The thesis examines how, and with what implications, Western and Balinese musicians and scholars have sought to represent and create theories of Balinese gamelan music. It considers the potential problems that arise from imposing theoretical systems devised for quite different musical and cultural contexts onto Balinese music, and offers an alternative, practice-based account. The thesis is divided into three parts. Part One considers techniques of representing Balinese music in the early twentieth century and positions the era's surge of Western academic interest within the Dutch colonial project. Examining Balinese and Western accounts, the thesis establishes key assumptions underlying these works and highlights how Balinese were often significant participants in the construction of such representations. Part Two examines how, post-Independence, imaginings of Balinese music have been steered by the Indonesian music education system and by the state's management of musical creation and performance. It considers the modem Indonesian construct of leori gamelan and discusses how this term has functioned largely as an empty signifier, used to position Balinese music-making in accordance with the various socio-political needs of theoretician, institution, local government and nation state. The thesis then addresses certain aspects of music-making since the fall of the New Order, considering how the era's political and cultural changes relate to how Balinese have created, imagined and talked about gamelan music, with particular focus on composers' representations of foreign materials and qualities of kebalian ('Balineseness') in their works. Part Three contrasts these representations with a preliminary analysis of certain practices employed by Balinese to create, teach, learn and refine music. By demonstrating the types of practical and fluid musical understanding that Balinese musicians apply, the thesis illustrates how these processes prove incompatible with the rigidity of the various musical theories claiming to account for Balinese gamelan music.

This study investigates the use of Indonesian gamelan with participants who have special needs or with special populations, and considers what the playing of gamelan music has to offer music therapy practice. The gamelan is an ensemble of instruments on which the traditional music of Indonesia is played, consisting of mainly tuned and un-tuned percussion instruments tuned to four, five or seven tone scales. Gamelan are being increasingly used for music activities with participants who have special needs, such as learning disabilities, mental health problems or sensory impairments, and with special populations, such as prisoners. Whilst aims are broadly educational, therapeutic benefits are also being noted. There is little research into the effectiveness of this use of gamelan; the therapeutic benefits have not been researched within the context of music therapy. As an experienced music therapist and gamelan musician, I considered that investigating the potential for using gamelan within music therapy would produce new knowledge that could extend the practice of music therapy. Various qualitative methods within a naturalistic paradigm were used to investigate current and past practice of gamelan playing with special needs groups and to identify the therapeutic benefits. Semi-structured interviews were undertaken with gamelan tutors working in this area and a music therapy project using gamelan with a group of children who had learning difficulties was undertaken by the author. Using a thematic approach to the analysis of data, the key features of gamelan playing which have relevance for music therapy practice were identified. Gamelan playing was found to have a range of therapeutic benefits which can be used intentionally by a music therapist to address therapeutic aims. It was found firstly that the playing of traditional gamelan music can be used for specific therapeutic purposes and secondly, that the music and instruments can be adapted and used within various music therapy approaches and for participants with a range of disabilities. A set of guiding principles are also proposed for the use of this new music therapy practice.

Professional Javanese gamelan musicians and the way they think about and make music have been extensively studied by ethnomusicologists. This thesis shifts the analytical focus to the experience and practice of players in 'gamelan associations' for whom music is neither their primary occupation nor main source of income. It addresses two issues: firstly, who are these musicians and what does their way of playing and conceiving of music tell us about gamelan, and secondly, what opportunities and benefits does participation in these groups afford them. The first section sets out the details and context of fourteen gamelan associations in Surakarta. It examines local terminology for different forms of musicianship, their practice in relation to factors such as recompense for playing, ability, repertoire, and training, and discusses the combination of rehearsal and social gathering which I claim is fundamental to these groups. I argue that, whilst there is significant diversity among gamelan associations and their members, they represent a unified category of musicians distinct from those who are officially employed to play and that the specific benefits they obtain from playing derive from this non-professional status. The second section sets out these benefits in five chapters, relating respectively to gamelan's implication in discourses of community at local and state level, expressions of cultural ownership, the display and negotiation of personal authority, access to power, and the production of public sound. I argue that these connections mean that participation in gamelan associations is not simply recreational but a potentially powerful way for Solonese people to create meaning and influence for themselves amidst the competing models of modernity and rapid political change of contemporary Indonesia.