Soloevent.id – Gamelan is already live in our life. It is a combination of several traditional musical instruments, such as saron, drums, Demung, xylophone, and gongs that play together.

Now, gamelan is out of the country. The Indonesian artists bring gamelan to the International stage. We can see now that the foreigner is enjoying these instruments.

For Indonesian, gamelan is sacred instruments. Apart from that, gamelan has interesting facts. Here is the list.

1. The oldest musical instruments

Javanese people knew gamelan since the 8th century AD. The evidence of gamelan found in the reliefs of Borobudur and Prambanan Temples.

2. Gamelan can control emotions

The Gamelan player learns to hold emotions and work together to produce the desired tone.

3. Gamelan is in the NASA project

In 1977 gamelan instruments were in NASA’s Voyager project. It was in The Golden Record sent into space. They added a variety of music from various cultures, one of which was gamelan music instruments. According to official NASA’s website, The Golden Record aimed to tell about Earth to another space.

4. Gamelan is in the sequel The Hobbit

Gamelan is one of the musical instruments in the sequel to The Hobbit.

If you’ve ever watched the film The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, watch the scene when Bilbo Baggins is walking on the treasure in Lonely Mountain, dwarves’ home who have been taken over by the dragon or Smaug. The clattering sound of the gold coins stored in Lonely Mountain produced by the sound of the gamelan.

5. Gamelan becomes a therapy tool

In the UK, Gamelan functioned as a musical performance for the treatment of prisoners. This has been done for the past ten years. Javanese gamelan can make the listeners relax.

If you want to see live gamelan performances, you can come to the Solo Gamelan Festival on August 23-24, 2019 at Fort Vastenburg.