An important part of the Indonesian gamelan ensemble, the gender looks something like a xylophone. It usually has twelve or fourteen thin brass "keys" suspended over tube shaped resonators. Because these resonators have different lengths and therefore tunings, you hear different pitches sounding when the keys are stuck with padded mallets. These resonators used to be made from bamboo, which did not prove to be very long-lasting. Now they are exclusively made out of zinc which may be painted a bamboo colour.
The two sizes of gender in the Venerable Lake of Honey Gamelan are called the gender barung (lower) and the gender panerus (higher). Performance techniques are similar. Both play melodies made up of short repeated patterns or cells. The gender barung more often plays the core melody, often with two mallets struck simultaneously. The gender panerus plays only one melodic line, but may play twice as fast as the gender barung. The challenge for both instruments is to strike a key and simultaneoulsy |
"dampen" the key you've previously hit. Since you are holding two mallets, novice performers may find it difficult to find a free finger to damp the keys. Musicians often use their little fingers, thumbs, or the sides of their hands.
Before the 20th century, gamelan ensemble were strongly associated with the royal courts of Java and Bali, islands in contemporary Indonesia. This artistic environment changed radically with the 19th-century colonization of Indonesia by the Dutch, who disrupted the traditional royal court system of musical performance and patronage. In the 1950s and 1960s, however, after Indonesia became independent, state-sponsored gamelan schools were introduced.
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