Developed before the 10th century, the form had origins in the thalubomalata, the leather

puppets of southern India. The art of shadow puppetry probably spread to Java with the spread
of Hinduism. The prototype of the wayang figures is the wayang kulit, or shadow puppet made
of perforated, elaborately painted leather.

Gamelan in Wayang Kulit Performance. The gamelan orchestra is a vital accompaniment for wayang
kulit performance. Music supports the all-night performance almost non-stop, though the number of
instruments that play may vary. ... The kendhang sets the tempo of the music and the puppets' dances.

Indonesian Theatre

Shadow puppet theatre is a well known Indonesian theatre popular not only in their own country but
spread in several countries around the world. Wayang kulit in central java is one of the oldest
continuous traditions of story telling in the world which includes the use of puppet materials and
background musical accomplishment to make it interesting to the audience.

Wayang is an Indonesian and Malay word for theatre. When the term is used to refer to kinds of Puppet
theatre, sometimes the puppet itself is referred to as wayang. Kulit means skin and refers to the leather
construction of the puppets that are carefully cut into very fine tools and supported with carefully
shaped buffalo horn handles and control tools.

Wayang is the Indonesia word for puppet and in Indonesia is used to describe theater both with
and without puppets but is most often used as shorthand for wayang kulit (Javanese shadow
puppet theater). The various art forms associated with it has been around for at least 1,000
years.
Wayang Kulit of Indonesia

Wayang refers to the kind of puppet theatres. Sometimes the puppet itself is referred to as wayang.
Performances of shadow puppet theaters are accompanied by a gamelan orchestra in java, and by
gender wayang in Bali. Wayang kulit or shadow puppets are without a doubt the best known of the
Indonesian wayang. Kulit means skin and refers to the leather construction of the puppets that are
carefully shaped with very fine tools and supported with carefully shaped buffalo horn handles and
control rods.
The Dalang

The puppeteer is called the dalang. He is characterized by his being creative, humorous and flexible. He
manipulates the puppets, sings and taps out of signals to the orchestra. He also speaks the parts of all
the characters. The use of voice interchangeably is the main ability of a dalang to give more life to a
different character.

Non-jointed puppets were manipulated by the chief performer, the dalang who told the story to the
accompaniment of several instruments, including some that are part of the present-day gamelan
ensemble.

The Music Gamelan

A gamelan ensemble is comprised mainly by bronze percussion instrument augmented by other

percussion instruments, strings and a flute. A full Javanese gamelan consists of:

Saron-xylophone of heavy bronze bars

Gender- bronze xylophone with resonance chambers beneathe

Bonang-set of bronze bowls

Gong and Kempul-hanging gongs

Kenong and Ketuk-single inverted bronze bowl

Gambang-wooden xylophone

Rebab-two stringed fiddle

Suling-flute

Kendang-horizontal drum beat with the fingers in both ends

Tjelempung-a zither of thirteen double strings

The preponderance of bronze instruments gives gamelan music a bright, lingering sound, ranging from
slow, majestic melodies of the Javanese gamelan to the clangorous vibrancy of the Balinese gamelan.
Fiddle and flute add a delicate counterpoint to the four-square pattern of percussive melody.

In addition for setting the mood or atmosphere of a play, music has two major dramatic functions in the
theatre. It accompanies the singing/chanting and it accompanies stage actions including dance. The
importance of each function varies from area to area and theatre form to theatre form.

The dalang sings the mood songs (suluk) at regular intervals during performance; in a nine-hour wayang
kulit, he may sing fifty or sixty. Nevertheless they are considered relatively unimportant except as mood
pieces. The same generalized music may be used play after play. Suluk are never accompanied by the
full gamelan ensemble. Often a single instrument accompanies the singer, never more than three or
four. The major dramatic function of gamelan music is to accompany stage action. Entrances, exits and
fight scenes are executed in time to gamelan music.

Wayang Kulit Music

There are several different types of music used in the Javanese wayang kulit. This will, of neccesity, be
an oversimplification of those types, but the general overview should be accurate as far as it goes.

The first distinction we will want to make is between measured and un-measured. Measured music is
the type we are most familiar with, as this is the music that the large ensemble plays. "Measured"
means that there is a definite metrical structure to the piece. Oops, I just defined a word by using
another of the same meaning. Okay, metrical means that there is a beat that you can hear, and even
clap to. And we also normally mean that there is some sort of arranging of these beats into larger
groups, of two, three, or four. In Western music we call these groups "measures". In Javanese music, we
call the groups "gatras". When we play measured pieces, we are counting "and-one-and-two-and-three-
and-four", or something to that effect. "Un-measured" music lacks this quality. The rhythm ebbs and
flows at the whim of the performer, normally lacking any feel of "beat" or "meter". The phrasing of the
music is left to the will of the performer, and to their skills at interacting in a way that still makes musical
sense, even while lacking a meter to give them structure.

