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Journal of Undergraduate Research

Keywords

Gamelan Ensemble, music, new music

College

Fine Arts and Communications

Department

Music

Abstract

This project greatly benefits the School of Music because it provides the Brigham Young University Gamelan Ensemble a new piece of music written specifically for their unique instrumentation. The BYU Gamelan Ensemble was recently formed in Fall 2008 under the direction of Jeremy Grimshaw. The ensemble plays custom made Balinese gamelan instruments imported from Bali, a small island near Indonesia. Traditionally, there were three types of gamelan each with distinct tuning systems. Consequently, each gamelan could only play one tuning system. However, BYU’s gamelan was uniquely constructed to combine all three tuning systems into one gamelan making it possible to play repertoire from any of the three tuning systems. There are currently only a few other gamelan ensembles in the world with this capability. There are also only a few rare pieces that make full use of all three tuning systems in one song. The combining of the three tunings systems is a new concept not developed in modern compositions for gamelan. Dr. Grimshaw and I researched and studied this area with the final result being a new, unique, composition for the BYU Gamelan Ensemble that utilized the combination of the three tuning systems.

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