What is difference between Javanese gamelan and Balinese gamelan?

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What is the difference between Javanese and Balinese gamelan? Gamelan is a traditional instrumental ensemble of Indonesia, usually with numerous bronze percussion instruments. Javanese gamelan is more traditional and suitable for temples and palaces. Balinese is a source for more contemporary types of genre of gamelan.



Also to know is, what is Javanese and Balinese?

læn/) is the traditional ensemble music of Javanese, Sundanese, and Balinese in Indonesia, made up predominantly of percussive instruments. The most common instruments used are metallophones played by mallets and a set of hand-played drums called kendhang which register the beat.

One may also ask, what is the difference of Javanese gamelan and Balinese gamelan? The difference between Javanese and Balinese Gamalan Music Javanese gamelan is more traditional and suited to palaces and temples, it is a gentler and lower pitched style of gamelan that accommodates vocalists and rhythmic patterns. Balinese music is also based on a colotonic structure, but it is not always as evident.

In respect to this, what are the characteristics of Balinese gamelan?

Easy-to-hear clues that what you are hearing is Balinese gamelan include: a predominantly percussion ensemble featuring drums, gongs, cymbals, and/or metallophones; wide tuning with audible beats; use of a five-note mode; and thick, busy textures.

What is the Javanese gamelan?

Javanese Gamelan is a group in which students and community members learn to perform gamelan music from Indonesia. The gamelan is a traditional large percussion ensemble consisting of a large number of bronze gongs and metallophones (metal xylophones) of different sizes, plus drums, a zither, and flute.

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What are the characteristics of Javanese gamelan?

The GAMELAN is a large ensemble of bronze keyed instruments and gongs, plus a xylophone, bowed lute, zither, and flute. Gamelan music is highly polyphonic, with a wide expressive and dynamic range.

What are the two types of gamelan?

The two main types of scales in gamelan are the pelong and slendro scales. Pelong is a septatonic scale, and is newer in comparison to the slendro scale. Gamelan usually only uses five of the seven tones in pelong.

What is the similarities of Javanese and Balinese?

1. Sound bar: Javanese gamelan or often called Javanese gamelan has 2 scales called pelog and slendro, where the instruments are used the same but produces different sound blades between each other. While the Balinese gamelan plays two blades of sound at once called smaradhana.

What are the two types of gamelan in Indonesia?

Indonesia's defining musical icon is the gamelan ensemble. Music and the gamelan ensembles are a natural and intrinsic part of Indonesian culture. The three main styles of gamelan are Balinese, Javanese and Sudanese, with many regions adopting a mixture of the three.

What is the meaning of Balinese gamelan?


Gamelan is a term that describes the traditional musical ensemble of Java and Bali.It originates from the Javanese word “gamel”, which means “to strike with a mallet”. Most of the instruments in the ensemble make sounds by striking the metal keys with a bamboo mallet.

What is the difference between Slendro and Pelog?

Pelog is one of the two essential scales of gamelan music native to Bali and Java, in Indonesia. The other, older, scale commonly used is called slendro. Pelog has seven notes, but many gamelan ensembles only have keys for five of the pitches.

How do you play Javanese and Balinese instruments?

The Javanese play their instruments for court music. and mostly, the instuments are percussion. Also, there is a solemn vibe in their music. The Balinese people, on the other hand, play their instruments for sacred music, and they consist of metallophones, and mostly gongs.

Which instruments are the most important in any Balinese gamelan?

Gongs. The gong is one of the most important gamelan instruments, and a variety of gongs are used in various ensembles. In the foreground are several of the kettle-gongs in a gong chime. Behind them are three large hung gongs.

What is Gamelan used for?

Traditionally, gamelan is only played at certain occasions such as ritual ceremonies, special community celebrations, shadow puppet shows, and for the royal family. Gamelan is also used to accompany dances in court, temple, and village rituals.

What is the meaning of bonang?


The bonang is a musical instrument used in the Javanese gamelan. It is a collection of small gongs (sometimes called "kettles" or "pots") placed horizontally onto strings in a wooden frame (rancak), either one or two rows wide.

What is Gamelan made of?

A gamelan ensemble consists of a variety of metal percussion instruments, usually made of bronze or brass, including xylophones, drums, and gongs. It may also feature bamboo flutes, wooden stringed instruments, and vocalists, but the focus is on the percussion.

Is gamelan polyphonic?

The highly developed polyphony (multipart music) or heterophony (music in which one part varies a melody played simultaneously in another part) of the gamelan has a rhythmic origin. Over this shimmering, variegated pattern of hammered sound floats the uninterrupted melodic line of the voice, the flute, or the rebab.

Why is gamelan music important?

Indonesian dances are seen as important because it demonstrates the identity of the culture itself. Similarly, Gamelan is also very important. Not only does it help depict stories with music, but it also used for prayer and to entertain people.

Why is Indonesia gamelan important?

The functions of gamelan
But originally, Balinese gamelan was developed as solemn religious purposes, like warding off evil spirits or preparing worshippers to enter a state of trance. In fact, the beats in Balinese gamelan can be used as cues to inhalation and exhalation to induce a meditative state.

What is a becak in Indonesia?


The becak is the Indonesian incarnation of the ubiquitous pedicab, or cycle-rickshaw, found everywhere from. The becak, a three-wheeled pedal-powered bike with a passenger seat, is the descendant of the original hand-pulled rickshaws that originated in Japan in the 19th Century.

How is gamelan taught to others?

As with a great deal of traditional oriental music, gamelan is learnt by rote, passed on from guru to student. Generally, at a practice a new piece is taught in short phrases by one guru and one or two assistants. The opening phrase is first taught to the lead musician and he in turn does his utmost to mimick it.