Into the future, gamelan will remain one of the most significant parts of Indonesian society. The framework of beliefs and values created by the Balinese through gamelan is essential to Indonesia’s worldwide musical growth. Howard states, “Gamelan is one of the most accessible forms of non-Western music” (Howard, 2015). Even though the promotion of the gamelan orchestra is important and secure within our society currently, there is an inherent risk that the essence and practice of traditional gamelan music may be lost. Scholar, Sutrisno Hartarna argues that gamelan music needs to continue to evolve through the documentation of all Indonesian gamelan performances and an increased hope for gamelan to become commercially and culturally competitive in a global context (Hartarna, 2006). There is an aim of preserving gamelan by academics and musicians working together on programs of gamelan music to bring them into our music education. Currently there are 100-200 institutions around the world that make use of gamelan music such as in Australia, US, European countries, Japan and China. Author, Kelynn Brengelman states, “In the future I see gamelan music continuing to have an increasing influence on western music and expanding the vast possibilities that music has to offer” (Brengelman, 2012). As gamelan continues to become more popular within western nations, universities and educational institutions will adopt gamelan into their musical teaching, with the hope that soon gamelan orchestras will grow over the world.
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