How to Use gamelan in a Sentence

gamelan

noun
  • The birds didn’t take to the gamelan right away, Sulzer told me.
    Burkhard Bilger, The New Yorker, 27 Mar. 2023
  • The gamelan musicians also lined the back of the stage at the Broad Stage.
    Mark Swed, latimes.com, 20 Feb. 2018
  • The piece reflects when Debussy first heard a Javanese gamelan at the Paris Exposition of 1889.
    Special To The Oregonian, OregonLive.com, 10 Mar. 2018
  • The things often summoned up her Java stories of gamelans, sate-sellers, cicadas and warm rain.
    The Economist, 5 Sep. 2019
  • Along with drums, Ms. Milton had played percussion in gamelan, samba and Cuban-style groups, none of which are evident in her drum parts for Savages.
    Jon Pareles, New York Times, 14 Jan. 2016
  • Indonesia and its gamelan orchestras didn’t seem so far away.
    Los Angeles Times, 10 Dec. 2021
  • Somewhere down a hallway behind him, there were four separate gamelans awaiting their fate.
    David Murphy, Philly.com, 12 Apr. 2018
  • Also on the first floor is the Experience Gallery, where would-be musicians can practice on an Indonesian gamelan, a banjo, bongos, ukulele and more.
    Susan Glaser, cleveland, 10 Mar. 2022
  • The Javanese gamelan is an ensemble of metal percussion, drums, strings, bamboo flutes and vocals.
    John Von Rhein, chicagotribune.com, 11 May 2017
  • Trumpets and flutes were predictably popular, but so were the gongs and xylophones of an Indonesian gamelan orchestra.
    Burkhard Bilger, The New Yorker, 27 Mar. 2023
  • In spite of a few rough edges in coordination early on, the gamelan section at the end of the first movement was hypnotic, exotic, and most certainly Romantic.
    Jeffery Johnson, courant.com, 17 Feb. 2018
  • The tones suggest Indonesian gamelan music, but with less structured sonic patterns.
    Mark Jenkins, Washington Post, 17 Feb. 2023
  • Western audiences would likely experience a learning curve with sonifications that employ, say, the sound of a Javanese gamelan, but a framework that contains such options can flex and adapt to the data’s needs.
    Timmy Broderick, Scientific American, 5 Jan. 2023
  • In college, Melody studied Balinese gamelan and Brazilian sambas.
    Matt Wake | Mwake@al.com, al, 22 Mar. 2022
  • The dancers were accompanied by a 40-piece gamelan orchestra in which players used mallets to produce rapid, rhythmic and hypnotic music on banks of percussion instruments.
    Seth Mydans, New York Times, 13 Mar. 2020
  • This Balinese composer combines two different gamelan scales in his latest project.
    New York Times, 22 Dec. 2022
  • One of the temporary musical tracks McDonagh used was, surprisingly, a piece of Indonesian gamelan music.
    Tim Greiving, Los Angeles Times, 17 Nov. 2022
  • Games of the youths are accompanied by dancing, percussive tinklings inspired by Balinese gamelan music.
    Scott Cantrell, Dallas News, 15 Apr. 2020
  • There are the awe-inspiring temples in the tens of thousands—literally—and near-daily ceremonies: vivid, multi-sensory and loud, accompanied by chanting and clanging gamelan.
    Kathryn Romeyn, Travel + Leisure, 16 July 2021
  • There are the awe-inspiring temples in the tens of thousands — literally — and near-daily ceremonies: vivid, multi-sensory, and loud, accompanied by chanting and clanging gamelan.
    Kathryn Romeyn, Travel + Leisure, 1 Sep. 2023
  • Returning to Mission Dolores, the festival will focus on the composer’s gamelan masterpieces.
    Georgia Rowe, The Mercury News, 14 Feb. 2017
  • Now Ithaca’s annual Porchfest has grown into a six-hour extravaganza featuring 180 acts as varied as string bands, opera singers, hip-hop groups, and Indonesian gamelan ensembles.
    Melody Warnick, Woman's Day, 2 Apr. 2019
  • Debussy may have discovered his own pianistic voice after hearing the gamelan, but by the end of the 20th century the inspiration had reversed direction and his impact on Asian piano music is incalculable.
    Stephen Hough, New York Times, 2 Mar. 2018
  • He was often treated as an outsider artist for his protean interests, which included Indonesian gamelans, Esperanto and microtones.
    Carolina A. Miranda, latimes.com, 19 May 2017
  • His first recording for Nonesuch, devoted to the gamelan, the traditional percussion orchestra of Indonesia, sold surprisingly well.
    William Grimes, New York Times, 31 May 2017
  • Mr. Lewiston recorded the ethereal percussive sounds of the traditional Balinese ensembles known as gamelans.
    Emily Langer, Washington Post, 30 May 2017

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'gamelan.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Last Updated: