Various Balinese musicians

Traditional music is an umbrella term used in the mid–20th century by folklorists and ethnomusicologists to denote community-rooted, orally transmitted repertoires tied to social ritual, work, celebration, and storytelling. Unlike commercial pop or art-music traditions, traditional music is typically learned by ear, varies regionally, and evolves slowly through communal participation. It often features modal melodies, cyclic rhythms, heterophony or unison singing, and indigenous instruments whose timbres are integral to local identity. Lyrics tend to preserve language, history, and collective memory. While the musical practices themselves can be ancient, the phrase “traditional music” emerged to replace earlier, narrower or colonial framings like “folk” or “ethnic” music, foregrounding continuity, locality, and living practice rather than exoticism.

Balinese traditional music refers to the ritual, courtly, and community-based musical arts of Bali, Indonesia, centered on diverse gamelan ensembles and vocal-ritual practices. It is distinguished by brilliant bronze sonorities, interlocking (kotekan) figurations, paired-tuned instruments that create a living “shimmer” (ombak), and a powerful colotomic gong cycle. Within this umbrella are ancient ceremonial ensembles (e.g., Selonding), refined court genres (Semar Pegulingan, Gong Gede), gender wayang for shadow theater, bamboo orchestras (Joged Bumbung, Jegog), dynamic modern idioms like Gong Kebyar, and trance-chant forms (e.g., Sanghyang and the later stage form Kecak). Music is inseparable from temple cycles, dance-drama, and communal life, with the drum leader (kendang) cueing phrasing, dynamics, and dance-musical accents (angsel).