The gamelan gong kebyar (also gong, gong kebyar, or kebyar) is a Balinese orchestra consisting of thirty players. The gong kebyar comprises a variety of metallophones, gongs, and other instruments, such as flutes, fiddles, drums and cymbals. Gong kebyar music is based on a five-tone scale and is characterized by brilliant sounds, syncopations, sudden and gradual changes in sound colour, dynamics, tempo and articulation, and complex, complementary interlocking melodic-rhythmic patterns (kotekan). The metallophones are tuned in pairs slightly apart: the lower tone is called pengumbang and the higher tone is called pengisep. This tuning arrangement produces a beating effect (ombak) when the same tone is played on the paired instruments and it creates an overall shimmering, pulsating quality when the entire orchestra is played. The gong kebyar developed out of older, traditional ensembles and first emerged in athe north of Bali in the second decade of the 20th century. This ensemble has a large repertoire and today it is one of the most popular ensembles in Bali (see Tenzer 1991 & 2000).

The twelve learning objects presented here are based on a composition consisting of a repeated melody or ostinato, which fits into an eight-beat cyclic form called gilak. This composition is one of several compositions that belong to the masked play called topeng. Topeng dramatizes the chronicles of the Balinese royalty, and a complete performance may last more than an hour. This illustration of gilak topeng is intended only as an introduction to the gong kebyar: it includes a description and image of each the basic instruments that comprise the orchestra and musical notations and playback for the main parts of the composition. The soundbank is based on recordings of each of the instruments of the University of Hong Kong gamelan gong kebyar and the playback is generated from a specially devised, computer programme based on the notations.