influences on gamelan on western musics

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Hi, I'm going to be (potentially, anywy, based on the number of resources) writing a paper on gamelan's influence on Western musics. I'm not referring here to any Western gamelan, but a broader look at its influence. Any experimental stuff, anything. I know Steve Reich and Debussy were. Any books or resources anyone can direct me to would be very helpful. Thank you.

― T. Weiss (Timmy), Friday, 18 March 2005 17:50 (twenty-one years ago)

80s King Crimson

― Jordan (Jordan), Friday, 18 March 2005 17:56 (twenty-one years ago)

In Ocean of Sound, I believe Toop discusses this in some detail.

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Friday, 18 March 2005 17:58 (twenty-one years ago)

i dare you to discuss *only* 80s king crimson in yr paper!!

― mark s (mark s), Friday, 18 March 2005 17:59 (twenty-one years ago)

I think you should discuss the opposite though the influence of 80s King Crimson on gamelan music.

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Friday, 18 March 2005 18:01 (twenty-one years ago)

Macha ...whatever happened to them?

― Jena (JenaP), Friday, 18 March 2005 18:03 (twenty-one years ago)

Macha released an album last year (think it was supposed to be their last).

― Mark (MarkR), Friday, 18 March 2005 18:09 (twenty-one years ago)

Philip Glass too

― o. nate (onate), Friday, 18 March 2005 18:16 (twenty-one years ago)

23 skidoo "urban gamelan"!! and other early industrial musics where they bang the shit out of metal things (Einstürzende Neubauten)

― The JaXoN 5 (JasonD), Friday, 18 March 2005 18:20 (twenty-one years ago)

Don Cherry released an album called Eternal Rhythm in 1968 that featured some use of gamelan (mostly played by Karl Berger).

You might also consider Gong, which seemed to emulate gamelan a bit on the Expresso [sic] album from 1976.

― jdconsidine, Friday, 18 March 2005 18:22 (twenty-one years ago)

There's a European percussionist who recently made an album by recording Gamelan musicians, splicing up their songs into new compositions and teaching it back to them to play. Can't remember his name though, sorry.

― Jordan (Jordan), Friday, 18 March 2005 18:24 (twenty-one years ago)

Which Philip Glass pieces were gamelan-influenced?

Check out Evan Ziporyn's Gamelan Galak Tika, modern Western compositions for gamelan, sometimes with added guitar or bass or keyboards. It's great and quite easy to get into. Also, see if you can find anything by the Evergreen Club, a Toronto gamelan ensemble who specialize in performing modern Western compositions. They've commissioned lots of great works, some of which add some electronics too.

― sundar subramanian (sundar), Friday, 18 March 2005 18:27 (twenty-one years ago)

Oh wait, sorry, are you looking for Western music that's not written for gamelan instruments?

― sundar subramanian (sundar), Friday, 18 March 2005 18:27 (twenty-one years ago)

John Fahey.
Ceylon Mange.
Rotten Piece "Pachinko Gamelan"

― Ian John50n (orion), Friday, 18 March 2005 18:28 (twenty-one years ago)

Lou Harrison, baby!

― These Robust Cookies (Robust Cookies), Friday, 18 March 2005 18:29 (twenty-one years ago)

'80s band Savage Republic had a touch of gamelan, I'd say.

― Myonga Von Bontee (Myonga Von Bontee), Friday, 18 March 2005 18:29 (twenty-one years ago)

Xiu Xiu (well, early Xiu Xiu, in their first formation) used gamelan in their music.

― gygax! (gygax!), Friday, 18 March 2005 18:31 (twenty-one years ago)

these are all good examples. sundar - i am trying to veer away from explicitly american gamelan style pieces. anyways, i need explicit literature too, since this is to be a 10-15 page paper. i need writing on all this too.

― T. Weiss (Timmy), Friday, 18 March 2005 18:35 (twenty-one years ago)

I read an interview with that percussionist guy a few months ago in Modern Drummer magazine, he talks about working with the Gamelan musicians and stuff.

― Jordan (Jordan), Friday, 18 March 2005 18:37 (twenty-one years ago)

Tom Waits, Tricky (esp. Ponderosa).

― jed_ (jed), Friday, 18 March 2005 18:39 (twenty-one years ago)

re: Fahey: in his book(s?) (i forget which, if not both) he talks about Gamelan but it's in a surreal/poetic way and not a musicological way.

― Ian John50n (orion), Friday, 18 March 2005 18:40 (twenty-one years ago)

I wrote a paper on Gamelan last spring, FWIW. If I have a copy and if yr interested, I can send it to you. I wrote a lot about how surprised I was to go to the Indonesian Consulate for a gamelan performance and find the ensemble to be mostly white people. (They had delicious free snacks though! snacks!)

