I’ve been interested in Indonesian gamelan music for a while and wanted to research it more properly. I came across a thesis by I Wayan Sudirana called Gamelan Gong Luang: Ritual, Time, Place, Music, and Change in a Balinese Sacred Ensemble, and it was honestly a lot more interesting than I expected. I’d listened to gamelan before, but only as sound really, this was the first time I’d properly read something that explained it more culturally, and how it’s tied to religion, place, and ritual.
Gamelan music is embedded into temple ceremonies and life-cycle rituals. In the case of gamelan gong luang, it’s used exclusively in religious contexts like odalan (temple anniversaries) or ngaben (funerals), and not for general performance or entertainment. it’s played to honour deities, mark cosmological time, or guide spirits between realms. That in particular was very interesting to me, I could always tell listening to gamelan that it wasn’t just jamming on metal percussion, there’s clearly a lot of intentionality and precision, but it was really interesting to explore it through a cultural lens.
One thing that’s especially interesting to me is how the instruments themselves are seen as spiritually charged, there are very strict rules around who can play them, when they can be used, and in what space. Gong luang ensembles in particular are considered sacred entities. You can’t just pick up an instrument and mess about with it, the whole performance has to be done with intention and respect, and breaking these rules could even be spiritually dangerous. That’s such a different way of thinking compared to the electronic or experimental scenes I’m used to, where breaking and misusing tools is often the point, and it’s rarely seen as anything more than creative license.
It also stood out to me how collective the performance structure is. In gong luang, every player has a specific interlocking role, and it’s not about showing off remotely. It’s more like everyone’s working in sync to create this larger sonic structure that supports the ceremony. There’s room for improvisation, but it’s always within a strict framework. That really reminded me of the way Autechre have spoken about using systems like MaxMSP in live coding, there’s randomness and unpredictability, but it happens inside a tightly defined ruleset. That structure makes the chaos meaningful, rather than just noise for noise’s sake.
One thing that hit me a bit was how Sudirana mentions that gong luang is starting to disappear, since a lot of younger players are more interested in flashier styles like gong kebyar. There’s something sad about the fact that this really intricate, sacred music might vanish just because it’s not as exciting to perform. It made me think about how we choose what music to preserve and why, and how easy it is for something culturally significant to get lost.
This all made me want to reflect more on how I approach sound. I’m not religious, but the idea of music as an offering feels like a powerful concept to bring into my own work. Whether just building ritual into my process, using sound to explore worldbuilding, or just being more intentional with how I use structure, I think there’s something really inspiring about the way gamelan functions in Balinese life that’s worth learning from.
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