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span class="inline inline-left">In sync: Members of Paguyuban Retna Budaya play traditional Javanese gamelan music during a weekly practice session. The group, which mostly consists of foreigners, has regularly gathered to play gamelan for two-hour sessions and has occasionally played in front of audiences. JP/Novia D. RulistiaThe sound of the Javanese gamelan has long captivated foreigners — so much so that some have become so spellbound by the traditional musical ensemble that they have now decided to learn how to play it.

British expatriate Julia Nolan said that she could not get gamelan music out of her head after she heard it for the first time.

“The first time I heard it, I was like ‘wow!’ Then I decided to try it,” she said.

She joined Paguyuban Retna Budaya, a group of people who regularly gather to play gamelan.

The group, founded US-national Carol Walker, is open to all people, including Indonesians, although many of its members are foreigners.

“I’ve been here [in Indonesia] for three years and I want to find something special from this country that I can bring back home. So here
I am, and it’s actually quite hard playing it,” said Nolan, who just tried her hands at gamelan for the first time.

Every Wednesday night, members of Paguyuban Retna Budaya gather at Pejaten, South Jakarta, to play traditional music for two hours.

Taught by Suparno, a gamelan teacher from Solo, around eight to 10 students play some simple forms from the classical-Solonese repertoire, such as Tropong Bong and Ibu Pertiwi.

Members can play one musical instrument throughout the session or can try several others after they finish playing one or two songs.

One member of the group, Brigitta Gerlach from Germany, said that although she had been playing gamelan for 10 years, she preferred to stick to the one instrument.

“I usually play saron, or gong. I’m not that good at playing the hard ones,” she said, while laughing.

The saron consists of tuned metal bars that are struck with a mallet to make a sound.

Other gamelan instruments include metallophones, xylophones and kendang (drums).

Gerlach, who is fluent in the Indonesian language, first learned how to play gamelan at the Indonesian Embassy in Germany before buying her own traditional instruments.

“But we cannot play them alone, so I joined the group. It’s so fun playing gamelan here and meeting new people who are so excited to play it,” she said.

Walker said that the students treated the gatherings more as a relaxed social event rather than a serious music class.

She said that although some students were more experienced than others, the class always welcomed newcomers.

“Beginning and more advanced students can play side-by-side. And for more advanced students, they can have private lessons and practice sessions, too,” she said.

Besides having regular practice sessions, the group has also performed publicly several times.

“We used to play at weddings, but as there is constant turnover in the group: Too many people are coming and going and we need more of the core group,” Walker said.

But she added that the group occasionally performed at their own private parties.

Gamelan, in the form of a large ensemble as is commonly seen now, was not introduced until the peak of an Islamic kingdom in Demak between the late-16th century and early 17th century.

Ethnomusicologist Sumarsam said that gamelan developed to become a large ensemble when kingdoms like the Surakarta and Yogyakarta palaces combined several sets of gamelan and played them together during traditional rituals.