Charlottesville Gamelan Ensemble: A Garden of Bells

Sunday, June 6, 2010 | 3 pm | $10

The Charlottesville Gamelan Ensemble returns to perform traditional and contemporary pieces from Java.   The gamelan is a blending of mostly percussive instruments including bronze xylophones, tuned gongs and drums played by 12 musicians.  Indonesian gamelan music has given the world the word for the “gong”.

The percussive gamelan sounds have been compared to the ambient sounds of water –  from the pitter-patter of gentle rain falling to the louder sounds or a gurgling river.  The gong of the Charlottesville Gamelan is aptly named “Honey Thunder”, an allusion to the sweetness of its rumble.  The actual music, in its traditional form, is based around a cyclical repeating melody which is embellished by different kinds of instruments playing rhythmic patterns around the notes of the main ‘tune’.

The twelve musicians in the Charlottesville Gamelan ensemble include local players as well as guests from eastern Virginia, Maryland and Chicago.  It is directed by Cynthia Benton-Groner, who acquired the instruments while doing field work in Java.