Tentang Cara Gamelan (1994), pron. "chara", translates to "on the technique of gamelan", was written by Farr for his friend and colleague Nicola Melville while they were both studying at the Eastman School of Music, New York, USA in 1990-92 and 1994.  Farr had become intrigued by how French impressionist composers such as Claude Debussy responded to their exposure to the music of the Javanese Gamelan, which was famously showcased at the Paris Exposition in 1889. In an early programme note, Farr humorously alludes to the character of the music by imagining a dinner conversation between Debussy and composer/ethnomusicologist Colin McPhee in which they discuss the influence of gamelan on their music, before professional jealousy leads to an exchange of insults. Tentang Cara Gamelan does indeed bring together an impressionistic sound-world with a more clearly derivative gamelan style, at first as if viewing gamelan "from the outside" with a flurry of notes that merely hint at Balinese harmony, then moving towards Balinese harmony and rhythms outright.