Individual Variation in Javanese Gamelan Performance

Abstract

In the performance of music by the Javanese gamelan ensemble, a multitude of parts may be sounded simultaneously, only a few of which are completely fixed before the moment of performance (see instruments illustrated in Figure i). Notation plays a far less prominent role in Java than in the West. Some parts may be written down, but not in full score. Performances are not conceived in their entirety by a single composer or musical director, but 169 are the result of the performers' individual sensibilities and their shared understanding of the constraints under which the musical tradition operates. Nevertheless, for any Javanese musical piece, a number of parts are very nearly fixed. That is, one musician may play the same part in each recurrence of a piece or repeated passage, but the part may differ somewhat when performed by another musician. Alternatively, a part may remain nearly the same in each recurrence, varied by the player in some detail. Is this music then improvised or improvisatory? If making some choices during performance suffices to qualify that performance as improvisation, I would have to answer affirmatively. However, for the term to be applied appropriately, one would expect there to be a great many choices made among a great many possibilities yielding a