Klarinet Archive - Posting 000028.txt from 1995/08

From: Doug Cook <cook@-----.COM>
Subj: Re: Gender tendencies for instruments
Date: Wed, 2 Aug 1995 13:00:08 -0400

On Aug 2, 6:49am, Tom Izzo wrote:
> Subject: Re: Gender tendencies for instruments
> > I've edited out the references which were blatantly unrelated
> > ("gender wayang" seems to be a common string related to
> > Balinese gamelan music. Anyone know what this means?). Some of the
> > remaining entries are perhaps only marginally related.
>
> Yes, the Gamelan to us would be an orchestra. In Balinese culture it is
> considered one instrument (though played by 16-40 people). It is a group
> of people playing all manner of percussion instruments of the wood
> mallett type-sort of xylophone, marimba, etc; and all manner of bells,
> gongs, and tam tams. The rhythms are VERY complex. The music is not
> notated-all of it is learned by rote from a young age, but performed in
> public only as an adult.

I guess I didn't make my question clear -- I just re-read it and it's
ambiguous. I was asking "what is gender wayang?" rather than "what
is gamelan music?" I know the answer to the latter question, but
not to the former. I assume "gender wayang" refers to a particular
instrument, as Roger Shilcock as noted.

If people are interested, I can post the references to the gamelan
music -- these were not books but recordings. Some of them looked
interesting.

This is of course totally off the clarinet subject and I'll now shut
up. But to make a tenuous connection between the two, and thereby
redeem (or further incriminate) myself, I'll ask the question
"when is someone going to attempt to arrange gamelan music for clarinet
choir?" ;-) I know that a lot of Steve Coleman's recent music (the
stuff with Five Elements -- very very interesting rhythmically) is
heavily gamelan-inspired. If you listen to the tunes, they don't
have a regular meter, but are based upon very long, complex "chants"
(forget what he actually calls them) which are memorized by the
musicians. Amazing stuff. Steve Coleman is a really serious
sax player.

-Doug