A passage to Indonesia

Hearing the Javanese gamelan at the 1889 Exposition Universelle in Paris introduced Debussy to a new world, explains Simon Broughton

- Simon Broughton

The Exposition Universelle, held in Paris in 1889 and attracting 30 million visitors during the six months it was open, has bequeathed us the Eiffel Tower in the Champ de Mars where the exhibition took place.

Only intended to stand for 20 years, the tower remains the symbol of the city today. Yet there's another (till now) less tangible legacy of the world fair, which influenced one of the leading composers of the day.

A regular visitor was Claude Debussy, who was attracted to the exposition's Kampong Javanaise (Javanese Village) with its gamelan music and dancers. 'Rome is no longer in Rome; Cairo is no longer in Egypt, nor is the island of Java in the East Indies. All of this has come to the Champ de Mars,' wrote musicologist Julien Tiersot. 'The thing most interesting of all and most novel for us, in the Javanese Village, is a spectacle of sacred dances, accompanied by a music infinitely curious, which will take us as far as possible from our civilisation.'

The two pagoda-like towers which formed the entrance to the Javanese Village were situated next to a replica temple tower from Angkor Wat In an area dedicated to southeast Asia. The 45 or so Javanese ‘on show’ prepared food, made batiks and jewellery, and played gamelan with dancers.

A gamelan is a collection of tuned gongs and metallophones, generally of bronze, played by a dozen or more musicians. The gongs punctuate the larger sections of the pieces, while the xylophone-like gambang and bonang kettle gongs play a central melody, with higher instruments like the gender playing faster variations over the top. There are drums in the ensemble too, and it produces a gloriously shimmering and captivating sound.

According to his friend Robert Godet, who had visited Java, Debussy went to hear the gamelan countless times. ‘Many fruitful hours for Debussy were spent in the