said at one point that “gamelan had no conscious influence on Music for 18 Musicians. Certainly there’s no organization of musical structure similar to the gamelan. But yes, on a taken-for-granted, semi-unconscious level, all those colors had become part of my working vocabulary.” (Schwarz, 1995; p.13-14).

McPhee’s trans-Pacific piece included a standard symphony orchestra and incorporated what he called a ‘nuclear gamelan’, made up of western instruments (two pianos, celesta, xylophone, marimba and glockenspiel) and two authentic Balinese gongs (Rich,1995; p.190). The nuclear gamelan’s purpose was to imitate the “intricate, chime like figuration of some of the gamelan instruments.”(Rich, 1995; p. 190). McPhee used cellos, basses, low-harp and piano to play the roles of time keepers like the hand drum players in gamelan ensembles do.

I also have included the last movement (Strofo 7 Mantro kaj Kunsunoro) of his 1972 composition titled La Koro Sutro as track 3 on the cd. The Esperanto, an invented hybrid language that mixes the world’s principal languages, title is actually a buddhist reference meaning ‘the heart sutra’. The lyrics are taken ancient Greek texts and sung in Esperanto.

Tabuh-tabuhan was actually composed and first performed in Mexico in 1936. It wasn’t until 1953 that the piece was performed in America (New York). In between he was constantly writing articles and lecturing about what he had learned while in Bali. He also wrote another book, A House in Bali, where he described his experiences while in Bali. McPhee joined the ethnomusicology department at UCLA in the late 50’s, which he was largely responsible for starting, and remained there until his death in 1964. UCLA was the first American university to build and maintain it’s own gamelan, created by McPhee and his ethnomusicologist friend and colleague, Mantle Hood(Rich, 1995; p.192).

Even my own music and that of my friends’ is influenced by gamelan. Gamelan has found a permanent second home in not just the USA, but in the rest of the world as well. Today there are gamelan ensembles all over Asia, Europe, North and South America, Australia, even Africa (and who knows where else?). Gamelan not only belongs to Indonesia, it now belongs to the world. You can hear on all the four corners of the globe, if only you wait long enough and seek it out hard enough. You may not even recognize it when you hear, like in the case of Tortoise. It may not be traditional, or even untraditional, gamelan. However, somewhere deep down inside, the essence of gamelan exists and lives on in the west.

Harrison was also similar to Cage in that he studied composition under Arnold Schoenberg in Los Angeles only to later almost completely discard what he had learned about European musical tradition from him. “As with Cage, not much of the Schoenberg aura remained with Harrison

Some topics in this essay:
Collin McPhee, Varese Asian, , Mallet Instruments, Varied Trio, Babar Layar, Fenwick Gamelan, Set Hillside”, Khayalan Tiga, Tire Fire, gamelan ensemble, own gamelan, tapi nyata, aneh tapi, aneh tapi nyata, balinese gamelan, outside south-east asia, outside south-east, south-east asia, gamelan music, asian music, khayalan tiga, music 18 musicians, 19th century gamelan, kekembangan aneh tapi,