Java Gender

by | Speed (↓) | Authenticity (↑) | 0 comment | 1 question

A wood and metal instrument, half of a pair, made in Java and shipped to the UK

Where and how is it used?

I play it sometimes, it has lovely deep bell chime sounds. It also provides a handy shelf for odd bits off paper although it really shouldn't have anything on it.

What did you or someone else pay for it?

My sister bought it and She asked me to hang onto it for a while when she was living in a really small house. It's stayed here even though her house is now bigger than mine.

Why do you want to add it to the museum?

It's the most exotic and high quality crafted item in my house - real, tangible, useful, representing music and a different way to be than trapped in commodity culture.

How was it made?

Is made in a factory

Is farmed

Is mass-produced

Is produced by local cottage industry

Is made to particular specifications

Is craft / hand-made

Is foraged

Is found

Is colonised

Is a service

Materials & Making

Who made or produced your commodity?

Instrument makers in Java

Who was paid to make it?

Those instrument makers

What skills does it take to make it?

Carving, metalwork, synchronising sound with other instruments

Where was it made?


What does it cost to make it?

I have no idea

What is it made from?

1. Metal keys:

10 inch metal keys

2. Wood frame:

Carved and painted wooden frame

3. String:

Orange string holding keys together

4. Pipes:


5. Wooden pegs:

Attaching keys to frame

6. Beater:

Wood handle, rope and fabric head

Buying & Owning

Who decides how much it costs?

Seller and any go between agent organising sales to UK buyers

Who or what assesses its quality?


Where is it sold?

Where it is made and potentially online

Who or what sells it?

The Makers

How did this thing arrive from where it was made to where you got it?

By ship, then car

Where is it used?

In my house, currently.

Where is it kept?

My front room

How and by whom is it cared for?

By keeping a cloth over the keys and not putting anything heavy on top

How long will it last?

Decades to a lifetime

Where will it go when it's finished with?

Back to my sister or onto another musician

What is it worth?

In money terms, I don't know.

How do you and others value this commodity?

See the values contributed by visitors and those of the donor. And add your own values to this commodity.

Total times valued1
Positive (↑)Authenticity
Negative (↓)Speed
Overall Positive155
Overall Negative-14
Controversy84.5 (0 = most controversial)

What do these numbers mean?

This data that we have collected over time in our database means nothing without interpretation. A relational database, which we are using here, is technology that enables designers of websites and software to compare, contrast, interrogate and infer relations within data. The act of designing a database is not objective but driven by the agency of its creators and owners.

Within the MoCC Collection data is used to help think through the relations between values, commodities and data. Can we describe our values using sliders and numbers? How do we infer meaning such as controversy from data?

Below is a brief explanation of the some calculations and how these help make decisions about what is shown on the site.

  • Controversy Score:
    (Total Positive Values) + (Total Negative Values)

    The closer the value is to zero the more controversial it is in relation to other commodities. Used to infer that values associated with one commodity divide opinion more than another.

  • Average Value Score (used in the sliders):
    (Total Positive for Value + Total Negative for Value) ÷ Total Times Valued

    Used to infer a collective value associated with a commodity.

How do you value this commodity?

To add your own values click VALUE THIS COMMODITY and move the sliders left and right to add your own values - then click SUBMIT
show donor's original values
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Questions and answers

Help to reveal unknown quantities, properties and uses of this commodity by answering this MoCC curator's questions.

Question: Would you like to hear how it sounds?


Hi there!

My name is Jenny and I am a Commodity Consultant for MOCC.

I would love to hear how it sounds - traditional indonesian instruments tend to be made from wood, producing a deep, rich sound, especially from a toned percussion instrument, such as this one. Such instruments are traditionally used in the indonesian 'gamelan'.

