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We play the gamelan Kyahi Paridjata (Kyai Parijata in modern spelling) at the Museum Nusantara in Delft, the Netherlands. It was acquired in 1968 from Surakarta (Solo) and was reported by the seller to be about 175 years old at the time. The first owner had been Pangeran Mangkoeboeni. Not the whole gamelan seems to be that old, the tuning and some decorations point to the late 19th, early 20th century. The gamelan forms the centerpiece of an impressive display on the second floor of the museum, with a sign "Please do not play the instruments". Which we put face-down on the floor every Saturday morning and start playing.
The antique gamelan has a much softer sound than most new gamelans. It is also quite irregular, in pitch (cf. a list of frequencies), timbre (listen to samples of most instruments) and loudness, so playing the instruments is a bit more challenging. Some bonang kettles and the pelog peking have not survived the tooth of time and have recently been replaced, adding to the variety of sounds. The slendro and pelog halves each have their own personality, with the slendro instruments louder and more elaborately decorated than the pelog half.
On this web site there are audio and video recordings of Marsudi Raras playing this gamelan. Samples and photos of many of the instruments and a playable instrument are also available on this site.
Gamelan Hamongkarsa is also used in our yearly gamelan weekend, in which we try to broaden the repertoire with guest players from the group Istika. However, some claim the main reason for it is the excellent Indonesian food prepared by our gender player, assisted by the pesindhen.
For infomation about performances please contact Francis van Kruining or info1@marsudiraras.org (change info1 to info2, too much spam).