New Music for Gamelan at ASKI Solo

This article describes the creation of new gamelan music at ASKI Surakarta during the mid-1980s. Degree requirements encouraged students to explore innovation across dance, puppetry, and karawitan through new compositions, arrangements, or choreography. Examples include experimental tuning systems, non-traditional instrumentation, and cross-style presentations that merged refined, strong, and female dance traditions with original musical structures. The evolving pedagogical approach balanced traditional mastery with freedom for experimentation, resulting in works that were both artistically restrained and conceptually bold.