Various hanging Gongs (gong ageng, gong suwukan, kempul) of Gamelan in Indonesia
Music of Indonesia
Genres
Classical Kecapi suling Tembang sunda Kecak Pop Indo Hip hop Dangdut Campursari Kroncong Langgam jawa Celempungan Gambang kromong Tanjidor Gambus Jaipongan Pop Sunda Qasidah modern Rock Tapanuli ogong
Specific forms
Angklung Beleganjur Calung Degung Gamelan Gambang Gender Wayang Gong gede Gong kebyar Jegog Joged bumbung Melayu Karinding Kendang Kolintang Kulintang Kuriding Kurung-kurung Salendro Selunding Semar pegulingan Surakarta Gendang beleq Gordang sambilan Saluang Suling Talempong Tarawangsa Tifa totobuang
Regional music
Bali Borneo Java Moluccan Islands Papua Sulawesi Sumatra Sundanese Melayu Minangkabau Bataks Dayaks Ambonese Buginese Acehnese
v t e

Gamelan gong gede, meaning "gamelan with the large gongs", is a form of the ceremonial gamelan music of Bali, dating from the court society of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, associated historically with public ceremonies and special occasions such as temple festivals.^[1]

Style

Usually performed by a temple orchestra of over forty musicians,^[2] music written for the gong gede is sedate and graceful, following an andante tempo. It fluctuates in cycles, one fast, one slow, one loud, and one soft. The beat is provided by the largest gong.^[3]

Popularity

During their colonization of Bali in the late nineteenth century, the Dutch dissolved the courts. The use of the gong gede became limited to temple music.^[4] It was later superseded in popularity by gong kebyar, a more up-tempo form of gamelan played with smaller gongs, that originated in Balinese villages in the late 19th century and became widely popular in the 1920s and 1930s.^[5]