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 was the Boston Village Gamelan, now known as Gamelan Laras Tentrem in Massachusetts, and the first Balinese community group was Gamelan Sekar Jaya in California. Other community Balinese gamelan ensembles are Gamelan Mitra Kusuma in Washington, D.C., Gamelan Dharma Swara at the Indonesian Consulate in New York City, Space City Gamelan in Houston, the Lehigh Valley Gamelan in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and Gamelan Tunas Mekar in Denver. Gamelan Sari Raras is an active Javanese ensemble in Berkeley, California; the name was given to the group by Widiyanto (aka Midiyanto), and the instruments, brought to the U.S. from Java in 1971, are