Aneka Stambul Vol. 2

Gambang kromong is a traditional ensemble music of the Betawi people of Jakarta, Indonesia, that fuses Chinese (Tionghoa) musical aesthetics with local Sundanese/Javanese gamelan sensibilities and Malay-poetic song. Its name comes from two of its core instruments: the gambang (a wooden xylophone) and the kromong (a set of small bronze bossed gongs). Typical ensembles combine Chinese bowed fiddles—tehyan, kongahyan, and sukong—with the gambang, a kromong/bonang-like gong-chime, gongs, frame drums (gendang), metal time-markers (kecrek), and sometimes bamboo flute (suling). Melodically it favors pentatonic modes of Chinese origin adapted to local tunings, and it is performed for social events, weddings, public festivities, and the Betawi social dance known as cokek.