Ƶ University Hosts Pitt Gamelan Concert Feb. 26
Ƶ University will host the University of Pittsburgh's Gamelan in concert on Sunday, February 26th at 4 p.m. in the Carol Reichgut Concert Hall in the university's Performing Arts Center, 100 Harrison Ave., Greensburg. The concert, which was organized through Dr. Kelly Lynch's World Music Class at Ƶ, is free and open to the public.
The University of Pittsburgh Gamelan explores and celebrates the gamelan music of the Sundanese people, an ethnic group that inhabits roughly the western third of the island of Java. Gamelan refers to a set of predominantly percussion instruments including tuned gongs, metal-keyed instruments, and drums (as well as bowed lute and voice). Gamelan music is played as accompaniment to dance, drama, puppet theater, and martial arts, as well as for concerts of listening music. Gamelan is performed in conjunction with special occasions and to mark important life-cycle events.
Pitt's gamelan group includes students as well as community members. Participants in the gamelan program are encouraged to use Sundanese processes of learning as much as possible; oral transmission of musical parts is preferred over written notation and working together as an ensemble is more important than developing individual talent. Students are also encouraged to learn and play more than one instrument and to learn the relationships among them. Therefore, in concert, the musicians move from one position to another in order to put into practice what they have learned.