Types of Measured Pieces. The measured pieces played by the gamelan come in two types: regular and
irregular. Sounds like French grammer, doesn't it? The regular forms have gong structures that are
completely predictable just from the title of the piece. The irregular forms have gong structures that
vary from one piece to the next of the "same" form. They will vary as to how many gatras per gong, both
within a single piece, and from one piece to the next.

Here's a chart of some of the regular forms:

Legend:

X = balungan

+ = kethuk

- = kempyang

N = kenong

G = gong
Lancaran

8 beats to the gong / 4 kenongs

+ + N + + N + + N + + N/G

.X.X .X.X .X.X .X.X

Ketawang

16 beats to the gong / 2 kenongs

-+- -+-N -+- - + - N/G

XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX

Ladrang

32 beats to the gong / 4 kenongs

-+- -+-N -+- -+-N

XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX

-+- -+-N -+- - + - N/G

XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX

Now here are the irregular forms:

Ayak-ayakan

2 kenongs to the gatra

+ +N+ +N

XXXX

Srepegan

4 kenongs to the gatra

+N+N+N+N
 XXXX

Sampak

8 kenongs to the gatra

++++

NNNNNNNN

XXXX

Types of Un-Measured Pieces. The unmeasured pieces are distinguished mostly by instrumentation and
function. They are often labelled sulukan as a general classification. I will attempt to define some of
them here:

Tembang or Sekar. These are solo songs, often accompanied by a gender, very lightly. As a Bawa, a solo
song would serve as an introduction to a measured piece. As an Andhegan, it would serve as an
interlude in the middle of an measured piece.

Pathetan. This piece is played by gender, gambang, suling, rebab and a solo voice. In the wayang kulit, it
is used to open each act of the play, setting the mood, and the tonality for the coming act.

Sendon. This is scored like a pathetan, minus the rebab. Sendon would be used as required by the drama
of the scene. For example Tlutur is a very sad song, and so is used to express deep sorrow on the part of
one the wayang characters.

Ado-ado. Is the most widely used of the sulukan within the context of the wayang kulit. It is palyed by
the voice, gender, and suling. It is intimately bound up with the dramatic rhythm of the play, acting
almost lke a musical glue, holding the scenes together. A common dramatic structure for a wayang
scene might go something like this: Srepegan (or other irregular form) - Ado-ado - Narration - Dialog,
which might then be repeated several times, with variation, so as to slowly build the story of the wayang
kulit.

The stories are usually drawn from the hindu epics

-Ramayana

-Mahabharata

-Serat Menak-a story about the heroism of Amir Hamza

The Handwork in Making the Wayang Kulit Figure

The puppets start from master models (typically on paper) which are traced out onto skin or parchment,
providing the figures or outline and with indicators of any holes that will need to be cut. (such as for the
mouth or eyes).

The figures are smoothened, usually with a glass bottle and primed. The structure is inspected and
eventually the details are worked through a further smoothing follows before individual painting which
is undertaken by yet another crafts man.

Finally, the movable parts (upper arms, lower arms with hands, and the associated sticks for
manipulation) are mounted onto the body, which has a central staff by which it is held.

The performance

The audience is the most important person in a wayang kulit performance. The dalang prepares all the
materials used like the cloth and the light for the shadow.

Wayang kulit performance consist of shadows cast on a cotton screen and an oil lamp. In java, a halogen
electric light is most often used as a light source.

Wayang Sandosa has employed spotlights, colored lights and other innovations.

Elements of Performance

The fundamental components of a performance include;

-the puppeteer, dhalang (java) dalang (bali)

-a hammer used by the dhalang to knock on the puppet box, cempala

-metal plates that the dhalang hits with his foot, kepyak

-a traditional Indonesian orchestra , gamelan

- shadow puppets, wayang kulit

-a light source, blencong

-female singers and a male chorus, pesindeh and penngerong

-a screen frame and screen. Gawang and kelir, the main focus of the performance

-banana logs, gedebog, the pointed sticks of the wayang base handle peirce and peeled trunk of a
banana tree and a substance holds the puppets in place.

-a puppet box, kothak

Wayang kulit was performed in royal court and widely performed in public on religious occasions so that
the knowledge of wayang became widespread among the classes in java.

It was given recognition as a masterpeice of oral and intangible heritage of humanity on November 7
2003 by UNESCO and required Indonesians to preserve the heritage.