American gamelan 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
Malay Gamelan Malay Gamelan The Malay gamelan which exists today in Malaysia is basically from the courts of Riau-Lingga, Pahang and Terengganu. Although originated from the land of Java, Indonesia, the Malay gamelan has developed a distinct identity compared to the Javanese, Balinese and Sundanese gamelan from Indonesia. The Malay gamelan was usually played at royal occasions during the reign of Sultan Ahmad of Pahang (1882-1914) and Sultan Sulaiman of Terengganu (1920-1942). Based on the ancient royal gamelan set discovered in 1966 at Istana Kolam, Terengganu, a set of Malay gamelan consists 7 basic instruments, which are: This best royal kept secret