Overseas help to tune instruments

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Oxford University has had to bring in experts from Java in Indonesia to retune some rare musical instruments.

The instruments of the gamelan orchestra were donated to the university in 1985, but no-one in the UK was able to retune them.

Mas Suraya and Mas Sutarno travelled from the villages of Bayat and Jatikan and spent four days working at the music faculty.

They used cutting and filing equipment to reshape the bronze instruments.

Angle grinder

Andy Lamb, the curator of the university's Bate Collection of musical instruments, said: "The guys who came over to work with us, they actually know the bloke who originally made the orchestra.

"The kind of work that you have to do is important, because bronze does not remain static once it's cast.

"Over a period of years it does change and the tuning goes out."

The instruments of the orchestra are used by a community gamelan orchestra and academics for teaching.

Pete Smith, from the Oxford Gamelan Society, said: "Retuning takes years and years of training and knowledge of the musical system of Java.

"So we had these two guys over and we looked after them, making sure they had everything they needed, so they could get on with scraping, banging, filing, taking an angle grinder and an anvil to these gamelan."