The Raffles Gamelan

A gamelan is a set of instruments that traditionally act as accompaniments to puppet shows, dance dramas, feasts and ceremonies in Indonesia. In the performance of shadow puppet plays, the orchestra highlights the moments of drama, and provides the music that fits the personality of characters on stage. Sir Stamford Raffles, former Lieutenant-Governor of Java and founder of Singapore, was the first Englishman to bring back to England not one, but two whole gamelan orchestras: one in the British Museum and another now in Claydon House in Bletchley, Buckinghamshire. The frames for the instruments of the Raffles gamelan are unique and nothing like them survives in any other known gamelan. The instruments are carved to represent peacocks, dragons, deer and other animals. The gamelan retains an important place in Javanese cultural life, but has also been taken up increasingly by musicians outside Indonesia. There are various kinds of gamelan, the main differences being the number and kind of instruments that make up each orchestra and the tonal system used. An orchestra may contain a few instruments or more than thirty.