A gamelan is the traditional ensemble music of Java and Bali in Indonesia, made up predominantly of percussive instruments. The most common instruments used are metallophones played by mallets and a set of hand-played drums called kendhang which register the beat. Other instruments include xylophones, bamboo flutes, a bowed instrument called a rebab, and even vocalists called sindhen.
The earliest image of a musical ensemble is found on the 8th century Borobudur temple, Central Java. Musical instruments such as the bamboo flute, bells, drums in various sizes, lute, and bowed and plucked string instruments were identified in this image. However it lacks metallophones and xylophones. Nevertheless, the image of this musical ensemble is suggested to be the ancient form of the gamelan.
In the palaces of Java are the oldest known ensembles, the Munggang and Kodokngorek gamelans, apparently from the 12th century. These formed the basis of a "loud style". A different, "soft style" developed out of the kemanak tradition and is related to the traditions of singing Javanese poetry, in a manner which is often believed to be similar to performance of modern bedhaya dance. In the 17th century, these loud and soft styles mixed, and to a large extent the variety of modern gamelan styles of Bali, Java, and Sunda resulted from different ways of mixing these elements. Thus, despite the seeming diversity of styles, many of the same theoretical concepts, instruments, and techniques are shared between the styles.
Instruments. A gamelan primarily consists of metallophones while other instruments such as flute (suling) and zither (celempung) are discretionary. However, the hand-played drum called kendhang is essential despite not being a metallophone as it controls the tempo and rhythm of pieces as well as transitions from one section to another.
In general, no two gamelan ensembles are the same, and those that arose in prestigious courts are often considered to have their own style. Certain styles may also be shared by nearby ensembles, leading to a regional style.
In Indonesia, gamelan often accompanies dance, wayang puppet performances, or rituals and ceremonies. Typically players in the gamelan will be familiar with dance moves and poetry, while dancers are able to play in the ensemble. In wayang, the dalang (puppeteer) must have a thorough knowledge of gamelan, as he gives the cues for the music. Gamelan can be performed by itself – in "klenengan" style, or for radio broadcasts – but concerts in the Western style are not traditional.
Gamelan is frequently played on the radio. For example, the Pura Pakualaman gamelan performs live on the radio every Minggu Pon (a day in the 35-day cycle of the Javanese calendar).[16] In major towns, the Radio Republik Indonesia employs professional musicians and actors, and broadcast programs of a wide variety of gamelan music and drama.
A gendèr is a type of metallophone used in Balinese and Javanese gamelan music. It consists of 10 to 14 tuned metal bars suspended over a tuned resonator of bamboo or metal, which are tapped with a mallet made of wooden disks (Bali) or a padded wooden disk (Java). Each key is a note of a different pitch, often extending a little more than two octaves. There are five notes per octave, so in the seven-note pélog scale, some pitches are left out according to the pathet. Most gamelans include three gendèr, one for sléndro, one for pelog pathet nem and lima, and one for pelog pathet barang.
The gendèr is similar to the Balinese gangsa, which also has an incredible individual resonator under each key, and the saron, which, although trough-resonated, does have a set of tuned metal bars or keys. It is also similar to the Javanese slenthem, which is pitched lower and has fewer notes.
In some types of gamelan, two gendèrs are used, one (called the gendèr panerus) an octave higher than the other. In Gamelan Surakarta, the gendèr panerus plays a single line of melodic pattern, following a pattern similar to the siter. The gendèr barung plays a slower, but more complex melodic pattern that includes more separate right and left hand melodic lines that come together in kempyung (approximately a fifth) and gembyang (octave) intervals. The melodies of the two hands sometimes move in parallel motion, but often play contrapuntally. When playing gendèr barung with two mallets, the technique of dampening, important to most gamelan instruments, becomes more challenging, and the previously hit notes must be dampened by the same hand immediately after the new ones are hit. This is sometimes possible by playing with the mallet at an angle (to dampen one key and play the other), but may require a small pause.
Both types of gendèr play semi-improvised patterns called cengkok, which generally elaborate upon the seleh. These are relatively fixed patterns, but can be varied in a number of ways to suit the style, pathet, irama, and mood of the piece, as well as the skill of the performer. The cengkok repertoire for gendèr are more developed and specific than those for most other elaborating instruments. Similarly, the gendèr barung is likely to give cues for changing parts or irama, especially in the absence of a rebab. It may also play the buka of a piece.
The gendèr (pronounced gen - DARE) is a soft instrument with multioctave range. The thin metal bars are suspended by cords above tubular resonators that amplify and sustain the sound. There are two sizes of gendèr: gendèr barung (lower) and gendèr panerus (higher). Each plays an elaborate melody derived from the main melody of a piece of music, or balungan.
