Music 140: Gong Ensembles of Southeast Asia

Music 140: Gong Ensembles of Southeast Asia
Wednesdays 2 pm – 4:50, College Hall 211A

Instructor: Jody Diamond, diamondj5@newpaltz.edu

Anthropology students: Are you open to a new cultural experience that is both local and distant? This course will challenge and change you in ways you may not expect, giving you new perspectives on the nature of musical communities, the perception of time, the possibilities of verbal and non-verbal interaction, and the learning process itself.

Curious? Take Music 140, and learn to play gamelan—a melodic percussion orchestra originating in the Indonesia islands of Java and Bali, and today part of the life of artists in nearly 50 countries. Whether or not ­you have experience in another musical tradition, playing in this group will forever change your understanding of the intrinsic human ability and need for music-making.

A music therapy student from last year wrote a song about his experience. It’s on our Facebook page: SUNY New Paltz Gamelan Ensemble. https://www.facebook.com/gamelannewpaltz

Find out why he says “I never thought I’d wish a three-hour class was longer.”

Faculty and staff: Do you know a student who needs or would welcome an unusual, cross-cultural mind-expanding musical experience? Please recommend that they enroll in Music 140: Southeast Asian Ensembles, and learn to play gamelan, an ensemble with origins in the Indonesian islands of Java and Bali.

Instructor Jody Diamond, the founder and director of the American Gamelan Institute, is known internationally for her work as a composer and scholar specializing in both traditional and contemporary music for gamelan and related performing arts.