Javanese Gamelan - Image 1

A selection of slendro instruments from the gamelan, Kyai Rengga Manis Everist, by Ud Soepoyo, Surakarta, Central Java, Indonesia, 1999, can be seen on display in the National Music Museum's Beede Gallery (NMM 9857-9926). This gamelan ensemble is the most complete and beautiful set of gamelan instruments (primarily heavy bronze bars and gongs, mounted on ornately carved teakwood stands, highlighted with gold leaf) outside of the palaces of Java. It was commissioned by the National Music Museum in 1999, and was given its official name, Kyai Rengga Manis Everist, at a naming ceremony held at the Museum on April 26, 2003. The word, Kyai, refers in Javanese culture to an object deserving great respect and honor and reflects the gamelan's placement in a great museum, where it will be enjoyed for many generations. Rengga means to create or to exhibit, Manis means sweetness and beauty, and Everist honors Margaret Ann Everist (1917-2003), whose generosity and appreciation of beauty are an important legacy of this set of instruments. Following its manufacture, a selamatan (or slametan) ceremony was performed in Surakarta to dedicate the gamelan. The selamtan included a traditional Indonesian ritual feast, a performance, and a religious blessing of the instruments prior to their preparation for shipment across the Pacific Ocean to the United States. Similar ceremonies were held when the gamelan arrived in Vermillion, South Dakota, and also when it received its name.