Gendèr are played with two hands, each holding a mallet with a padded disk-shaped head. Because the instrument has incredible sustain, the sound must be dampened with the wrists after striking the next note (or notes).
Gendèr come in threes (unlike most instruments, which come in pairs). One gendèr is for the sléndro scale, and there are two pélog gendèr for different pathet, or modes. One pélog gendèr has pitches 1 2 3 5 6, while the other has pitches 2 3 5 6 7.
There are many styles in Balinese gamelan. Kebyar is one of the most recent ones. Some Balinese Gamelan groups constantly change their music by taking older pieces they know and mixing them together, as well as trying new variations on their music. Their music constantly changes because they believe that music should grow and change; the only exception to this is with their most sacred songs which they do not change. A single new piece of music can take several months before it is completed. Men and women usually perform in separate groups, with the exception in Java of the pesindhen, the female singer who performs with male groups. In the twenty-five countries outside of Indonesia that have gamelan, music is often performed in a concert context or as part of ceremonies of expat communities. It may also incorporate dance or wayang.
many scales as there are gamelans." However, this view is contested by some teachers of gamelan, and there have been efforts to combine multiple ensembles and tuning structures into one gamelan to ease transportation at festival time. One such ensemble is gamelan Manikasanti, which can play the repertoire of many different ensembles.
As well as the non-western octave and the use of beats, Javanese gamelan uses a combination of tempo and density known as Irama, relating how many beats on the saron panerus instrument there are to notes in the core melody or balungan; density is considered primary.
Gamelan orchestra in East Java, late 19th century.
American folk guitarist John Fahey included elements of gamelan in many of his late-1960s sound collages, and again in his 1997 collaboration with Cul de Sac, The Epiphany of Glenn Jones. Influenced by gamelan, Robert Fripp and Adrian Belew used rhythmically interlocking guitars in their duets with each other in the 1981–1984 trilogy of albums (Discipline, Beat, Three of a Perfect Pair) by rock band King Crimson and with The League of Crafty Guitarists. The gamelan has also been used by British multi-instrumentalist Mike Oldfield at least three times, "Woodhenge" (1979), "The Wind Chimes (Part II)" (1987) and "Nightshade" (2005).
In contemporary Indonesian music scene, some groups fuse contemporary westernized jazz fusion music with the legacy of traditional ethnic music traditions of their people. In the case of Krakatau and SambaSunda, the bands from West Java, the traditional Sundanese kacapi suling and gamelan degung Sunda orchestra is performed alongside drum set, keyboard and guitars. Other bands such as Bossanova Java were fused Javanese music with bossa nova, while the Kulkul band fuse jazz with Balinese gamelan.
The Indonesian singer Anggun, often incorporated Indonesian traditional tunes of gamelan and tembang style of singing in her works. Typical gamelan tunes can be trace in several songs in her album Snow on the Sahara such as "Snow on the Sahara", "A Rose in the Wind", and also in her collaboration works with Deep Forest on "Deep Blue Sea" on their 2002 album, Music Detected. Philippines born Indonesian singer Maribeth Pascua also featuring gamelan tunes in her songs Denpasar Moon and Borobudur.
Beyond Indonesia, gamelan has also had an influence on Japanese popular music, specifically the synthpop band Yellow Magic Orchestra. Their 1981 record Technodelic, one of the first albums to heavily rely on samples and loops, made use of gamelan elements and samples. Yellow Magic Orchestra member Ryuichi Sakamoto also used gamelan elements for his soundtrack to the 1983 British-Japanese film Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence, which won him the 1983 BAFTA Award for Best Film Music.
Later, many Americans were first introduced to the sounds of gamelan by the popular 1988 Japanese anime film Akira. Gamelan elements are used in this film to punctuate several exciting fight scenes, as well as to symbolize the emerging psychic powers of the tragic hero, Tetsuo. The gamelan in the film's score was performed by the members of the Japanese musical collective Geinoh Yamashirogumi, using their semar pegulingan and jegog ensembles, which were also used in the previous album, Ecophony Rinne. Gamelan and kecak are also used in the soundtrack to the video games Secret of Mana and Sonic Unleashed. The two opening credits of 1998 Japanese Anime Neo Ranga use Balinese music (Kecak and Gamelan gong kebyar). Each "waking up" of Ranga in the anime uses the Gong Kebyar theme. The musical soundtrack for the Sci Fi Channel series Battlestar Galactica features extensive use of the gamelan, particularly in the 3rd season, as do Alexandre Desplat's scores for Girl With A Pearl Earring and The Golden Compass. James Newton Howard, who composed Disney's 2001 feature film Atlantis: The Lost Empire, chose Gamelan for the musical theme of the Altanteans.
Gamelan influences can also be heard in the 2004 award winning pop song, Pulangkan, a theme from gamelan-cultural related film Pontianak Harum Sundal Malam by Malaysian songbird Misha Omar and also 2006 hip hop song, Tokyo Drift (Fast & Furious), by Teriyaki Boyz.
Here is a video on how to play the Gendèr and other videos can be found here and here and here

Do you have any videos you could show us?

I hope you have found this insightful,

Kind regards,



by MoCCconsultant on May 14th at 10:33am


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