Traditional Indonesian Music

Indonesia is a land of varied cultures and traditions. Since Indonesia is central to the Far East and Middle East, its culture is an amalgamation of many foreign countries. The culture of Indonesia is incomplete without discussing its traditional music. Many of the islands like Java, Bali and Sumatra have their own traditional music that are specific to that area. The traditional forms of Indonesian music represent some sort of uniqueness, mainly due to the varied instruments used. Here are some traditional music types of Indonesia.

Gamelan: Gamelan is the most popular Indonesian music. In recent times, it is known as an Indonesian orchestra. It is believed that gamelan was created by a Javanese king in the third century and was played in the royal courts. Various musical instruments are used, while performing gamelan. Some of the instruments include metallophone (forms the central melody), drum and gongs (flat metal discs played with hammers) like ketuk, kenong and kempu. The gong ageng, the largest gong, is considered to be the soul of gamelan music.

In a gamelan musical performance, the metallophone is played from the front section; whereas, the gongs are performed from the back of the orchestration. All dances and dramas are accompanied with gamelan orchestra. There are several types of gamelan, depending upon their origin. For example, gamelan music played in Central Java and West Java are different. Some gamelan music of West Java, do not make use of gongs.

Tembang Sunda: Tembang sunda, a sung poetry and classical vocal music, was originated in Cianjur (West Java) in the Dutch colonial era. One of the renowned composers of tembang sunda is R.A.A. Kusumahningrat, the ruler of Cianjur in the mid-nineteenth century. Tembang sunda is also known as cianjurian. The instruments that accompany with tembang sunda are suling or bamboo flute, rebab (violin type) and kacapi (zither). Kecapi suling is a type of instrumental music of West Java, which is related to tembang sunda. To be more precise, tembang sunda without vocals is kecapi suling. It is very popular in other countries like China and Malaysia.

Kroncong: Kroncong is a folk music that can be traced back to as early as 16th century, when the Portuguese sailors brought music and European instruments to Indonesia. The music is so called, because of the instrument 'kroncong' (guitar type instrument), used while performing kroncong music. In the 1960s, a modern version of kroncong is played with the addition of instruments such as keyboards, drums and electric guitars. Bengawan Solo, is a famous song, sung in kroncong music.

Angklung: Angklung is another popular traditional Indonesian music, which is played with the help of instruments, made from bamboo. Each of the instruments used in performing angklung music is made up of two bamboo sticks of varying lengths. The instruments are shaken down to generate sound. Like the gamelan music, angklung is performed in orchestration.

Calung is another popular Indonesian music, played with instruments, which are made entirely from bamboo. There are several other traditional Indonesian music such as dangdut (dance music), osinger (wedding music) and gambus (orchestra music). These are some of the traditional Indonesian music that a connoisseur of music would love to listen.