Indonesian Gamelan Demonstration

Indonesia has two kinds of Gamelan. Balinese Gamelan and Javanese Gamelan are not alike because Balinese Gamelan music is faster. On 2 December, musicians performed Javanese Gamelan and central Javanese dance at York University. 10 players played with traditional instruments like gong, banang, gender, and kendang. A famous artist, Didik Nini Thowok, presented the Asian tradition of cross-gender dancing. Musician Sutrisno Setya Hartana also gave a speech to visitors about the culture of gamelan music. This Javanese woman with her colleague played wonderful music and the Indonesian dancer showed us wonderful dancing: he acted like a woman, and he said this was a kind of traditional culture in Indonesia. He was very interesting, and a lot of fun. After the performance, most people in the room had a chance to play the instruments and dance with Didik Nili Thowok.

When I arrived there were lots of people sitting there. I felt a little bit nervous, but the wonderful music and dancing, and also the interesting Indonesian guy, they made me very relaxed. The Indonesian music was fantastic, especially the instruments which I had never seen before and never known. I was so excited about all the instruments; indeed, I asked Sutrisno Setya Hartana to teach me how to play bonang panerus because it sounded like a mythical instrument. We could play the musical instruments by ourselves, and we did together. It’s very beautiful .I liked it a lot. Also the dance was pretty good; however, most people cannot dance. I learned a lot about the culture of Indonesia and Java during the workshop. This performance was really informative for people who are like me and don’t know about Indonesian music and culture.

Here is a link with some pictures:

http://www.joglosemar.co.id/gamelan.html