Angklung is a style of gamelan found primarily in Bali, Indonesia. It is also the name of a bamboo musical instrument from which the ensemble gets its name.
The musical instrument called angklung is made out of two bamboo tubes attached to a bamboo frame. The tubes are carved so that they have a resonant pitch when struck. The two tubes are tuned to octaves. The base of the frame is held with one hand while the other hand shakes the instrument rapidly. This causes a rapidly repeating note to sound. Each person in an ensemble will play just one note.
Balinese Gamelan Angklung is an ensemble of mostly bronze metallophones. The instruments are tuned to a 4 tone slendro scale. While the ensemble gets its name from the bamboo shakers, these days most compositions for Gamelan Angklung do not use them.
Further reading
Balinese Music (1991) by Michael Tenzer Periplus/University of Washington Press .
The angklung orchestra tends to have lighter and more delicate sound than the gamelan gong, but can be just as complex in its interlocking patterns and interweaving melodies, and hypnotic, repeating loops.
Gamelan instruments in general are considered sacred and are treated with the utmost respect.
The gongs are considered the spiritual heart of the gamelan, providing the foundation pulses that anchor the rest of the ensemble and the markers that denote the end of one major cycle and the next - this has been compared with the cycle of death and rebirth.
Gamelan orchestras are common to the islands of Java, Madura, Bali, and Lombok (and other Sunda Islands) in Indonesia in a wide variety of ensemble sizes and formations.
Although gamelan ensembles sometimes include solo and choral voices, plucked and/or bowed string and wind instruments, they are most notable for the large number of percussion instruments, particularly metal percussion instruments.
In addition, there are gamelan ensembles composed entirely of bamboo -keyed instruments, of bamboo flutes, of zithers, or of unaccompanied voices with the functions of metallophones or gongs in the metal ensemble transferred to surrogates.
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