I will report anyone who answers with "what?, I don't know or anything along those lines". The gamelan is a javanese musical instrument group, consisting of primarily percussion instruments. The main reason that someone on the classical music forum would know about it is because the renowned French composer Debussy was fascinated by the music created with these instruments providing him with inspiration for some of his wonderful impressionistic piano pieces. it's a type of music that is made with non-western instruments. There is sometimes singing along and the musicians are in what is like a "band" of about 14 people and the instrumentation is really whacky. There are several people playing gong-like instruments of different sizes (different pitch range) and there are people playing xylophone-like instruments, some wood and some metal, and a bongo/conga-like drum. The music is usually slower tempo because it is traditionally played over the radio at night time for everyone to fall asleep to, the music supposedly brings out good dreams. | 