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 Gamelan Music and Dance
A gamelan is a kind of musical ensemble of Indonesia typically featuring a variety of instruments such as metallophones, xylophones, drums, and gongs; bamboo flutes, bowed and plucked strings, and vocalists may also be included. The term refers more to the set of instruments than the players of those instruments. A gamelan as a set of instruments is a distinct entity, built and tuned to stay together — instruments from different gamelan are not interchangeable.
The word "gamelan" comes from the Javanese word "gamel", meaning to strike or hammer, and the suffix "an", which makes the root a collective noun.
Gamelan Puspa Wresti play Balinese Gamelan Gong Kebyar music. Gamelan gong kebyar is a modern style or genre of Balinese gamelan music. Kebyar means "the process of flowering", and refers to the explosive changes in tempo and dynamics characteristic of the style. It is the most popular form of gamelan in Bali, and its best-known musical export.
The main instrumental forces of the gong kebyar orchestra are metallophones. There are typically four pemades and four kantillan - collectively known as the gangsa - which play the most complex parts. There are either one or two ugal, which play an ornamented version of the main melody - the pokok - of the piece. Lower pitched metallophones - jublag, jegogan, and sometimes penyacah - play increasingly abstracted versions of that melody. All of these instruments metallophones are played in pairs, with each pair tuned slightly apart. This produces a beating effect (ombak) and creates an overall shimmering, pulsating quality.
Other instruments in the orchestra include the reong - a set of twelve bossed bronze "pots"; the ketuk - another "pot" similar in appearance but larger than an individual reong; the gongs, which mark the essential structural points in the music; kendang - the drums, which control the tempo of ensemble and reinforce the meter; ceng-ceng - small, mounted hand cymbals which play fast, intricate parts, usually along with the reong; suling - flutes, which play somewhat improvised ornaments on the pokok; and, occasionally, the rebab - a spike fiddle, which plays along with the suling.
 Gong kebyar music is based on a five-tone scale called pelog selisir (tones 1, 2, 3, 5, and 6 of the 7-tone pelog scale), and is characterized by brilliant sounds, syncopations, sudden and gradual changes in sound colour, dynamics, tempo and articulation, and complex, complementary interlocking melodic and rhythmic patterns called kotekan.
The music is divided into 4 beat groups called Keteg, this whole rhythmic cycle is called the gongan. The gongs divide gongan into sections, gong ageng, the largest gong, marks the end of gongen, the smaller gongs mark the 4th or 8th keteg and the smallest gongs outline the pulse.
Balungan instruments (1-octave metallophones) decorate and embellish the theme. Panususan instruments (larger metallophones) decorate and embellish theme.
The kebyar style developed out of older ensembles and first emerged in the early 20th century.
Our group also perform traditional Balinese dances from time to time. These portray stories from Hindu epics such as the Ramayana but with heavy Balinese influence. Famous Balinese dances include pendet, legong, baris, topeng, barong, and kecak (the monkey dance). Balinese dancers learn the craft as children. In Balinese dance the movement is closely associated with the rhythms produced by the gamelan. Multiple levels of articulations in the face, eyes, hands, arms, hips, and feet are coordinated to reflect layers of percussive sounds. Balinese dances are traditionally performed during temple festivals and in ceremonies. Dance fulfils a number of specific functions: It may be a channel for visiting gods or demons, the dancers acting as a sort of living repository. It may be as a welcome for visiting gods. It may be entertainment for visiting gods.
The typical posture of Balinese dance has the legs half-bent, the torso shifted to one side with the elbow raised and lowered in a gesture that displays suppleness of the hands and fingers. The torso is shifted in symmetry with the arms. If the arms are to the right, the shifting is to the left and vice-versa.
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