Gamelan slower, more meditative quality than the gamelan music of Bali. Javanese gamelan can be made from iron or brass; instruments made of cast bronze are considered the best quality. Outside the main core on Java and Bali, gamelan has spread through migration and cultural interest, new styles sometimes resulting as well. Malay Gamelan comes from the Javanese tradition through Riau-Lingga which later formed its own distinct identity, using fewer instruments tuned in a near-equidistant "slendro", and often using a western B or C as a tuning basis. Javanese emigrants to Suriname play gamelan in a style close to that found
Gamelan outside Indonesia Bernard then left home and in Amsterdam heard a group of stranded Javanese sailors play a gamelan at the Colonial Museum (later: Museum of the Tropics). He took lessons with them and soon started his own group with friends from his school in Haarlem. In this he received help from Jaap Kunst who taught him to transcribe the then existing 78 rpm recordings and who allowed him to use the beautiful antique Yogyanese gamelan set in the museum. This became Babar Layar, the first serious gamelan group in the Netherlands. Babar Layar played in Yogyakarta style, after Bernard studied one