Javanese Gamelan and the West
Javanese Gamelan and the West

Author: Sumarsam

Publisher: University Rochester Press

Published: 2013

Total Pages: 222

ISBN-13: 1580464459

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Javanese Gamelan and the West studies the meaning, forms, and traditions of the Javanese performing arts as they developed and changed through their contact with Western culture. Authored by a gamelan performer, teacher, and scholar, the book traces the adaptations in gamelan art as a result of Western colonialism in nineteenth-century Java, showing how Western musical and dramatic practices were domesticated by Javanese performers creating hybrid Javanese-Western art forms, such as with the introduction of brass bands in gendhing mares court music and West Javanese tanjidor, and Western theatrical idioms in contemporary wayang puppet plays. The book also examines the presentation of Javanese gamelan to the West, detailing performances in World's Fairs and American academia and considering its influence on Western performing arts and musical and performance studies. The end result is a comprehensive treatment of the formation of modern Javanese gamelan and a fascinating look at how an art form dramatizes changes and developments in a culture. Sumarsam is a University Professor of Music at Wesleyan University. He is the author of Gamelan: Cultural Interaction and Musical Development in Central Java (University of Chicago Press, 1995) and numerous articles in English and Indonesian. As a gamelan musician and a keen amateur dhalang (puppeteer) of Javanese wayang puppet play, he performs, conducts workshops, and lectures throughout the US, Australia, Europe, and Asia.

Knowing Music, Making Music
Knowing Music, Making Music

Author: Benjamin Brinner

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 1995-12

Total Pages: 410

ISBN-13: 9780226075099

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Using illustrative examples from a variety of traditions, Benjamin Brinner first examines the elements and characteristics of musical competence, the different kinds of competence in a musical community, the development of multiple competences, and the acquisition and transformation of competence through time. He then shows how these factors come into play in musical interaction, establishing four intersecting theoretical perspectives based on ensemble roles, systems of communication, sound structures, and individual motivations. These perspectives are applied to the dynamics of gamelan performance to explain the social, musical, and contextual factors that affect the negotiation of consensus in musical interaction. The discussion ranges from sociocultural norms of interpersonal conduct to links between music, dance, theater, and ritual, and from issues of authority and deference to musicians' self-perceptions and mutual assessments.

A Gamelan Manual
A Gamelan Manual

Author: Richard Pickvance

Publisher:

Published: 2005

Total Pages: 344

ISBN-13:

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

A Gamelan Manual is the first comprehensive description of the performance practice of the central Javanese gamelan. Aimed mainly at the many gamelan players in the West, it will also appeal to composers and music-lovers wanting an extended account of one of the world's major musical cultures, and to teachers interested in new resources for music in schools. The book provides detailed information on the parts played by the various instruments of the gamelan, as well as on the principles on which the music is based. It also sketches the cultural background to musical performance in Java. Numerous illustrations and helpful tips for beginners are included, but also pointers to where more advanced students can find additional material. Owners of the book have access to further content via the associated website. Book jacket.

Echoes from the East
Echoes from the East

Author: Kiyoshi Tamagawa

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2019-11-20

Total Pages: 199

ISBN-13: 1498597157

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

One of the most admired qualities of Claude Debussy’s music has been its seemingly effortless evocation and assimilation of exotic musical strains. He was the first great European composer to discern the possibilities inherent in the gamelan, the ensemble consisting mainly of tuned percussion instruments that originated in Java. Echoes from the East: The Javanese Gamelan and its Influence on the Music of Claude Debussy argues Debussy's encounter with the gamelan in 1889 at the Paris Exposition Universelle had a far more profound effect on his work and style than can be grasped by simply looking for passages and pieces in his output that sound “Asian" or “like a gamelan." Kiyoshi Tamagawa recounts Debussy’s individual experience with the music of Java and traces its echoes through his entire compositional career. Echoes from the East adds a commentary on the modern-day issue of cultural appropriation and a survey of Debussy’s contemporaries and successors who have also attempted to merge the sounds of the gamelan with their own distinctive musical styles.

Javanese Gamelan
Javanese Gamelan

Author: Jennifer Lindsay

Publisher: Singapore ; Toronto : Oxford University Press

Published: 1992

Total Pages: 108

ISBN-13:

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The gamelan music of central Java, until almost a century ago heard only in Java, is now being widely taught all over the world. More and more non-Indonesians are coming into contact with gamelan music through travel or through recordings or performances in their home countries. Yet, while valuable research material on gamelan music is available, this is the only short book available for those coming into contact with gamelan for the first time. The book outlines some of the basic concepts of Javanese gamelan, and provides a listening framework so that the perhaps exotic sounds can be given musical and cultural sense. Included in the text is an explanation of the historical background, the instruments and their making, tuning and notation, the structure of the music, and the place of gamelan music in Javanese society.

Unplayed Melodies
Unplayed Melodies

Author: Marc Perlman

Publisher: Univ of California Press

Published: 2004-10-25

Total Pages: 276

ISBN-13: 0520239563

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

A long awaited study of musical structure and music cognition, using Javanese gamelan and western classical music as the main points of comparison.

Gamelan
Gamelan

Author: Sumarsam

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 1995-12-15

Total Pages: 386

ISBN-13: 9780226780115

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Gamelan is the first study of the music of Java and the development of the gamelan to take into account extensive historical sources and contemporary cultural theory and criticism. An ensemble dominated by bronze percussion instruments that dates back to the twelfth century in Java, the gamelan as a musical organization and a genre of performance reflects a cultural heritage that is the product of centuries of interaction between Hindu, Islamic, European, Chinese, and Malay cultural forces. Drawing on sources ranging from a twelfth-century royal poem to the writing of a twentieth-century nationalist, Sumarsam shows how the Indian-inspired contexts and ideology of the Javanese performing arts were first adjusted to the Sufi tradition and later shaped by European performance styles in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. He then turns to accounts of gamelan theory and practice from the colonial and postcolonial periods. Finally, he presents his own theory of gamelan, stressing the relationship between purely vocal melodies and classical gamelan composition.

Balinese Music
Balinese Music

Author: Michael Tenzer

Publisher: Tuttle Publishing

Published: 1998-08-15

Total Pages: 145

ISBN-13: 1462916384

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This book presents an introduction to more than a dozen different types of Balinese gamelan, each with its own established tradition, repertoire and social or religious context. The instruments and basic principles underlying the gamelan are introduced, thus providing listeners with the means to better appreciate the music. Scores of beautiful color photographs, a discography, and a brief guide to studying and hearing the music in Bali, will prove indispensible to visitors and gamelan afficionados around the world.

Gamelan Stories
Gamelan Stories

Author: Judith Becker

Publisher: Program for Southeast Asian Studies Arizona State University

Published: 1993

Total Pages: 240

ISBN-13:

DOWNLOAD EBOOK