BAKUL

About Indonesian Gamelan

Bush Beats Gamelan (You Can Too!)

A gamelan is an Indonesian ensemble normally composed primarily of
percussion. These orchestras typically include tuned gongs, bronze
kettles, bronze metallophones, bamboo xylophones, drums, cymbals,
flutes, and bowed string instruments.

While the music itself is
complex, some of the instruments do not require a great deal of
technique to play, as President Bush found out in his November 16
visit to Singapore, in which he was treated to a performance of Asian
fusion (“coincidentally” the name of Ancient Future’s sixth CD, Asian
Fusion) music by a group called “Gamelan Asmaradana.” The musicians
played a classical Javanese piece and a Singapore folk song. Invited
to play himself, Bush kneeled on the carpet, beat the saron (a
metallophone) with a rubber mallet for a time, and then said: “I’m
going to quit while I’m ahead.”

However, this is one area where he should be encouraged to stay the
course rather than to cut and run. After all, his first performance
was greeted with applause by the members of the gamelan orchestra. It
is as if all the success that was predicted for his Iraq invasion is
now coming true for him in the wonderful world of gamelan.

Source : Matthew Montfort