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Figure 2. Javanese kampong and nearby structures at 1889 Exposition. Left: Pagoda of Angkor Wat on left and
two entrance towers to Javanese village on right. Lower middle: Palace of Annam and Tonkin. Lower right:
Pavilion of Cochin Chinga. (These three in National Gallery of Art "Paris Exposition 1889") Upper right: Javanese
pavilion. (In L'Exposition de Paris 1889 1: 163.)

One of the many visitors was Debussy, who returned again and again to the exhibit. Debussy's friend Robert
Godet captures the composer's fascination:
8
Many fruitful hours for Debussy were spent in the Javanese kampong of the Dutch section listening to the
percussive rhythmic complexities of the gamelan with its inexhaustible combinations of ethereal, flashing
timbres, while with the amazing Bedayas [dancers] the music came visually alive. Interpreting some myth or
legend, they turned themselves into nymphs, mermaids, fairies and sorceresses. Waving like the ears of
corn in a field, bending like reeds or fluttering like doves, or now rigid and hieratic, they formed a
procession of idols or, like intangible phantoms, slipped away on the current of an imaginary wave.
Suddenly they would be brought out of their lethargy by a resounding blow on a gong, and then the music
would turn into a kind of metallic galop with breathless cross-rhythms, ending in a firework display of flying
runs. The Bedayas would then remain poised in the air like terrified amazons questioning the fleeting
moment, the secrets of love and life. But they are amazons only for a moment; now they are water-spirits or
birds or flower-maidens weaving festoons, or butterflies of all the colours of the rainbow. A flute run flashes
out and each of the Bedayas beats its wings, or flutters its petals, and once again they come to life in rhythm
paying homage to their hidden god. 9
Figure 3 shows the Javanese dancers at the 1889 Exhibition. On the left can be seen a part of the gamelan
accompanying them. 10

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