STRANGE FLOWERS: CULTIVATING NEW MUSIC FOR JAVANESE GAMELAN ON BRITISH SOIL

Abstract

Contemporary composition has been a feature of gamelan performance in the UK since the establishment of the country’s first regularly performing indigenous ensemble, the English Gamelan Orchestra, in 1980. Using the Indonesian Embassy’s Javanese instruments, the group was primarily established to enable the study of traditional repertoire but new composition was, from the outset, a part of their concert programming.This set a strong precedent, and new composition has become an integral feature of many subsequent British gamelan groups. Over thirty years this has produced a significant body of work, some of which forms the subject matter of this paper.
This paper looks at British-born compositions for gamelan in terms of the degree to which composers draw on or avoid both musical structures and music-making practices typically associated with Javanese traditional karawitan.It also examines works which set out to deliberately create hybrid or synthesized forms arising from the confluence of disparate musical systems. To examine these aspects of composition, this study draws on interviews and works byseveral UK-based composers, looking at what motivates people to adopt or avoid a certain approach, and the advantages and pitfalls of each way of composing