Gamelan

Gamelan Music (Gam-a-lawn) is the traditional ensemble music of the islands of Java and Bali in Indonesia. These ensembles consist largely of percussive instruments. With different variations of gongs, mallet instruments, and drums, each instrument is struck with a mallet to produce a metallic/percussive sound. Each Gamelan Ensemble has a different style and can incorporate different percussive instruments, string instruments, and voice. This gives each Gamelan a unique texture. Gamelans may also vary intonation to change the blend of the ensemble. No two Gamelans are tuned alike. Every instrument is tuned to coordinate their outfit, subsequently, not requiring the utilization of a standard/strong pitch. Gamelan groups might utilize…

On Thursday, November 1, 2016, I attended World Percussion Night at Bowling Green State University. This musical event took place at 8:00 PM in Kobacker Hall located inside the Moore Musical Arts Center. World Percussion Night featured multiple styles including performances by the Kusuma Sari Balinese Gamelan, Afro-Caribbean, Hayabusa, and Kaze No Daichi Taiko ensembles. As I entered the building, I was anxious to see what I would endure at this concert. Not only had I never been to a musical…

One such composer was Peter Tchaikovsky. His composition of the tone poem “Romeo and Juliet” would be an example of music from this era. The arrangement follows the story line of Romeo and Juliet and displays their love for each other through the sounds of music. (Wright, C. M. (2014). Music is also used to help us celebrate events, such as ceremonies, weddings, etc. Two such examples of music used for celebration are Mariachi music and Gamelan music. An example of Gamelan music would be the…

Exoticism, The Gamelan, and Sexuality Western music has drawn on many musical styles. Exoticism is one of the styles that was popular in the late nineteenth century. Exoticism, according to much literature, is deliberated as a form of representation that predicts people, cultural practices and places as foreign from a composer’s perspective or intended audience. Ralph Locke, in “Musical Exoticism: Images and Reflections,” defines exoticism as “a process of evoking a place, people, or social…

Religious syncretism is when two or more religious belief systems are blended or combined into a new system. There are many reasons why religious syncretism happens. One of the most common ways that religious syncretism occurs is when two or more religious systems exist and are actively practiced in the same area. Eventually, the two religions may blend and become one. Religious syncretism may also happen when a conquering culture imposes its religion on the people it has conquered, but the…

Colin McPhee’s piece Tabuh-tabuhan can be classified as a transcultural composition due to his appreciation and desire to use gamelan music to improve the music of his own culture. On the other hand, Benjamin Britten’s opera Death in Venice incorporates elements of both forms of exoticism, making it more difficult to classify. When compared the character Carmen, however, it is evident that Britten does not have the same intentions of alienating subjects of the non-western culture as Bizet. This…

Over the course of the semester, I have learned much about the process of learning the Gamelan. Initially, I thought that the class would abide by the Western styles of music. I had a rude awakening when we started to play. The intricacies of the Gamelan became evident after I saw the Indian Kathak performance. Though, the Indian Kathak, American Tap dance, and Balinese Gamelan are very different, they all have striking similarities such as the need for instruments. What I noticed in the Indian…

The two performances of Tari Wiranata, live and recorded, are very similar. The difference is whether you are sitting in front of a live production, or if you are watching a recital through a computer screen. The performances both include very unique uniforms, scenery, dancers, and music timbre. But what you miss out on when watching a recording, is hearing the live gamelan sounds flood around you and all the energy in the concert hall. Over all, I prefer the live version. The melodies in both…

emphasized through the use of gamelan music. One way that Tadzio as the representation of homosexual desire is othered is through music. The role of Tadzio in Death in Venice is danced not sung, this in itself goes against the norms of opera paralleling how homosexuality goes against the norms of society at the time (lecture). Throughout the opera Tadzio does not speak or sing and Aschenberg gazes upon Tadzio from afar. The absence of dialogue or communication from Tadzio correlates with the…

significance of employing mediated action as the central aim of the investigation done by my research is that it does not approve of one to concentrate on merely the mediational processes or just the social character. The direction of this inquiry is on the whole mechanism of how the social character uses the mediational processes to carry out a social action. The mediational process is the social or outside universe interconnecting the distinctive nature of the social character. The distinctive…