The Melbourne Community Gamelan
[ UniNews Vol. 15, No. 10
12 - 26 June 2006 ]
The Melbourne Community Gamelan is a set of bronze gongs and xylophones from central Java established at the University of Melbourne in 1990 by the University’s now Acting Dean of Music Associate Professor Cathy Falk. Incorporated as part of the University, the Community Gamelan contributes through teaching and public performances to cultural enrichment and life-long learning on and beyond the University’s Parkville campus. Associate Professor Falk highlights here aspects of the Gamelan’s role and significance in the University and its wider community.
By Cathy Falk
Every Monday night for the past 16 years a group of Indonesian music enthusiasts has gathered at the gamelan room in the University of Melbourne’s Faculty of Music to play on a magnificent set, or gamelan, of bronze gongs and xylophones from central Java.
They are the members of the Melbourne Community Gamelan – University of Melbourne staff, former students, high school teachers of Indonesian, Indonesianists, school students and postgraduate students from Monash and Melbourne – who share a love of Indonesia and a passion for playing its music.
The Melbourne Community Gamelan was formed in 1990 when a Commonwealth Government grant for the promotion of Asian Studies in Education awarded to the former Music Department in the Institute of Education enabled the purchase of the instruments, and the establishment of a permanent group of performers.
The project also provides Faculty of Music students with an opportunity to learn gamelan music as one of their ensemble options in the Bachelor of Music.
The Melbourne Community Gamelan is taught by Ki Poedijono, a famous musician, puppeteer, composer and dancer from Wonogiri, central Java. The group performs regularly during the year. “Ki” (an honorific title) Poedijono was awarded an OA in 1994 for his services to promoting Indonesia culture in Australia.
Highlights of recent engagements include the opening of the Trail of the Elephants at the Melbourne Zoo, performing at the international Yogyakarta Gamelan Festival as part of a world-wide assembly of gamelan groups, and performing at the multi-faith service for victims of the 2005 tsunami on the south lawn at the University of Melbourne.
Most recently the Melbourne Community Gamelan performed a shadow puppet play in the University’s Gamelan Room at 210 Berkeley Street.
The Gamelan’s dhalang (puppeteer) was Ms Helen Pausacker, research assistant to Federation Fellow and Indonesian law expert Professor Tim Lindsey in the University’s Faculty of Law. Helen is one of the original members of the group who has undergone the traditionally exclusively male, extensive and rigorous training in Central Java required for this age-old musico-dramatic form.
The beautiful set of instruments, said by Ki Poedijono to be the finest sounding of all the gamelan in Australia, was purchased in Madiun, central Java, in 1990. The great gong, almost a metre in diameter, was forged in 1888, according to an inscription in Kawi, the ancient Javanese language, inside the gong.
Secondary school students of music, Indonesian language and society from Melbourne and rural Victoria frequently visit the University for workshops in Indonesian music, puppetry and dance with Ki Poedijono.
The Faculty of Music has two other sets of instruments representing different styles of Indonesian music, from the north coast of Java (Cirebon) and from west Java. These instruments are also played both by music students and as community groups, which perform regularly for the public.
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