andrei@world.std.com wrote:
quoted 3 lines Gamelan, strictly put, is simply the word that Indonesians use for
>>Gamelan, strictly put, is simply the word that Indonesians use for
>> >>"music".
>I thought gamelan was the Indonesian word for orchestra.
In derivation, gamelan is the noun form of "to play" or "to strike in order
to make a sound", i.e. gam(b)el + -an. I've seen sources translating gamelan
either as "Indonesian music" or as "Indonesian orchestra." My guess is that
there was originally no distinction between the orchestra and the sounds it
made. Through the modern influx of other styles of music, gamelan now
refers, in general practice, either to an individual orchestra or to the
style of music that this type of orchestra plays. The word gamelan itself,
though, as near as I can figure, has the primary meaning of "the act of
playing music" (keeping in mind that there was, in Bali or Javanese, no
separate word "music", as far as I've been able to find).
M.
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