Balinese Gamelan.pdf

The Texture of Gamelan
Key Concepts:
Layered
Stratified
Interlocking
Faceting
Cyclic
A gamelan is a SE Asian percussion orchestra made up of gongs and metallophones.
There are over 30 distinct types of gamelan orchestra in Bali, Indonesia

Instrumental Layers
• Gongs
• Metallophones
• Gong chimes
• Other melody instruments
• Drums and cymbals

Gamelan Gong Kebyar
A type of gamelan developed in the 1920s, now
the most popular form of gamelan in Bali

Gongs
• Made of bronze
• Gongs provide a metric
framework called a gong
cycle
• 4 gongs: gong, kempur,
klentong, kempli
• A gong cycle is a
repeating sequence of
gongs

Balinese Gong Cycles
• Metric framework or rhythmic
mode
•Cycles consist of multiples
of 4 (8, 16, 32….128)
• Kempli plays the basic pulse
• Kempur and klentong
punctuate certain beats
• Large gong plays on the final pulse
marking the end of the cycle
• Melodies are composed to fit into a
cycle

Keyed Instruments
Metallophones
• Idiophones that provide melodic content
• Metal keys hit with a wooden hammer or rubber mallet
• Tuned in pairs (ngubang -ngisep) to get a distinctive “wavering”
timbre
• Low register (one octave range, plays basic melody)
• High register gangsas (two octave range, play interlocking
elaborations of the melody)

Gong chimes
• Bronze kettles arranged horizontally from low
to high pitch (the larger the gong, the lower
the pitch)
• Reyong: 12 kettles played by 4 musicians
• Gong chimes provide rhythmic accents and
melodic ornamentation by interlocking

Other Melodic Instruments
• Suling is a bamboo
flute
• Rebab is a 2-stringed
fiddle played with a
bow
• Play heterophonic
versions of the melody

Drums and Cymbals
• Two double-headed barrel
drums (kendang) lead the
ensemble
• Like gangsas, they play
composite patterns
• Cymbals (ceng-ceng)
reinforce rhythmic
patterns

Building the Layers
“Stratified Heterophony”
Ornamented Melody Plays complete melody
(heterophony)
Interlocking rhythmic
patterns
Kotekan (Interlocking
ornaments)
Adds rhythmic intensity,
Plays leadership role
Faceting to create high
density texture/high register
Pokok (Basic Melody) Low register, low density
Gong Cycles Basic metric framework,
low density, low register

Building Melodies
Scales are derived from a 7-tone “parent” scale, known as pelog
A Balinese scale can be thought
of as a certain pattern of intervals:
Small-small-large-small-large
These intervals are given names:
Nding-ndong-ndeng-ndung-ndang
Some gamelan can play multiple scales,
while others are limited to only one
Gamelan gong kebyar is usually
tuned to selisir

Composing and Performance
• Compositions are not written down, but passed from player to player
through group rehearsals (complete with kotekan, rhythmic patterns,
etc) = Oral/Aural Transmission
• Many newer Balinese compositions have known composers, but pre-
20th C. pieces do not
• Improvisation or variation of the composed piece does not take place,
except in two senses:
– Prior to performance:
• An ensemble may make changes (by adding new kotekan, for example) to an
older piece for variety or to make it “theirs”
– During performance:
• Suling and rebab players ornament the melody according to the limits of their
instrument (the result is heterophony)
• Drummers may add ornaments according to their ability

What is Kotekan?
• Interlocking figuration played on a pair of
gangsas, forming a composite melody
• Consists of 2 complementary parts:
Polos/Sangsih: these are the two interlocking
rhythmic/melodic patterns that combine to create kotekan
Faster!
Kotekan norot
“following”
Kotekan nyog-cag
“leaping”
Kotekan telu
“three”
Full!