Gamelan construction of musical instruments, as well as scheduling performances at the court. In the palaces of Java the oldest known ensembles, Gamelan "Munggang" and "Gamelan Kodok Ngorek", are apparently from the 12th century. These formed the basis of a "loud style" of music. In contrast, a "soft style" developed out of the "kemanak" tradition and is related to the traditions of singing Javanese poetry, in a manner often believed to be similar to the chorus that accompanies the modern "bedhaya" dance. In the 17th century, these loud and soft styles mixed, and to a large extent the variety of modern
Gamelan outside Indonesia Java and brought to Vancouver in 1990 and resides at the Western Front Artist Center. Both Vancouver-based ensembles are regularly used in performances by the Vancouver Community Gamelan. There are over eighty gamelans (as of 2002) of various kinds in the United Kingdom, many of them based at colleges or community centres. University of York was the first British university to purchase a gamelan, named Kyai Sekar Patak; it is still played by students there. The oldest community Gamelan group in the UK is the Oxford Gamelan Society, which plays Kyai Madu Laras, donated to the University of Oxford's Bate