Langgam jawa is a regional form of Indonesian kroncong music most often associated with the city of Surakarta (solo). As is the case with traditional kroncong music, langgam jawa utilizes a variety of non-native instruments, such as the flute, guitar, ukulele, cello and violin. However, these instruments are performed using a seven-tone Javanese gamelan scale known as pelog. The cello typically plays the role of a gamelan ciblon drum, with the performer slowly plucking or slapping the strings in a percussive fashion. Kroncong is the name of a ukulele-type instrument and an Indonesian musical style that typically makes use of the kroncong, a flute, and a female singer. ... Surakarta (its formal name; locally it is referred to as Solo) is an Indonesian city of approximately 500,000 people located in Central Java. ... The examples and perspective in this article or section may not represent a worldwide view. ... Different kinds of guitars The guitar is a fretted and stringed musical instrument, used in a wide variety of musical styles, and is also widely known as a solo classical instrument. ... Ukulele The ukulele (ʻukulele in Hawaiian and standard Hawaiian English; pronounced , or the Anglicised ), or uke, is a fretted string instrument which is, in its construction, essentially a smaller, four-stringed version of the guitar. ... A cello The violoncello, almost always abbreviated to cello (the c is pronounced as the ch in cheese), is a stringed instrument and a member of the violin family. ... This article does not cite its references or sources. ... Javanese is a term used to describe a native of the Indonesian island of Java. ... Gamelan - Indonesian Embassy in Canberra A gamelan is a kind of musical ensemble of Indonesian origin typically featuring a variety of instruments such as metallophones, xylophones, drums, and gongs; bamboo flutes, bowed and plucked strings, and vocalists may also be included. ... Pelog is one of the two essential scales of gamelan music native to Bali and Java, in Indonesia. ...

Langgam jawa's roots can be traced back to kroncong ensambles going back to the 1920s, but emerged as a style of its own in the 1950s. Among the leading exponents of the style is Andjar Any. He and his ensemble, Orkes Kroncong Bintang Nusantara, are said to have composed over 2000 songs in the langgam jawa style.

Source: Indonesian Popular Music: Kroncong, Dangdut and Langgam Jawa. Philip Yampolsky, Smithsonian Folkways Recordings, 1991.

See also

• Gamelan
• Kroncong
• Music of Java
• Music of Indonesia

Gamelan - Indonesian Embassy in Canberra A gamelan is a kind of musical ensemble of Indonesian origin typically featuring a variety of instruments such as metallophones, xylophones, drums, and gongs; bamboo flutes, bowed and plucked strings, and vocalists may also be included. ... Kroncong is the name of a ukulele-type instrument and an Indonesian musical style that typically makes use of the kroncong, a flute, and a female singer. ... The gamelan orchestra, based on metallic percussion with winds and drums, is well-known to many readers. ... Indonesia is culturally diverse, and every one of the 18,000 islands has its own cultural and artistic history and character[1]. This results hundreds of differernt forms of music, which often accompanies dance and theater. ...

External link

• Smithsonian Folkways Recordings