Music of Indonesia

Indonesia is culturally diverse and every one of the 17,508 islands has its own cultural and artistic history and character. This results hundreds of different forms of music, which often accompanies dance and theater. The musics of Java, Sumatra, Bali, Flores and other islands have been documented and recorded, and research by Indonesia and International scholar is ongoing.


Gamelan

The most popular and famous form of Indonesian music is gamelan, an ensemble of tuned percussion instruments that include metallophone drums, gongs and spike fiddles along with bamboo flutes. Similar ensembles are prevalent throughout Indonesia and Malaysia, but gamelan is from Java, Bali and Lombok. There are rivalries between different regions' variation of gamelan, espicially Java and Bali.

Central Java

Gamelan is intricate and meticulously laid out. The central melody is played on a metallophone in the center of the orchestra, while the front elaboration and ornamentation on the melody, and at the back, the gongs slowly punctuate the music. There are two tuning system. Each gamelan is tuned to itself, and the intervals between notes on the scale vary between ensembles.

The metallophones cover four octaves and include types like the slenthem, demung, saron panerus and balungan. The soul of the gamelan is believed to beside in the large gong or gong ageng. Other gongs are tuned to each note of the scale and include ketuk, kenong and kempul. The front section of the orchestra is diverse and includes rebab, suling, siter, bonang and gambang. Male choruses (gerong) and female (pesindhen) solo vocalists are common.

West Java

West Java, or Sunda, has a diverse brand of gamelan. Gamelan degung, gamelan salendro and tembang sunda are three primary types.