Malay Traditional Music Instrument - Gamelan

The Malay Gamelan is distinctly different from the Javanese or Balinese Gamelan, not so much in the instruments used but rather in the music played. The gamelan was brought over to Pahang in Malaysia in 1811 from Riau-Lingga (Zakaria Ariffin 1990) and spread toTerengganu shortly afterwards through a royal marriage. From the over 60 songs initially brought over, about half died with the original players and of the 30 remaining only about 12 are regularly performed today. Malay gamelan music is very simplistic in that nearly all instruments play the melody, unlike the intricately locked parts of the Javanese gamelan. There is currently a revival of interest in Malay gamelan music, led by Ariff Ahmad of Universiti Malaya, with many new pieces being written out for the ensemble. Cipher notation, common to Javanese gamelan and Chinese music, is used. Instruments used include:saron (a metallophone), gambang (a xylophone), keromong or bonang (sets of small kettle gongs), kenong(larger kettle gongs), gong and gendang or drums. As is customary in gamelan performance, players move around between instruments from piece to piece. Malay gamelan music is usually played during royal and formal occassions and that performers are specially trained in royal palaces. Ariff Ahmad would like to see gamelan music being performed more frequently for all occassions and has expended much effort in promoting and writing music for the Universiti Malaya gamelan troupe which performs regularly for various occassions. Besides Universiti Malaya, various other local insitutions of higher learning have set up their own gamelan troupes, the most prominent of these being the Universiti Sains Malaysia group in Penang which in 1995 performed the Concerto for Piano and Gamelan by Lou Harrison.