AS a gamelan proponent here in Malaysia, I am involved in this traditional art form at Uniten, Kelab Nuri, Pahang Museum, the National Arts and Cultural Department and as a researcher in the Malaysian gamelan.

 

It is true that the gamelan originated from Java island and the term itself is Javanese – ‘gamel’ means knock or hit and ‘gamelan’ refers to knocking or hitting.

As for the development of gamelan in Malaysia, it dates back to the 1800s when a royal wedding took place between the Pahang and Riau-Linggi States.

From what I have been able to establish, the Riau-Linggi royalty had gifted Pahang its entire gamelan troupe.

In fact, I have been reliably informed by the current Riau palace administration that the whole village of gamelan exponents, including family members and relatives, migrated to Pahang – leaving no one involved in the gamelan arts left in Riau thereafter.

This was the original establishment of the gamelan in Malaysia. By the early 1900s, three distinct gamelan troupes had become prominent – under the patronages of the Pahang Sultanah, the Sultan’s second wife and the wife of the Bendahara (State treasurer).

Thereafter, the only group that remained most active was that under the patronage of the Sultan’s second wife and this focus remained under her daughter, Tengku Mariam.

When Tengku Mariam later married Terangganu’s Sultan Sulaiman, she also took along a gamelan set to her palace. Sultan Sulaiman enjoyed the music so much that he instructed the nobat (royal musicians)
group to also become proficient in the gamelan.

Further, Sultan Sulaiman toured the Indonesian islands and found that the Balinese gamelan was too coarse for his taste, while that at Java’s kraton (palace) was too insipid.

This then led to Sultan Sulaiman commissioning completely new gamelan sets and tunes he found more to his liking, while Tengku Ampuan Mariam got gamelan dances choreographed to these original tunes.

This golden period of gamelan Malaysia at Istana Kolam has since become the foundation of this art within the country.

Tan Sri Mubin Sheppard was one of the few commoners privileged to have viewed these gamelan Malaysia
performances, which were held solely in the palace grounds. He persuaded Tengku Ampuan Mariam to allow these performances to be held for the public, and this was achieved in Kuala Lumpur sometime during the 1960s.

Despite this rich local heritage, local institutions involved in the arts have failed to recognise gamelan Malaysia and have instead given focus to the gamelan culture from Java, Sunda and Bali.

This is very sad because gamelan Malaysia has been ignored for far too long by our local higher education
institutions – to the point that many don’t even know that there are unique sets of gamelan Malaysia that are differently tuned compared with the Indonesian versions.

If gamelan Malaysia is given more prominence, we would have more locals who will become better versed with our local gamelan sets and enrich this traditional art form further.

This is something that our government should take seriously so that Indonesians stop accusing us unfairly of just copying their gamelan culture. Gamelan Malaysia has its own identity – from its musical scales to repertoire to arrangements.

Sani Suroh
Chairman
Persatuan Gamelan Gemasutera