What is Angklung?

Gamelan angklung (angklung) is a style of gamelan ensemble found primarily in Bali, Indonesia. Angklung is also the name of a bamboo musical instrument, popular throughout Southeast Asia, from which the ensemble gets its name but only occasionally employs.

The musical instrument called angklung is made out of two bamboo tubes attached to a bamboo frame. The tubes are carved so that they have a resonant pitch when struck. The two tubes are tuned to octaves. The base of the frame is held with one hand while the other hand shakes the instrument rapidly from side to side. This causes a rapidly repeating note to sound. Thus each of three or more angklung performers in an ensemble will play just one note and together complete melodies is produced.

Balinese Gamelan Angklung is an ensemble of mostly bronze metallophones. The instruments are tuned to a 5-tone slendro scale. While the ensemble gets its name from the bamboo shakers, these days most compositions for Gamelan Angklung do not use them.

Angklung gets more international attention when in 1938 Daeng Soetigna, from Bandung - West Java, expanded the angklung notations not only to play traditional pélog or sléndro scales, but also diatonic scale. Since then, angklung is often played together with other western music instrument in an orchestra. One of the first well-known performances of angklung in orchestra was during the Bandung Conference in 1955. A few years later, Udjo Ngalagena, a student of Daeng Soetigna, opened his "Saung Angklung" (Angklung's House) in 1966 as centre of its development.


Source: World History