Gamelan: The Traditional Sounds of Indonesia

by Henry Spiller

A gentle introduction to the familiar music from Southeast Asia's largest country—both as sound and cultural phenomenon. The Traditional Sounds of Indonesia provides an introduction to present-day Javanese, Balinese, Cirebonese, and Sundanese gamelan (gong chime orchestra) music through ethnic, social, cultural, and global perspectives. Deemphasizing potentially intimidating technical discussions of scales and models, this unique work focuses on the approaches to composing and playing gamelan music and how they relate to cultural and personal values. An introduction to Southeast Asian geography and history leads to a discussion of the different gamelan traditions in Bali and Java. A chapter on music and dance in West Java includes never-before published information on a variety of Sundanese music and dance genres. A case study of "jaipongan," and "dangdut," indigenous modern music and dance forms, explores their roots, roles, and authenticity.
• Maps of Southeast Asia, Java, and Bali • 20+ photographs of musical instruments and other subjects

Genres: Music

Hardcover

First published September 1, 2004

Reviews

[Dutch Leonard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent overview of Indonesian gamelan with a helpful CD of musical examples.
The text is clearly written and well-organized, and includes a number of illustrations.
The appendices and CD are almost worth the price of the book on their own. A treasure for anyone interested in gamelan, and doubly so for anyone interested in the music of West Java. As someone with an interest in Indonesian music, I would put this book up there with McPhee's Music in Bali and Tenzer's first book for the quality of its information, and clarity of its presentation. Thank-you for your work, Mr. Spiller.