Gendang / Gamelan Silat

Gendang/Gamelan Silat explores the rhythmic application of various patterns derived from traditional Malay soundscape and the relation between melodic articulation and martial art movements. The interlocking rhythm in the traditional music ensemble starts from the song's introduction and continues until the song's end. It is usually used to accompany traditional silat performances. As of 2022, there are fewer than five traditional Gendang/Gamelan Silat ensembles in Singapore. 

           Sendeng Teratai's gendang/gamelan team is the only silat music troupe that is based on traditional Malay gamelan. Most other gamelan groups in Singapore are based on the Javanese system. Gamelan was first introduced to the Malay world in the mid-18th century when a group of dancers and musicians were introduced to Pulau Penyengat, the royal island capital of the Riau-Lingga empire. Interestingly, despite the deep Malay-Bugis influence in Pulau Penyengat, Javanese style court dance and music were. presented at the Istana Kuning, the music being that of the gamelan and the dances consisting mainly of the Srimpi and Bedaya, the main classical dances of the central Javanese courts. Guru Muhammad Jailani was coincidentally a gamelan player and studied gamelan in University of Malaya.

             Gamelan Melayu was first recorded in an 1811 royal wedding in Pekan, Pahang, between Tengku Hussein Mua'zzam Shah ibni Mahmud Shah Alam and Wan Aishah, the sister of Bendahara Wan Ali of Pahang. Tengku Hussein later went on to become Sultan of Singapore (1819) and Johor (1824). The wedding celebrations were enlivened by elaborate court dances to the accompaniment of an orchestra of gongs and xylophones, which were found only at the Malay courts of Pahang and Lingga. The gamelan performance was briefly described by Frank Sweetenham (1978) in 'A Malay Nautch' - a paper read at a meeting of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society (1978):