About Gamelan

Gamelan has an old and enigmatic origin. The earliest evidences of gamelan instruments are a series of stone carvings in the Borobudur Buddhist temple in Central Java around 800A.D. (Hock 2010, http://www.indonesiaphoto.com/facts/life/item/210-the-history-of-gamelan) 

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There are several styles of gamelan, the most popular being Balinese and Javanese gamelan. Gamelan ensembles are usually percussion-orientated (membranophones), along with an extensive use of idiophones, contributing to the resonant timbre in its music. There are also uses of bamboo flutes (aerophones), bowed and plucked strings (chordophones) and vocals. This music culture has been passed down by oral tradition over thousands of years in Indonesia. (Nettl, Capwell, Wong, Turino, Bohlman, Rommen 2008, Excursions in World Music, pg. 162) 

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Gamelan has three sections of instruments: punctuating instruments, balungan (core-melody) instruments, and elaborating instruments that play in slow, medium and fast tempo respectively. (Hugh 1998, http://brenthugh.com/debnotes/gamelan.html) 

There are two prominent scale systems in gamelan, slendro (pentatonic system) and pelog (heptatonic system). (Nettl, Capwell, Wong, Turino, Bohlman, Rommen 2008, Excursions in World Music, pg. 163-164)