<![CDATA[This study aims to analyze Ladrang Siyem as a traditional musical composition of the Surakarta Palace that represents musical hybridity, cultural diplomacy, and the vitality of Javanese karawitan traditions. This qualitative study employed an ethnographic approach through five months of participant observation within the Surakarta Hadiningrat Palace environment. Data were collected through interviews with palace servants, pengrawit (Javanese gamelan musicians), and karawitan scholars, as well as through documentation studies of musical notation, recordings, and historical archives. The findings show that the musical hybridity of Ladrang Siyem is reflected in the incorporation of Siamese or Thai musical elements into the structure of Javanese gamelan, particularly in the ladrang form using the sléndro pathet nem tuning system. Its cultural diplomacy dimension is reflected in its function as a Gendhing Panembrama, performed to honor the arrival of the King of Siam during the reign of Pakubuwono X. The composition demonstrates the ability of Javanese culture to accommodate foreign cultural elements while maintaining its musical identity. Meanwhile, the vitality of Ladrang Siyem is sustained through the memories of palace servants, musicians’ knowledge, musical notation and recordings, the transmission of karawitan traditions, and contemporary academic studies. Thus, Ladrang Siyem possesses not only musical and historical significance but also represents cultural relations and the continuity of Javanese karawitan traditions.]]>
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