American gamelan
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American gamelan could refer to both instruments and music; the term has been used to refer to gamelan-style instruments built by Americans, as well as to music written by American composers to be played on gamelan instruments. American gamelan music usually has some relationship to the gamelan traditions of Indonesia, as found primarily on the islands of Java and Bali in a variety of styles. Many American compositions can be played on Indonesian or American made instruments. Indonesian gamelan can be made of a variety of materials, including bronze, iron, or bamboo. American gamelan builders used all sorts of materials including aluminum, tin cans, car hubcaps, steel, antique milk-strainers, etc. American gamelan may also describe the original music of American ensembles working with traditional instruments.
Dennis Murphy is often credited as being the first American to build instruments modeled on those of the Javanese gamelan, circa 1960. This work led to his Doctoral thesis at Wesleyan University entitled "The Autochthonous American Gamelan". Murphy started a gamelan group with his instruments at Goddard College in Vermont in 1967; that group later became the community-based Plainfield Village Gamelan.
There have been other American builders of gamelan as well, on both the East and West coasts. Following Murphy's model was Barbara Benary, who built the instruments still used today for Gamelan Son of Lion On the West coast, the airline industry made aluminum affordable, and this became the material of choice for several gamelan builders. Daniel Schmidt, a composer-builder, built an ensemble called "The Berkeley Gamelan" (independent of U.C. Berkeley) as well as the set of instruments that would developed into Gamelan Pacifica in Seattle. Paul Dresher also used aluminum.
Lou Harrison had built a set of instruments — now referred to as "Old Granddad" — which he called "an American gamelan" without meaning to follow Indonesian models. These instruments were used in several specific compositions, such as "La Koro Sutro." Lou Harrison spent some time with a Javanese gamelan in 1976 (Kyai Udan Mas, now at U.C. Berkeley); he then commenced, with his partner William Colvig to build a gamelan modelled specifically on that set. For this he used aluminum primarily, although the "great gong" was eventually fashioned out of iron. Colvig and Harrison built two large "double" gamelan (meaning that there were instruments in both the pelog and slendro tunings). The first was Si Betty, named for the financial benefactor Betty Freeman; that ensemble was bequeathed to Jody Diamond. The second was name "Si Darius/Si Madeleine" after Darius Milhaud and his wife, because it was while holding the Milhaud chair at Mills College (where the gamelan resides) that Harrison and Colvig had the support for its construction. Lou Harrison is well known for his compositions for American gamelan, and was particularly adept at combining western instruments with his full gamelan ensemble.
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[edit] External links
- A New Gamelan, audio recording of Lou Harrison and William Colvig describing the theory and construction of one of the first American Gamelans, followed by a performance on it (free registration required at RadiOM)
- Monkey C -- American music on a Javanese gamelan. Bang a gong.
