What is Gamelan?

Gamelan plays an important role in the performance of Kuda Kepang. Without Gamelan, Kuda Kepang cannot function and won't be complete.

So, what actually is Gamelan? Gamelan music is a communal art form; playing the music requires a strong sense of rhythm and attention to the music of the whole group. Javanese gamelan does not stress virtuosic displays of musical talent.

Gamelan are musical instruments made of brass, iron, or bronze (bronze instruments generally have the best sound). A typical ensemble also has drums, wooden bar percussion instruments, plucked string instruments, bowed string instruments. It comes in various types, shapes and sizes. It consists of... drums also known as kendhang (ageng, wayangan, ciblon, ketipung), celempung(zither), Saron (demung, barung, peking), gongs, tabla, bamboo flutes and often a few other instruments. There are also the bonang (barung & panerus), family of horizontally placed kettle-like gongs, which gave out a wonderful music when knocked with the ‘knocker’.

The Gamelan is known in all part of Indonesia particularly southern Sumatra to Sulawesi, Kalimantan to Bali.

A set of Gamelan is a whole entity, one cannot play instruments of different sets together (because of tuning variations) and one cannot simply play one instrument and get a sense of Javanese gamelan music. Traditionally in Java, Gamelan sets have even been thought of to have a spirit of their own.

To some people ears, the music from Gamelan may sounds very different from "normal" music. Instead of minor and major scales or laras , they will hear music in two scales; sléndro and pélog.

To some Westerners with a deeply rooted sense of pitch, gamelan music may seem "out of tune," in fact, even the instruments of different Gamelan ensembles do not share exactly the same intervallic scale structure. This variety lends a character to each Gamelan set and many Gamelan are named to reflect their character.

Gamelan music in Java has had a much longer, richer tradition of percussion music than Western music has had.

Beside the normal music compose for the Kuda Kepang dances, Gamelan can also be use to play any type of songs for example the evergreen folk song of Lenggang Kangkong as well as Geylang Si Paku Geylang.