Musical Instrument Museum Indonesia: the Javanese Gamelan Designed By: Nancy Kullos, Colin Pearson, and Dr
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ES_MU_Gamelan Musical Instrument Museum Indonesia: The Javanese Gamelan Designed by: Nancy Kullos, Colin Pearson, and Dr. Rebecca A. Cairo Overall Lesson Goal Students will learn about the geography, culture, and gamelan music of Java, Indonesia. For cultural context, they will see and hear instruments of the Javanese gamelan including the gong, saron, kendhang, suling, rebab, and siter. Through a singing activity, the students will practice hearing the rhythm of the gong cycle. At MIM, students will have the opportunity to see representative instruments of the Javanese gamelan. Suggested Grade Levels: 4–6 and 7–8 Gallery: Indonesia Culture Group: Javanese Instruments: Instruments of the Javanese gamelan including the gong, bonang, gambang, saron, kendhang, kenong, ketuk, saron, suling, rebab, siter, and slenthem, Curricular Area: Music Cocurricular Areas: Language Arts, Music, Science, Social Studies Objectives The student will be able to: • Locate Indonesia on a map and find the island of Java. • Describe the importance of the gamelan to Javanese culture. • Learn the names and musical roles of some of the instruments in the gamelan. Arizona Music Standards Strand 2: Relate Concept 1 – Understanding the relationship among music, the arts, and other disciplines outside the arts. PO1. Gr. 4 & 5 – Identifying the use/function of music from various cultures correlating to grade-level social studies curriculum. PO1. Gr. 6 – Identifying/describing the ways in which the principles and subject matter of other disciplines are related to music. (e.g., science, history, math) PO4. Gr. 4–5–6 – Exploring and analyzing the relationships of music to language arts, visual arts, and literature. 1 ES_MU_Gamelan Concept 2: Understanding music in relation to history and culture. PO1. Gr. 5 – Describing the historical context and/or influence of music on daily life, culture, politics, etc. PO2. Gr. 5 – Describing the cultural context and/or influence of music on daily life, culture, politics etc. Gr. 6 – Comparing and contrasting the influences of music in various cultures. PO3. Gr. 4 & 5 – Describing the origins and development of instruments. Strand 3: Evaluate Concept 1: Listening to, analyzing, and describing music. PO2. Gr. 5 – Categorizing instruments as Western and non-Western. [NOTE: Rather than categorize instruments as Western and non-Western, MIM encourages that students learn to see all instruments as equal.] Gr. 6 – Identifying instruments as Western and non-Western by family (e.g., woodwind, percussion, strings, membranophones, idiophones, etc.) [NOTE: MIM encourages guests to consider all instruments equally, rather than identifying instruments as Western and non-Western.] PO4: Gr. 4 – Identifying musical examples by culture. Gr. 5 – Identifying musical examples by genre. Gr. 6 – Classifying musical examples by culture. Social Studies Standards Strand 4: Geography Concept 1: The World in Spatial Terms PO1. Construct maps, charts, and graphs to display geographic information. PO3. Interpret maps, charts, and geographic databases using geographic information. PO4. Locate physical and cultural features (e.g., continents, cities, countries, significant waterways, mountain ranges, climate zones, major water bodies, landforms) throughout the world. 2 ES_MU_Gamelan PO5. Interpret thematic maps, graphs, charts, and databases depicting various aspects of the United States and world regions. (Apply to regions studied.) Concept 2: Places and Regions PO1. Describe the human and physical characteristics of places and regions. PO3. Compare the historical and contemporary interactions among people in different places and regions. Key Vocabulary and Focus on Concepts Archipelago, idiophone, chordophone, membranophone, aerophone, Indonesia, Java, gamelan, gong, kenong, ketuk, saron, bonang, gambang, kendhang, suling, rebab, siter, wayang kulit Materials Required Pictures and sound clips of Javanese gamelan, map of Indonesia, world map. Procedures Part 1 – Setting the Scene Indonesia: One Country, Many Parts 1. In Part 1, we will explore the musical traditions of another country and culture. We are going to Indonesia. Using the MIM-provided map (ES_MU_Indonesia_MAP), we will have students identify the relative location of Indonesia. (Questions to elicit this information are: Who knows where Indonesia is? Indonesia is part of what continent? Asia. In what region of the world is Indonesia found? Southeast Asia. What type of land mass is Indonesia? Indonesia is an archipelago, a group of 17,508 islands (6,000 inhabited) stretching from the Indian Ocean to the Pacific Ocean. Now, among this group of over 17,000 islands is the island of Java, the focus of this lesson. Today, we are learning about Javanese gamelan. 