GAMELAN
OF CENTRAL JAVA - I. Classical Gendings
Surakarta
and Yogyakarta: two different styles
The two Courts of Central Java, Surakarta
(also called Solo) and Yogyakarta, have always competed with each other
in many forms of art, thus developing different styles. In music the
difference is evident to some extent in the shape and decoration of
the instruments and, more important but more subtle, in the music itself.
Musicologists take the view that the Yogyanese style is heavier, making
more use of the loud instruments of the gamelan, while the Solonese
style uses more the soft instruments and is considered more refined.
This differentiation applies mainly to "art music" (karawitan)
and not so much to religious and ceremonial music.
The programme of this CD presents only music from Surakarta.
Scales
and tuning of the gamelan The
gamelan music of Central Java uses two scales: a seven-note scale, called
pelog,
and a five-note scale called slendro. The pieces are in one of the
two scales (although occasionally a piece can be adapted from one scale
to the other), thus a normal gamelan has two distinct sets of instruments,
one tuned to pelog the other to slendro. Two essential characteristics
are to be considered from our “Western” point of view:
a) the tones of the Javanese scale do not coincide with the tones
of the 12-note tempered scale, and b)
each gamelan has tones that are often noticeably different from those
of any other gamelan. Only by
chance - or deliberate purpose - two gamelans may have precisely equal
tones, and only by chance tones of a gamelan may precisely coincide
with notes of the Western scale. One consequence of the different tuning of gamelans
is that a given piece may sound different if played on different gamelans.
The
instruments of the gamelan A
perfect description of the gamelan could have been made by Shakespeare
in The Tempest, where Caliban describes Prospero’s
magic island: “.....The isle is
full of noises, A
gamelan comprises predominantly percussion instruments, usually made
of bronze - forged, not cast - and mounted on carved wooden frames.
Iron is often used instead of bronze, and the musical result can be
just as good. The instruments are struck with different kinds of mallets
(gamel in Javanese is a type
of hammer). The
non-percussion instruments are the rebab
(two-stringed viola-da-gamba type), the celempung
and siter, the suling (bamboo flute), and naturally the
voice, particularly female (pesindhen).
A special place has the hand-struck kendhang
(drum) in its different sizes: his role is similar to the conductor
in the Western orchestra. The gambang
is a percussion instrument made of wood. The
percussion metallophones can be divided into “families”. The large gong family comprises “hanging” gongs (ageng, suwukan, kempul) of various diameters
from 1 to 0.3 metre, and “horizontal” gongs assembled in sets (kenong, bonang panembung, bonang barung, bonang
panerus, ketuk, kempyang). The
gender family (slentem, gender, gender panerus) is characterized
by bronze keys suspended over resonating tubes (originally bamboo);
the sound of these instruments is very refined, but the playing technique
very demanding. The saron family typifies the loud instruments
with its bars being struck with a wooden mallet; it comprises the demung, the saron, and the saron panerus
or peking. We
also need to mention a rarely used instrument that is heard with its
trance-like rhythmic pattern in the first of the gendings in this CD:
the kemanak. It is a set of two banana-shaped
hand-held curled bronze plates, each one struck with a mallet and producing
a single tone; it requires two musicians.
Cultural
taste, the known and the different, and a provocative suggestion by
John Cage Generally
speaking, Javanese gamelan music is not immediately appreciated especially
by people that have developped a firm taste for classical Western
music. The reasons may be various - let us mention some.
Track
1 8’ 23” Gending
Anglirmendung pelog barang. Instruments: kemanak, kendhang, ketuk, kenong, gong;
pesindhen (female vocal). Track
2 10’ 07” Gending
Tunggul Kawung pelog barang. Instruments: bonang barung, bonang panerus, gender, gender
panerus, slentem, kendhang, demung, saron, peking, ketuk-kempyang,
kenong, gong. Track
3 31’ 28” Gending
Danaraja slendro sanga. Instruments: rebab,
gender, gender panerus, slentem, kendhang, bonang barung, bonang panerus,
gambang, demung, saron, peking, ketuk, kenong, gong; pesindhen.
Pesindhen
(vocal): Nyi. Cendaniraras |