― Ian John50n (orion), Friday, 18 March 2005 18:42 (twenty-one years ago)

Ian - if you do have it, I'd much appreciate a look at it. Sounds interesting!

― T. Weiss (Timmy), Friday, 18 March 2005 18:45 (twenty-one years ago)

There's so much stuff you could potentially include. I always mean to keep track of the stray references to this all in one place, but I never do.

Cage: prepared piano.
Nancarrow: also gamelan influenced, I think.

― RS £aRue (rockist_scientist), Friday, 18 March 2005 18:45 (twenty-one years ago)

Surely Henry Cowell mentioned gamelan at some point. There was a whole book out a while back about some sort of international music listening sessions he used to host. (I think it was University of Califronia Press, but it's all a blur at this point.)

― RS £aRue (rockist_scientist), Friday, 18 March 2005 18:47 (twenty-one years ago)

What the hell was that book? Maybe it wasn't Cowell. Who could I be confusing him with? (Not Harrison.)

― RS £aRue (rockist_scientist), Friday, 18 March 2005 18:52 (twenty-one years ago)

A lot of synths tend to have a gamelan preset. Dunno how much this means, but one would expect that at least some keyboardists will eventually occasionally use the gamelan preset at some point or other.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Friday, 18 March 2005 19:19 (twenty-one years ago)

I don't know how big intervals are in Gamelan ensembles but I don't think they are in multiples of 50 cents.... Gamelan keybaord setting = bunk

― Dr. Eldon Tyrell (ex machina), Friday, 18 March 2005 20:00 (twenty-one years ago)

four weeks pass...

Can people direct me to certain tracks by mentioned artists (as well as any other suggestions) that would be good examples of this?

― T. Weiss (Timmy), Sunday, 17 April 2005 15:58 (twenty-one years ago)

Re - John Fahey, although he was quite a fan of Gamelan it didn't really influence his actual playing, as far as I can see. However, "The Epiphany Of Glenn Jones", his collaboration with Cul de Sac in 1997 yielded "Gamelan Collage" which incorporates some sampled (?) percussion that sounds like it could be a Gamelan Ensemble to my unfamiliar ears. There's also some sampled chanting, percussion and other exciting noises on parts 3&4 of A Raga Called Pat, which are on the 1968 LP "Voice Of The Turtle". Overall though I think the Gamelan influence on Fahey's music is pretty negligible and I'm sure there are better examples of Westerners incorporating elements of Gamelan music.

― Ogmor Roundtrouser (Ogmor Roundtrouser), Sunday, 17 April 2005 17:45 (twenty-one years ago)

BAHA MEN.

― Curt1s St3ph3ns, Sunday, 17 April 2005 17:47 (twenty-one years ago)

c'mon people, i know you guys know this stuff. help me out...

― T. Weiss (Timmy), Monday, 18 April 2005 17:12 (twenty-one years ago)

Debussy.

― betateb, Tuesday, 19 April 2005 02:18 (twenty-one years ago)

Sun City Girls! They use a lot of real tuned oriental percussion. How the hell they managed to bring all that stuff back with them from their travels beats me though. Uh, see 330,003 Crossdressers.. and others (CFR series), although melodically and rhythmically the sound of the gamelan pervades a hell of a lot of their music.

― myopic_void (myopic_void), Tuesday, 19 April 2005 11:58 (twenty-one years ago)

twenty years pass...

Sun City Girls! They use a lot of real tuned oriental percussion. How the hell they managed to bring all that stuff back with them from their travels beats me though. Uh, see 330,003 Crossdressers.. and others (CFR series), although melodically and rhythmically the sound of the gamelan pervades a hell of a lot of their music.
― myopic_void (myopic_void), Tuesday, April 19, 2005 4:58 AM (twenty years ago)

Sun City Girls - any song with Salangka in the title

Don Cherry released an album called Eternal Rhythm in 1968 that featured some use of gamelan (mostly played by Karl Berger).
― jdconsidine, Friday, March 18, 2005 10:22 AM (twenty years ago)

Don Cherry's "Brown Rice" is straight up Pelog-scale gamelan influence

some personal favorites:

tful282 - 100s of yrs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrpLvEfNeiY

ooioo - shizuku gunung agung
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQcUFm1qOUU

― imperial frfr (Steve Shasta), Tuesday, 3 June 2025 02:32 (one year ago)

This thread immediately reminded me of Joe Lean and the Jing Jang Jong, who hadn't actually been invented back in 2005. Quoth Mr Lean "(our) authenticity is based on the fact that I want to learn. I find no problem with baring my soul to the extent that people know I want to compose for gamelan."

Sadly, as far as I can tell, their gamelan music was never released. But perhaps it's on a CDR somewhere in a box in Mercury Records' archive store.

― Ashley Pomeroy, Tuesday, 3 June 2025 19:47 (one year ago)

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