2. According to interest level and time parameters, some geographic facts about Indonesia are provided below to be shared with the class. The point of this discussion is to familiarize students with Central Java, illustrate the cultural diversity of Indonesia, and place Javanese gamelan in its musical context—not to become sidetracked in requiring students to memorize all of the details. • Indonesia is an archipelago, a string of islands that spreads over 3,400 miles. • Over 200 million people live in Indonesia (242,968,342, to be exact). If we compare that figure to the United States, do we have more or less population than Indonesia? (The United States has the third largest population in the world, and Indonesia has the fourth largest population in the world.) 3 ES_MU_Gamelan • The 3 largest Indonesian islands are Sumatra, Java, and Bali. Indonesia’s capital is Jakarta, on the northwest tip of Java, the country’s most populated island. 3. The United States of America has fifty states, each with its recognizable characteristics, and Indonesia is similar. Indonesia’s many islands have cultural and geographic characteristics that make each a little different from the others. 4. Similar to American students and young adults, Indonesians listen to and play all kinds of music. They have rock bands, hip-hop, jazz, and many other types of music, too. They go to school and attend concerts. Indonesians see movies and watch music videos just like we do. In fact, many Indonesians listen to the same music we do. 5. Also like the United States, Indonesia has musical traditions that date back hundreds of years. (Scholars have found stone carvings depicting gamelan instruments on a Buddhist temple in Java dating back to 800 BCE, some 2800 years ago, so we suspect the gamelan tradition is even older than that.) Among these musical traditions is gamelan music. While there are important differences in types of gamelan across Indonesia, we are talking about the type of gamelan that comes from the area of Central Java. We will call this Javanese gamelan. 6. The name gamelan comes from the Javanese term gamel, a verb meaning “to strike” or a noun meaning “hammer.” 7. When we talk about “gamelan,” we are referring to a set of instruments that were created to be played together for a specific musical style or genre. (Ask students to name other genres of music they can recall.) This ensemble, also called gamelan, is a unique combination of several categories of musical instruments found around the world. How they are used collectively in Central Java helps create Javanese gamelan musical culture. While gamelan began solely as an instrumental ensemble, over time vocal music became an important part of the gamelan experience. Soon, students will view the ES_MU_Gamelan_ppt. This presentation is an introduction to Javanese gamelan and includes images of musicians, musical instruments, and shadow puppetry, which are all an important contextual part of the gamelan experience students will have at MIM. 8. A Powerpoint presentation is available that prepares elementary school students to understand the geographical location of Indonesia; to preview the musical instruments of the world, in particular, the Javanese gamelan at MIM; and to view shadow puppetry in context. Photographic and sound examples shall include the gong, kenong, ketuk, saron, bonang, gambang, kendhang, suling, rebab, and siter. In addition, information regarding the wayang kulit (shadow puppetry) and the dalang (puppeteer) is included. 9. All the instruments you will be seeing at MIM can be categorized into families of instruments. We learned about these categories in the sound science lesson about musical instruments. The five categories were aerophones, chordophones, idiophones, membranophones, and electrophones. (If a review is needed, see ES_SC_Sound_ppt.) The 4 ES_MU_Gamelan educator writes the names on the board as they are introduced, reminding students that the categories were developed depending on how sound vibrations are created with each instrument. Elicit examples of each for review, drawing on what they see in the classroom. 10. Now that we have more background information about the location of the country of Indonesia, Central Java, and the Javanese gamelan, let’s preview our Powerpoint presentation (ES_MU_Gamelan_ppt). As you view this, you will see Javanese Indonesians playing gamelan. Look closely at the instruments they play. We will be learning some of the names of the instruments later. In the meantime, think about how this ensemble is the same and/or different from performing groups we are familiar with. We can discuss this point after seeing the presentation again. 11. The educator leads a guided viewing of the ES_MU_Gamelan_ppt. This Powerpoint presentation shows a short media