- American gamelan
American gamelan could refer to both instruments and
music ; the term has been used to refer to gamelan-style instruments built by Americans, as well as to music written by American composers to be played ongamelan instruments. American gamelan music usually has some relationship to the gamelan traditions ofIndonesia , as found primarily on the islands of Java andBali in a variety of styles. Many American compositions can be played on Indonesian or American made instruments. Indonesian gamelan can be made of a variety of materials, includingbronze ,iron , orbamboo . American gamelan builders used all sorts of materials includingaluminum , tin cans, car hubcaps, steel, antique milk-strainers, etc. "American gamelan" may also describe the original music of American ensembles working with traditional instruments.Dennis Murphy is often credited as being the first American to build instruments modeled on those of the Javanese
gamelan , circa1960 . This work led to his doctoral thesis atWesleyan University , entitled "The Autochthonous American Gamelan." Murphy started a gamelan group with his instruments atGoddard College inVermont in1967 ; that group later became the community-basedPlainfield Village Gamelan .There have been other American builders of gamelan as well, on both the East and West coasts. Following Murphy's model was
Barbara Benary , who built the instruments still used today forGamelan Son of Lion On the West coast, the airline industry made aluminum affordable, and this became the material of choice for several gamelan builders.Daniel Schmidt , a composer-builder, built an ensemble called "The Berkeley Gamelan" (independent of theUniversity of California, Berkeley ) as well as the set of instruments that would developed intoGamelan Pacifica in Seattle.Paul Dresher also used aluminum.Lou Harrison andWilliam Colvig built a set of tuned percussion instruments that they call "an American gamelan" in order to differentiate it from Indonesian ensembles. These are now referred to as "Old Granddad," and Harrison wrote some pieces that can only be played on this set, such as "La Koro Sutro". Lou Harrison spent some time with a Javanese gamelan in 1976 (when Kyai Udan Mas, now at the University of California, Berkeley, was in residence atSan Jose State University ). This inspired him and his partnerWilliam Colvig to build a gamelan modelled specifically on Udan Mas (in instrumentation, although not in tuning). For this he used aluminum primarily, although the "great gong" was eventually fashioned out of iron.Colvig and Harrison built two large "double" gamelan (meaning that there were instruments in both the pelog and slendro tunings). The first was
Si Betty , named for the financial benefactorBetty Freeman . Si Betty was bequeathed toJody Diamond , and is now in residence atHarvard University . The second was named "Si Darius/Si Madeleine" afterDarius Milhaud and his wife, because it was while holding the Milhaud chair atMills College (where the gamelan still resides) that Harrison and Colvig had the support for its construction; a group there (as of 2008) is directed by Daniel Schmidt.Lou Harrison was well known for his compositions for gamelan; he was particularly adept at combining western instruments with his Javanese-style gamelan ensemble. (The scores for all of his gamelan works are published by theAmerican Gamelan Institute ).Films
*1986 - "Lou Harrison : "cherish, conserve, consider, create." Directed by Eric Marin.
*1995 - "Musical Outsiders: An American Legacy - Harry Partch, Lou Harrison, and Terry Riley". Directed by Michael Blackwood.External links
* [http://radiom.org/newgamelan.php A New Gamelan] , audio recording of
Lou Harrison andWilliam Colvig describing the theory and construction of one of the first American Gamelans, followed by a performance on it (free registration required at RadiOM)
* [http://monkeyc.org/ Monkey C] -- American music on a Javanese gamelan. Bang a gong.
* [http://www.gamelan.org/sonoflion Gamelan Son of Lion]
* [http://www.gamelan.org/sibetty Si Betty]ee also
*
List of gamelan ensembles in the United States
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