Gamelan

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Gamelan
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What is gamelan?

• Gamelan is a traditional Indonesian instrumental
  ensemble made up of mainly percussion instruments
  gongs, metallophones, xylophones, drums, cymbals.

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Where does gamelan come from?

• Gamelan comes from Indonesia.
• There are two main styles Balinese
• (from Bali) and Javanese (from Java)

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What does it sound like?
Listen to the following examples of gamelan music.
Some European composers have been influenced by
gamelan music. Its influences can be especially
seen in minimalism, which shares many of the same
features repetition, cyclic rhythms, loops etc
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The Slendro Scale
C D E G A
The five-note Gamelan scale is called the
Slendro. Gamelan notes dont exactly match
Western scales but the slendro is roughly
equivalent to the notes of the major pentatonic
scale on C C,D,E,G,A
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The Pelog Scale
C D E A B C D
The seven-note gamelan scale is called Pelog. To
get an idea of what the pelog scale sounds like,
play the notes E,F,G,A,B,C,D on a keyboard. Most
sets of gamelan are tuned either to the
slendro or to the pelog scale. Others are tuned
to both these are called double
gamelan.
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Instruments with keys

• The keys of an instrument can be bronze, iron,
  wood or bamboo. They are arranged in a
  xylophone-like manner, always horizontally. The
  player faces the long side of the instrument.

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• The Gambang is a xylophone with wooden bars

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• The Gender has narrow keys made of bronze. Below
  the keys there are bamboo pipes which resonate,
  making the sound richer.

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Gongs

• Gongs are made of bronze or iron. They are
  struck on the central bump, called peñcu.

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The Bonang are instruments with two rows of gongs
resting on cords across a wooden frame.
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• The biggest hanging gong is called the Gong
  Ageng. It usually plays on the last beat of the
  rhythmic cycle.

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• Kempul are smaller hanging gongs.

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• The Kenong and Ketuk are gongs which rest
  horizontally on cords stretched across a wooden
  box.

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• The Suling is a bamboo wind instrument, which
  you blow through the end
• The Rebab is a two stringed fiddle

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The bigger drum is the Kendang Gending and the
smaller one is called the Ketipung. They are
cone-shaped, with two drum skins, one larger and
one smaller. Theyre played resting sideways, so
the drummer can play one skin with each hand.
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In groups compose a Balinese-style piece that
consists of the following layers1 an 8 or 16
note core melody which uses the notes of the
slendro scale, and moves in even crotchets.2
an alto/tenor part which only plays notes 1,3,5
and 7 (and 9,11,13,15)3 a bass part which only
plays notes 1 and 5 (and 9 and 13)4 - a
two-part interlocking melody of 8 beats
Beats 1 1 2 2 3 3 4 4 5 5 6 6 7 7 8 8
Inter. 1
Inter. 2
Core Mel
Alto/Ten.
Bass