Gamelan Concert

The Oxford Gamelan set used for this concert comes from central Java. It’s been part of the university since 1983, and the Oxford Gamelan Society is the country’s oldest established community Gamelan group. They meet regularly on Wednesdays in term time to play and learn on the heirloom gamelan ‘Kyai Madu Laras (‘The Venerable Sweet Harmony’) by kind permission of the Bate Collection of Musical Instruments and they have a wide age range of players both from the university and from the wider community.

The Gamelan is an Indonesian orchestra of bronze metallophones. It is a percussion ensemble made up predominantly of gongs, metallophones, and chimes, all hand-forged in bronze and mounted on exquisitely carved frames and beds with snakes, tropical plants, and other decorative embellishments. 
Pete Smith, director of OGS has described Gamelan as ‘like a cross between traditional jazz and integral serialism, really! It’s largely a repertoire of traditional melodies, and these act as contours around which an ensemble of about twenty players and singers embellish in set ways.’ They will be joined by Javanese and Balinese dancer, Andrew Rutkowski.